In August, we launched a survey targeting small businesses in order to understand more about how they feel about Marketing. We were encouraged by the results, achieving a 10% response rate. The key findings of the survey are outlined below.
Background Information
CEOs, Directors and General Managers accounted for 33% of the responses and came from the following industries; Sales & Marketing (23%), IT (16%) and Banking & Finance (7.5%). We also had a great response from start-up businesses which accounted for 29% of respondents.
Marketing in their Business
When asked how many businesses had an in-house Marketing function, it was interesting to note that of the 65% who did have a Marketing presence, 29% had only one Marketing staff member. When coupled with the highest percentage of those surveyed spending over $200,000 per annum (22.6%), it can be assumed that there is room for growth and expansion.
An interesting statistic to note is that 49% of respondents claim that their marketing budget has in fact increased since last year, whilst only 17% had experienced a decrease. Business owners are definitely acknowledging the importance of marketing their products and services based on those figures which is encouraging.
Marketing Methods
The survey then aimed to determine which method of marketing was most effective for small business and interestingly enough, most respondents rated the Internet as the most effective (48.6%). Coming in second was Magazines (37.1%) followed by Newspapers (21.4%), whilst small amounts still see benefit in television and radio.
When asked however what presented the best value for money, PR received a 46.7% response rate compared to only 20% believing advertising was value for money.
A staggering 95.3% of respondents have a website, however only 52.8% have had their site Search Engine Optimised (SEO). This indicates that their site may not be working as hard for them as it could. For more information on Marketing Eye’s special offer on Website development please refer to the article in this newsletter.
When asked about their businesses brand, 63.9% had already been through a re-branding exercise yet only 47.6% thought it truly reflected who they are. A further 38% thought it could be improved and 3.8% thought it was outdated.
eWaste
The survey also tackled the topic of ‘Going Green’ and ‘eWaste’. eWaste, or Electronic Waste is the process of recycling electronic hardware, for example computers and mobile phones. We had very positive results regarding recycling with 70.2% of respondents claiming to use recycled paper and 61.5% participating in waste recycling which is great for our environment.
When asked about eWaste however, 61.5% claimed to not know what the term meant. On a positive note, almost 60% do in fact recycle their old mobile phones, laptops, and PCs while 21.2% didn’t know they could and 32.7% don’t know where to recycle them.
We certainly need to continue to educate the market on this new way of recycling to ensure sustainability into the future.
In summary, we found the results to our survey very interesting and we will continue to research into this space and present you with more comparisons in the future.
Background Information
CEOs, Directors and General Managers accounted for 33% of the responses and came from the following industries; Sales & Marketing (23%), IT (16%) and Banking & Finance (7.5%). We also had a great response from start-up businesses which accounted for 29% of respondents.
Marketing in their Business
When asked how many businesses had an in-house Marketing function, it was interesting to note that of the 65% who did have a Marketing presence, 29% had only one Marketing staff member. When coupled with the highest percentage of those surveyed spending over $200,000 per annum (22.6%), it can be assumed that there is room for growth and expansion.
An interesting statistic to note is that 49% of respondents claim that their marketing budget has in fact increased since last year, whilst only 17% had experienced a decrease. Business owners are definitely acknowledging the importance of marketing their products and services based on those figures which is encouraging.
Marketing Methods
The survey then aimed to determine which method of marketing was most effective for small business and interestingly enough, most respondents rated the Internet as the most effective (48.6%). Coming in second was Magazines (37.1%) followed by Newspapers (21.4%), whilst small amounts still see benefit in television and radio.
When asked however what presented the best value for money, PR received a 46.7% response rate compared to only 20% believing advertising was value for money.
A staggering 95.3% of respondents have a website, however only 52.8% have had their site Search Engine Optimised (SEO). This indicates that their site may not be working as hard for them as it could. For more information on Marketing Eye’s special offer on Website development please refer to the article in this newsletter.
When asked about their businesses brand, 63.9% had already been through a re-branding exercise yet only 47.6% thought it truly reflected who they are. A further 38% thought it could be improved and 3.8% thought it was outdated.
eWaste
The survey also tackled the topic of ‘Going Green’ and ‘eWaste’. eWaste, or Electronic Waste is the process of recycling electronic hardware, for example computers and mobile phones. We had very positive results regarding recycling with 70.2% of respondents claiming to use recycled paper and 61.5% participating in waste recycling which is great for our environment.
When asked about eWaste however, 61.5% claimed to not know what the term meant. On a positive note, almost 60% do in fact recycle their old mobile phones, laptops, and PCs while 21.2% didn’t know they could and 32.7% don’t know where to recycle them.
We certainly need to continue to educate the market on this new way of recycling to ensure sustainability into the future.
In summary, we found the results to our survey very interesting and we will continue to research into this space and present you with more comparisons in the future.