• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, April 23, 2024

Small business owners are so overwhelmed that they often lack the time or mindset for marketing, judging by The Current State of SMB Marketing, a global study from Constant Contact and Ascend2.  

Of those polled, 73% lack complete confidence in their marketing, although only 17% are unconfident. 

Their biggest marketing challenges are:  

• Finding new customers — 60% 
• Determining what is working/measuring performance — 33% 
• Lack of resources (time, budget, skills) — 32%
• Retaining current customers — 31% 
• Creating a strategy/plan — 25% 
• Sending the right messages — 25% 
• Using multiple platforms/tools — 24% 
• Motivation — 19% 

Marketing seems to get a fair amount of time — 56% devote an hour a day to it, and 32% give one to two hours. But 61% devote an hour a day to meetings (virtual or in-person) and 58% of SMBs spend five hours or less a week on marketing.  

The most time-consuming marketing tasks are:

• Creating content (writing copy, finding images, etc.) — 51% 
• Promoting/creating a strategy — 40% 
• Determining what is working/measuring performance — 35%
• Posting on social media — 34% 
• Managing my email campaigns — 19%
• Managing advertising campaigns — 19%
• Entering/integrating data — 17%
• Managing marketing for my events — 14%  

Email is frequently used by 53%, second only to social media at 60%. “Most leverage either email or social media as their primary marketing channels and they are hesitant to try something new,” the study observes. 

Why email? SMBs say:

• It's easiest to implement — 36%
• They already understood how to use it — 22%
• It’s cost-effective to implement — 26%

Procrastination also sets in as SMB owners struggle to deal with other tasks.

Email is likely to be delayed because of: 

• Lack of time — 40%
• Lack of budget — 11%
• Lack of knowledge — 24%
• Lack of strategy — 14% 
• Too complex — 7% 
• Other — 4%

In contrast, 44% say posting on social media is likely to be put off because of lack of time.  

Meanwhile, SMBs seek to improve these tasks this year: 

• Growing my customer base — 54% 
• Using the right marketing channels — 37% 
• Working more efficiently — 34% 
• Creating a strategy/plan — 29% 
• Knowing what to do next — 27% 
• Dedicating more time to marketing — 23% 
• Accurately measuring campaign performance — 22% 
• Creating integrated campaigns — 14% 

And marketing budgets seem to be rising proportionately — 39% of SMBs will increase them, while 53% foresee no change.  

But the study issues this caveat: “While increasing marketing budgets and time spent on marketing may be inevitable, small businesses should be careful not to try to ‘spend their way out of’ their challenges. They would benefit greatly from tools that allow them to work more efficiently, and strategically, instead of simply spending more time on marketing.” 

Ascend2 surveyed 1,335 small business owners and operators across the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Australia from Feb. 23 to March 5, 2024. Those most widely represented were retail and ecommerce firms (19%)  and professional services (22%).