Did small and medium-sized businesses mobilize in 2013 to not only survive but thrive?
Some did, like a four-location pizza maker in the Phoenix area, that used the Stampt mobile loyalty app to make more dough. More than 10,000 Venezias customers get rewarded for purchases and receive offers. And they undoubtedly come in more often.
Others were slower on the uptake as evidenced by a new survey of 20,000 U.S. based businesses conducted by BrightLocal. Of the 68 responses from businesses spread across over 50 industry sectors, at least 30 percent don’t yet have a mobile optimized website. By the end of 2013, such a marketing vehicle is table stakes in my opinion.
Also from the survey:
- Only 4 percent believe a mobile website is notrelevant to their business
- The average spend on marketing across all industries was $400 per month with 32% spending less than $100 per month
- The average SMB allocates 46 percent of their total marketing budget towards internet or mobile marketing
- 33 percent spend less than 10 percent of their marketing budget on internet or mobile marketing
- Over 13 percent spend more than 90 percent of their marketing budget on internet & mobile marketing
The Building & Construction, Transportation & Telecommunications sectors have some of the highest marketing budgets as well as higher allocation of budget to digital. Non-Profit categorized SMBs are also spending above the industry average on their marketing, but similarly their online spend is not as high.
SMBs within the Pet Services, Travel & Leisure, Health & Beauty and Personal & Household Goods sectors are leaders.
What’s ahead for 2014?
As I’m seeing at Mobivity, more Mom and Pops are coming on board the mobile train. Rather than the categories listed above, pickup has been in sandwich shops (1,500 opt-ins in one in Oneida, N.Y., for example), dry cleaners and the like.
As a former radio client said in my Mobilized Marketing book, “Why wouldn’t we communicate with our listeners the way they communicate with each other?’
By 2014, nearly 80 percent will text.
That’s big even for an SMB.
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This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program http://Goo.gl/t3fgW, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I’ve been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions.
