The $88 Trillion World Economy in One Chart
SMBs (Small & Medium Businesses) owners wear many hats and hustle a lot. Day to day operational issues and capital management consumes a lot of developmental energies to keep the business up and running. Operational issues get priority and marketing and that too digital marketing is completely marginalized. You may have an excellent product to introduce or an amazing service to offer but without reaching out to new audiences, informing new customers, and exploring new markets nobody will ever come to know about your products and services. Using the internet, digital, and social media to make a detailed reach out plan it you can increase not only your quality sales leads but also you will increase Conversion Rates and subscription.
As per Small Business Tends average American small business unit spends 1.08% of its total revenue on advertising, with variations from industry to industry.
Spends in 2019
| In 2019 |
Avg. spend on Products |
Avg. spend on services |
| B2B |
6.3% |
6.9% |
| B2C |
9.6% |
11.8% |
Spends in 2021 – Trends
| Projected spends in 2021 |
Avg. spend on Products |
Avg. spend on services |
| B2B |
7.1% |
7.8% |
| B2C |
10.2% |
12.7% |
[Sources: U.S.SBA]
COVID-19 has had a severe negative impact on the U.S. economy. All kinds of businesses have had suffered and especially small businesses took the maximum hit of a long duration of a pandemic. International borders being shut, and restrictions imposed on people’s movement has created difficult and possibly unpleasant challenges for small business. As communities and US states are started opening there would be new government regulations in place and these changes are going to impact SMBs (small and medium business) units significantly in many ways:
Omnichannel Marketing – We don’t know how long COVID-19 will stay in our lives, even after the vaccine is invented, but what we know is SMBs who survived will have to reach out to their customers fast and start selling. Omnichannel Marketing is one of the best tools to ensure your clients have a seamless interaction with your business, regardless of the one or multiple resources your media agency, or your digital agency chose.
[Sources: FinancesOnline]
Integrating the solidness of each channel, an omnichannel marketing strategy can be used to deliver an effective and consistent brand content. The result will allow customers with a fully integrated shopping experience across all channels. Digital marketing for small businesses will come very handy and budget-friendly in this exercise because it would consume a percentage in the Omnichannel Marketing pie chart.
Consumer concerns and Purchase behavior – Due to lockdowns, temporary closures, social distancing, the spread of the virus, and no walk-in customers for long many SMBs and stores have changed their addresses, locations, inventories, pricelist, and store business hours. Customers are continuously seeking information on your website or eCommerce sites about updates and product’s availability more than ever before. New norms will even be more stringent to see a customer at your store and to ensure that one does not get infected by COVID-19 by visiting your store. The impact of COVID-19 on small businesses and consumers’ online digital purchase journey has changed immediate and future consumer online behavior in the USA and North America.
Is your business future-ready? Is your website and eCommerce site updated daily? Are you able to serve your customers remotely? Are your delivery channels in sync with your inventories? Moving forward in 2021 online marketing and information will play a key role in the survival and success of your business.
AI and Machine learning is your New Sales consultant – Post COVID-19, more and more online applications and e platforms have emerged connecting consumers and buyers to the service providers and aggregators. International Data Corporation (IDC) predicts that the global datasphere will grow from 59 Zettabytes (ZB) to 175 ZB in 2025 an increase of 197% in the next five years.
How brands cope up after a pandemic? how to generate more quality sales leads? how to increase the conversion ratio? and how to attract more walk-ins in small size and mid-size stores? This all will depend on how businesses and brands are flexible and can adapt digital marketing through SEO, experimentation, and personalization through Artificial Intelligence and machine learning.
About 61% of the U.S. consumers are disappointed by brands' online response and lack of personalization, impacting future spending.
About 29% of U.S. consumers will increase the long-term use of digital channels permanently and about 57% of consumers will use both online and offline channels.
About 75% of American online buyers expect their stores/brands to personalize their journey of online purchase. [Source: Kameleoon]
