Small Business Defines Critical Media Tools For Success.
June 9, 2004
Interland, a provider of online services for small and medium-sized businesses, recently released the results of its Spring 2004 Business Barometer of Online Activities, a survey of online usage by small businesses with Web sites.
The group of small business owners surveyed was asked to select marketing tools critical in driving business. Respondents prioritized their responses as follows:
69 percent – Web sites
36 percent – search engine keywords
35 percent – community relations
24 percent – Email marketing
22 percent – direct mail
12 percent – Yellow Pages
5 percent – newspaper advertising
4 percent – outdoor advertising
2 percent – print coupons
When asked how important various online capabilities would be to their business in the coming year,
99.5 percent rated an online presence as very or somewhat important,
67 percent said enabling online interactivity (i.e. web-based business forms, blogs, interactive maps and e-newsletters) is very or somewhat important,
62 percent rated executing online promotions (i.e. search engine optimization, keyword advertising and email marketing) as very or somewhat important, and
55 percent said conducting online transactions (i.e. e-commerce, online catalogs and coupons, and selling via third-party sites like Amazon or eBay) is very or somewhat important.
The group was also polled on media consumption habits in 2003:
45 percent said they spent more time in 2003 gathering information through e-mails/e-newsletters
36 percent through industry/business Web sites
Industry trade publications only saw an 8 percent up tick in usage
Daily local newspapers and magazines were both down 18 percent
40 percent do not use daily national newspapers as sources for industry/business news
39 percent do not turn to Radio
38 percent do not turn to TV
To view report CLICK below (Adobe Acrobat Reader required):
http://www.interland.com/about/news/Interland_Business_Barometer_Spring_2004.pdf
