A survey by performance marketing network affilinet has found that half of the SMEs surveyed plan to increase their spending on marketing in the next financial year, after seeing competitors get a good ROI in marketing.
Marketing Must Not Be Neglected
The survey, which polled nearly 1,400 UK SME owners with businesses up to 5 years old, found that on average, SME owners plan to spend 16% of their 2018/19 budget on marketing, even though 61% said that their marketing spend wasn’t a core focus for their business growth plans. 9% said that marketing was their key focus for the next 12 months.
When asked why they intended to increase the amount they spend on marketing, 32% said that their businesses had enjoyed a successful year and they now had more resources to spare. 28% believed their company would suffer unless they have modern marketing practices in place.
12% admitted that they had neglected marketing in the last 12 months.
Modern Marketing Practices
So, how do these SME owners plan to spend their increased marketing budget?
In first place on the shopping list was social media. 22% of respondents said they plan to prioritise marketing on social media in the new financial year.
Next on the list was content marketing, which will be the focus for 14%, while public relations and performance marketing came joint fourth in the list of priorities, each of them being the intended marketing focus for 7% of respondents.
“SME budgets can be tight, but the need to implement a strong and clear marketing strategy is especially important as many small business owners can get caught up with the daily marketing activities (sending emails, tweeting, writing a blog etc) without keeping track of the bigger, long-term picture,” Rick Leake, Client Services Director at affilinet, said.
“In the modern digital age, your marketing strategy is key to creating awareness amongst customers, generating interest and sales, and continuing engagement.”
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