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SMEs looking to spend more on marketing in 2018/19
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A poll of UK small to medium enterprises has found that many are looking to up their marketing spend in the next financial year, with the average SME planning to allocate 16 per cent of its overall budget.
The poll, which was carried out by performance marketing network affilinet, received responses from 1,394 SME owners in the UK who had established their business in the last five years. Half said they planned on increasing their marketing spends in 2018/19 due to seeing competitors achieve results, while 28 per cent said they thought their company would suffer if it failed to keep pace with modern marketing practices.
Social media (22 per cent) was the most commonly cited marketing priority for small business, followed by content marketing (14 per cent), public relations (seven per cent) and performance marketing (seven per cent).
Although many small businesses said they were planning to increase their marketing spend, the majority (61 per cent) said this was not a core focus.
affilinet’s Rick Leake said: “As an SME budgets can be tight, but the need to implement a strong and clear marketing strategy is especially important as many small business owners can get caught up with the daily marketing activities (sending emails, tweeting, writing a blog etc) without keeping track of the bigger, long-term picture.
“In the modern digital age, your marketing strategy is key for creating awareness among customers, generating interest and sales, and continuing engagement.”