Where Small Businesses Spend Marketing Dollars

It’s no secret that marketing has evolved. From the days of Mad Men we now live in a world that is evolving by the month. With technology it doesn’t take years or decades for consumers to change and for marketers to not only keep up, but try to stay ahead one step ahead.

A Nov. 3, 2010 study (SEO Industry Survey 2010) by SEOmoz shows just how incredibly varied and diverse the methods and tools are which marketers can employ to give their business an advantage over a competitor. Take a look at the list to the right – how many are you familiar with?

Business owners increasingly realize they have to do more, but are overwhelmed so engage with an Online Marketing firm – many of which are difficult to evaluate for those who aren’t online savants.

The Purpose of a Website

This is lost on many people – not just business owners, but also on marketers. “Business” owners DON’T operate a business to be portals for general information, but the study below indicates that websites are heavily skewed to providing that general information.

As was summarized by eMarketer:

This year, SMB allocation of online marketing budgets leaned toward websites, where 27% of SMBs with 1,000 or fewer employees spent at least 30% of their budget. Email took second place with 18% devoting 30% or more, followed by social media, where 10% of SMBs said they spent at least three in 10 marketing dollars.

Search Engine Optimization is still gaining traction but the website rules. It’s just a matter of what the PURPOSE of your website is, and if it is OPTIMIZED (for consumers to FIND your website to begin with) and STRUCTURED (for consumers to find what they are looking for when ON your website).

What Makes LocalTrifecta?

We have it!

We’ve summed up LocalTrifecta, and our “Trifecta Approach” in an image.

While Search Engine Optimization, Pay Per Click Advertising, and Local Maps results are not new terms, our Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is that we integrate all three together, where the trend has been for other providers to provide each separately.

The advantage to that, is each section can provide intelligence for another, thereby potentially increasing effectiveness. For example, Pay Per Click Advertising gives some of the best real-time insight into YOUR potential client’s search behaviour, giving Search Engine Optimization immediate feedback on whether to adjust campaigns or not.

We’ll continue to share who we are, what our approach is, and what we do for small and medium sized local businesses in Western Canada (namely Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, and Victoria). 

We are excited for our upcoming Alberta trip and not just because I get to go to the Oilers home opener!