Small business owners are now spending the bulk of their time and money marketing to existing customers rather than trying to attract new ones, according to a report from Manta and BIA/Kelsey. That determination is based on a couple of surveys carried out among Manta’s membership, which found 62% of small business owners spending the majority of their annual marketing budgets to retain existing customers.
By contrast, some 56% are investing less than one-quarter of their time and effort on marketing for customer acquisition.
That’s a stark turnaround from previous research conducted by BIA/Kelsey, in which more than one-third of SMBs surveyed had claimed to devote the majority of their marketing budgets to customer acquisition, compared to just 6% allocating the majority to customer retention. It’s difficult to conceive of such a wholesale turnaround occurring in little more than a year, suggesting that the varying survey samples may play a role in the difference. Read the rest at MarketingCharts.
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