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SMBs Allocate More Than Half of Total Ad Budget to Online, According to DirectoryM Customer Survey

SB Informer
Tuesday, August 8, 2006; 02:52 AM

A survey of small- to medium-sized business (SMB) customers conducted by DirectoryM, the premier local online advertising network specializing in helping businesses find local customers through targeted online advertising, reveals that more than 52 percent of SMBs' total advertising budgets are now being allocated to online advertising, with 37 percent of SMBs planning to increase their online advertising spending in 2006.

The survey results also indicate that an SMB's website is becoming a critical element of the SMB marketing mix, with 62 percent of SMBs currently attempting to optimize their websites for search engines. In addition, almost half of the respondents stated that they plan on adding Cost-Per-Click advertising to their marketing mix.

Even with these planned increases in advertising budgets and initiatives, 95 percent of SMBs still manage their own online advertising campaigns independently. While small business owners are eager to try new online marketing methods, they are also conscious of how much time they spend on managing their online campaigns.

"Because SMBs are busy running their daily operations, they are often time-strapped and may be unfamiliar with the challenges of optimizing a website, monitoring the site traffic and effectively selecting online advertising venues to deliver the highest ROI," said Blair Heavey, DirectoryM's chief executive officer. "DirectoryM serves as a trusted online advisor to SMBs to help them simplify their local advertising needs and improve their search engine optimization in the form of page one results for most local business service requests."

"Small businesses want visibility, credibility and performance from their advertising dollar," confirmed Dave McKeon, managing partner of Game On LLC and a DirectoryM advertiser. "There are a lot of advertising vehicles out there and it's important to have a partner like DirectoryM to help me sort through what works and what doesn't work."

When asked how they measured the success of their online advertising, 78.6 percent of DirectoryM customers indicated that their key measure of success is the number of leads they received while 52.4 percent cited customer acquisition or dollar amount of business closed as a measure of success.

"Our research shows that consumers are increasingly using the Internet to find local businesses, representing a significant opportunity for SMB advertisers that embrace new media," according to Matt Booth, vice president and program director, Interactive Local Media at The Kelsey Group. "Online advertising solution providers, like DirectoryM, that understand the unique needs of small businesses, are important intermediaries for SMBs looking to connect with online consumers."

Primary research conducted using a sample group of 128 of small and medium-sized businesses located in the United States and United Kingdom. All survey respondents advertise on the DirectoryM network.

DirectoryM (www.directorym.com) is the premier local advertising network specialized in helping businesses find local customers through targeted online advertising. DirectoryM provides small and medium-sized businesses with an exclusive advertising channel targeting the readers of business and technology publications such as The Wall Street Journal Online, BusinessWeek Online, Financial Times, ZDNet and the 42 regional Business Journals published by American City Business Journals.