Small Businesses Start to Get Religion on Big Data; A Healthier Budget Doesn’t Necessarily Mean Better Quality

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▶ Mixed Message from

Marketing Trends Survey: The vast majority of online marketers said they plan to increase their marketing budgets this year, per StrongView’s “2014 Marketing Trends Survey.”

Still, while most companies plan to boost their marketing spending, 40% of the respondents said they still encounter challenges when it comes to leveraging data because the data often lacks actionable quality.

It’s an always-on world—resistance is futile. Consumer magazine Real Simple and The Huffington Post recently collaborated on a joint survey, taking the pulse of 3,583 women about their technology habits. A whopping 76% of the respondents said they check their mobile smartphones at least once an hour, and nearly half of those women said that they check in at least once every 15 minutes. Almost half of respondents (47%) said they keep their devices by their beds, so they can check their phones first thing in the morning. Little rest for the social-media weary.
It’s an always-on world—resistance is futile. Consumer magazine Real Simple and The Huffington Post recently collaborated on a joint survey, taking the pulse of 3,583 women about their technology habits. A whopping 76% of the respondents said they check their mobile smartphones at least once an hour, and nearly half of those women said that they check in at least once every 15 minutes. Almost half of respondents (47%) said they keep their devices by their beds, so they can check their phones first thing in the morning. Little rest for the social-media weary.

StrongView asked 386 executives across the board about some of the major challenges they are now facing.

 

Some of the findings include:

 

• Nearly half (44%) of the respondents said they have set goals to improve engagement; 36% said they want to improve segmentation and targeting and 31% want to grow their opt-in lists.

• More than half of the respondents (52%) said they will increase email marketing spend; 46% said they will increase social media spending; 41% will increase spending in SEO and 36% will increase display spending.

• Facebook was chosen by more than half (55%) of the respondents as the most valuable social channel, followed by LinkedIn (18%) and Twitter (10%).

 

Source: StrongView

 

▶ Big Growth Potential

for Small Businesses: While big data might be too big for some to handle, it might hold the key to growth for smaller-sized companies.

Constant Contact recently published a report that predicts that small businesses that leverage big data and progress toward multi-channel marketing have the greatest potential for growth.

 

The company also made the following predictions:

 

• Consumer demand will make mobile commerce the norm, rather than the exception, for small businesses. Currently, 66% of small businesses are able to leverage mobile devices. However, only 52% use mobile as a point-of-sale mechanism. Constant Contact expects that figure to grow significantly during the next year.

• Social media marketing for small business will continue to trend upward. Although the “Big Three” ( Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) will continue to dominate the conversations, expect other niche platforms to establish relevancy with small businesses in 2014. PRN

 

 

Source: Constant Contact

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