In a bid to promote its new MailshotMaker service, the Royal Mail has published a report on small business marketing trends.
It surveyed 250 decision-makers at UK small businesses to explore the challenges they face. The report states that small businesses in 2016 are on the whole knowledgeable and forward-thinking. Most are working to a business plan and 95% recognise marketing has an important role in helping them achieve their business aims. What’s more, 79% of the companies it spoke with have someone whose role is either fully or mostly concerned with marketing.
The report identified the four key small businesses marketing goals they had for 2016:
* Building relationships with existing customers
* Acquiring new customers
* Using multi-channel marketing to promote their business
* Making the most of marketing spend and measuring its effectiveness.
90% of the small businesses surveyed said that customer loyalty is essential to growing their businesses. Keeping regular contact with customers makes them more likely to remain loyal. Almost half (46%) cited building better relationships with existing customers as a business ambition. Royal Mail says that research has shown that loyal customers spend as much as ten times more over their lifetime than new customers.
Most small businesses use a combination of online advertising, social media and print advertising to increase awareness of their business. Unsurprisingly for a provider of postal services, the Royal Mail reports that 63% of people are more likely to take mail seriously compared to 18% for email.
The businesses surveyed say they use between three and four channels on average to market their business or communicate with their customers. The most popular channels are email (82%), social media (62%), online advertising (50%), and direct mail (46%). Only 16% use search marketing.
Many of the decision-makers were looking to increase their investment in the marketing channels they are using. The channels they are most likely to spend more on are social media (66%), exhibitions and events (61%), online advertising (59%) and direct mail (57%).
From these answers it would appear small businesses are willing to return to a greater investment in direct mail to market their services. But the Royal Mail does concede that for marketing to become truly effective a multi-channel approach is required with different media working effectively together.
Junction Media can help you adopt a multi-channel marketing approach. Get in touch today at: [email protected]
