If you are a small-to-medium sized business owner, you may wonder where you fit into the overall picture of business within the United States. Today, we are dedicating our post to SMB statistics to show you just how valuable your business is, and what you can do improve your digital marketing in the internet-driven economy.
SMB Marketing Statistics
You may think your SMB is insignificant in the grand scheme of things, however, the economic landscape is shifting, and you may be as surprised as we were with some of the statistics we found regarding small businesses in the United States.
Since 1982 the number of small businesses in the nation has increased by 49%. Click To Tweet
Increases in small business have created over 8 million new jobs since 1990. Click To TweetIt is estimated that 543,000 small businesses launch each month. Click To Tweet
Small business has created over 65% of new job creation seen since 1995. Click To Tweet Small businesses are credited with producing over 50% of non-farm private GDP. Click To Tweet This GDP equals roughly 6 trillion dollars. Click To Tweet
SMB Online Marketing Statistics
Now that you know what a valuable part of the economy your business is, you are probably wondering what the numbers are regarding SMB marketing. The below stats are useful in figuring out where to focus your money and time, in order to best grow your business effectively and efficiently.
70% of SMBs are spending $500 or less monthly on marketing efforts. Click To Tweet
75% of SMBs find internet marketing to be effective in attracting new customers to their business. Click To TweetFinding news customers is the top marketing concern for 66% of small business owners. Click To Tweet
Over 40% of SMBs consider customer retention the top priority in their marketing efforts. Click To TweetEmail, website, and social media are the top three marketing platforms used by small business owners. Click To Tweet
83% of SMB owners with a business website consider themselves to have an advantage over competitors. Click To Tweet
55% of small business owners plan to establish a website within the next two years. Click To Tweet
Conversion Optimization SEO Statistics
Once you are aware of the massive shift to online marketing for small businesses like yours, it is important to focus your money in the most strategic ways to convert potential customers into customers. The below statistics provide some interesting insights on the topic. Furthermore, improving your online reputation is a huge deciding factor for your audience when choosing between you and your competitor!
For those adopting content marketing, website conversion rates are 6x higher than their peers Click To Tweet Before making purchases, 61% of consumers read reviews online Click To Tweet Averages show conversion rates from search engines to be 10% more than from social media channels Click To Tweet When it comes to mobile searches, the first search result has a 31.35% CTR Click To Tweet When it comes to desktop searches, the first search result has a 34.36% CTR Click To Tweet Approximately 22% of businesses stated satisfaction with their current conversion rates Click To Tweet A 7% reduction in conversion rates can result from a delay of 1 second in site speed Click To Tweet Lead generation conversion rates average 7% Click To Tweet 54% of companies cite a lack of resources for low conversion rates Click To Tweet Automation is shown to increase conversion rate averages from 2.6% to 3.6% Click To Tweet
Email Marketing Statistics
If you are considering incorporating email marketing into your online marketing strategy, or even if you are not, the below statistics show just how significant this method of online marketing can be, especially for SMBs.
Using email to attract new customers is 40 times more effective than using Facebook or Twitter Click To Tweet Including the recipient’s first name within the subject line increases the click through rate Click To Tweet 87% of people use search engines, with 78% of them searching for goods and services Click To Tweet Out of the links clicked on from search engines, 70% are organic (not paid) Click To Tweet By 2021, there are estimated to be over 3 billion email users globally Click To Tweet Approximately two-thirds of all emails are opened on tablets or smartphones Click To Tweet CTR on marketing emails has been shown to decrease as number of inline images increases Click To Tweet As of 2015, Gmail had more than 900 million users worldwide Click To Tweet Emails with no personalization have an 11.4% open rate compared to 17.6% for personalized emails Click To Tweet 86% of consumers want to get emails from businesses at least once a month, while 15% prefer daily emails Click To Tweet
Content Creation Statistics
Still on the fence about a company blog? Consider how the below content creation and blogging statistics fit into SEO, and you may change your mind. Already have a blog? Let these statistics encourage you to grow your content marketing strategy – one of the most affordable ways for SMBs to improve SEO.
Want to produce 3x more leads for every $1 spent? Content marketing does just that! Click To Tweet 40% of US-based businesses use blogging in their marketing strategy Click To Tweet On average, blogs give websites a 97% increase in indexed links and a 434% increase in indexed pages Click To Tweet Companies creating 15 blog entries a month report 1,200 leads generated monthly Click To Tweet Of companies using a blog as part of their inbound marketing, 79% report positive ROI Click To Tweet 53% of marketers consider content creation to be their most effective method of SEO Click To Tweet Brands that blog have 434% more indexed pages than their competitors with no blogs Click To Tweet Blog titles containing 6-13 words have been shown to perform the best Click To Tweet 60% of inbound marketers consider creation of blog content to be their top priority Click To Tweet Within Google, content with a word count between 1,140 and 1,285 performed the best Click To Tweet
Local SEO Statistics
So you have your SMB website set up and ready-to-go! You have SEO in place to target customers around the globe. However, you are still not convinced local SEO is important for your brand. How much business could local SEO really drum up? The answer is: A LOT. If you are still on the fence about incorporating local SEO into your SMB website, the list of statistics below may finally change your mind!
SEO Statistics
And if you still haven’t had enough, consider these general statistics on the importance of SEO for small businesses like yours.
Among marketing experts, 61% utilize responsive web design in their SEO strategy Click To Tweet Incoming calls generated from search engines are increasing by 42% annually Click To Tweet There are more than 10.3 million Google searches each month Click To Tweet Inbound leads (like SEO) cost on average 61% less than outbound leads Click To Tweet Of the links users click on from search engine results, 70% are organically generated Click To Tweet 40% of marketing professionals site changing algorithms as their top SEO challenge Click To Tweet Of marketers, 72% considered content creation to be their most effective method of SEO Click To Tweet In the U.S. and Japan, more Google searches took place on mobile devices than on desktops Click To Tweet 48% of marketers consider utilizing keyword their most effective SEO tactic Click To Tweet 4 out of 5 consumers said they utilized search engines for local queries Click To Tweet
As a small business owner, you are an extremely valuable part of the U.S. economy, and it is important to market your business accordingly. Whether you need to create an online presence for the first time with a company website, or simply need to improve your local SEO, these statistics demonstrate it is time to grow your online marketing efforts in order to grow your small-to-medium sized business.
General Sources: Forbes, SBA.gov
Online Marketing Sources: GoDaddy, Blue Corona, SearchEngineLand
Conversion Optimization SEO Sources: Marketing Adept, Kissmetrics, Unbounce, HubSpot, Impact Branding & Design, Intechnic.com
Email Marketing Sources: Web Presence Solutions, HubSpot, Intechnic.com
Content Creation Sources: HubSpot, Forbes, SearchEngineJournal, Impact Branding & Design , Intechnic.com
Local SEO Sources: BrightLocal, Business2Community, SearchEngineJournal
SEO Sources: Impact Branding & Design, SearchEngineJournal, HubSpot, Web Presence Solutions