Businesses are continuing to push more of their marketing budgets online.
Not too long ago, PricewaterhouseCoopers reported online advertising spending will grow faster in Canada than anywhere in the world over the next four years. Meanwhile, in the UK last year, Internet expenditures overtook traditional advertising in national newspapers. And in the US, Forrester forecasts companies will spend upwards of $26 billion on Internet marketing per annum by 2010 – approximately eight per cent of all advertising spending.
Webcopyplus conducted a poll to determine what entrepreneurs and small business owners spend to gain presence on the Web. Of the 60 polled, more than 38 per cent of businesses spend between $500 and $6,000 on online marketing annually, only five per cent spend more than $12,000, and the remaining 57 per cent spend less than $500 or less per year.
We were surprised that so many small businesses fell in the $500 or less category given the Internet’s one of the few areas where small businesses can compete with larger, more established companies. In fact, 10 per cent of poll participants indicated they don’t have an online marketing budget of any sort. It’s a case of small business missing big opportunities.
While Canada is expected to maintain the greatest growth in online spending during the next four years, PricewaterhouseCoopers reports countries in Asia and Latin America will fill the gap soon after.
“Latin America is an emerging market due to major middle class growth in Chile and Mexico, with Venezuela and Columbia not too far behind,” explained Rene Quijada, Founder of award-winning Kihada Works Design, a Canada-based design firm with artist and association affiliations throughout Latin America.
“These countries are working hard to bring their technology and Web accessibility to US and UK standards,” added Quijada. “It’ll allow their businesses to better market themselves locally and to the rest of the world, especially North America.”
I’m not surprised people still don’t trust the web with all the garbage floating around. But at the same time those who don’t invest in it are missing HUGE opportunities to, as the article sates, go up against the big boys.
I think businesses will spend more as they get more comfortable on the internet…just like the public’s spending more each year. There’s probably a balance between the two.
Too many businesses get burned hiring fly by night SEO firms. Vancouver realtors — two that I know of got ripped of several hundreds of dollars with nothing to show for it. That might be part of the reason small business is not spending on things like SEO services. They’re too afraid.
Good point! People need to do their due diligence, especially on the web.
Interesting, you always learn something.