A recent report by local marketing research firm Borrell Associates found that most small business owners rely on some form of digital advertising to market their business. The report was compiled by surveying over 2,000 small business owners who turn to social media and mobile advertising as two of their primary means of digital advertising.
Of those surveyed, the average small business owner spends around 25% of their marketing budget on digital advertising. On top of that, 4 out of 5 small businesses are active on social media, and 11% invest in some form of mobile advertising.
All in all, it is estimated that small business owners will contribute around $500 billion in digital marketing dollars in 2014 alone, and this number is surely to continue to rise.
Where the largest area of opportunity remains is in selecting which forms of digital advertising are most relevant for local area marketing.
“Given all the evidence we’ve compiled, there is no reason it can’t grow at multiples of the rate it’s growing now, and it’s growing very quickly,” Borrell Associates’ EVP Kip Cassino is quoted by Street Fight. “We’re talking to mostly very small businesses, and more than nine out of 10 have a web presence that they’re aware of and take care of every day.”