SMBs Rethink Digital
A number of factors are influencing how small-and-medium businesses (SMBs) are deciding to allocate their advertising dollars. First, the economy is a major factor affecting SMB’s advertising budgets. During the time of a recession, SMBs are typically hit hard forcing most to analyze where to cut spending. The majority of SMBs find that advertising budgets are characteristically the first thing to be cut. Second, the ways in which consumers are continually striving towards a more absolute digital lifestyle are demanding SMBs to react. Each and every day consumers are more and more reliable on digital technologies in order to solve their information thirst. SMBs, competing with larger corporations, are looking to digital marketing to help quench consumer’s informational needs while making their companies more relevant to the target audience.
Traditionally, SMBs have been slow to allocate dollars toward the improvements of their digital presence but they can no longer rely on traditional techniques to deliver tangible results. According to a forecast by Borrell Associate titled “Main Street Goes Interactive”, they predict spending by SMBs on “non-adverting” marketing to more than triple over the next five years to $1.63 billion. As consumers demand instant answers in a digital fashion, SMBs are going to have to start to pour money into building out their Web sites in order to stay relevant to their audience’s lifestyle. (MediaPost 3/17/09). SMBs can no longer just have a simple web presence. As the Internet ages and technologies grow consumers expect all companies to update their digital appearance.
One company looking to help convince SMBs that they have to start improving their digital presence is search engine giant Google. Currently, SMBs do not provide Google with digital content that is specific to their local market. The reason, according to Google, is that SMBs do not have enough digital data created yet and without it, consumers cannot find these SMBs as effectively online. The reason why Google is looking to help SMBs is to increase the number of businesses who use them for search engine marketing.
Search engines are continuing to change the ways in which individuals find information. Now, it is more important than ever to have a top-notch Web presence. SMBs that do not have an appropriate Web presence can consider themselves unsearchable to consumers and in today’s digital environment your online persona must be searchable.
Tags: Advertising, Digital, Search, SMBs
