Small businesses will never be the same after COVID-19. However, launching an online service platform or an online store, adapting and shifting from offline as much as possible could be a way out of the difficult situation.
Here are 100+ digital marketing statistics shared by industry-leading firms, marketers, research groups, and blogs, related to small and medium online businesses. In collecting this data, we tried our best to curate and validate the most recent information for starting a business and SME marketing planning for 2022 and beyond.
The following statistics focus on the small business trends both in B2B and B2C industries. These stats will help you understand the effectiveness of the pillars on which online marketing stands. With this data in mind, you can allocate your budget for different marketing channels and grow your business online.
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General Small Business Trends and Statistics
- 99.9% of the U.S employers are small business owners.
Source: U.S. Small Business Administration - 92% of small business owners think that having a website is the most effective digital marketing strategy.
Source: Clutch - 70% of entrepreneurs with a business website expect to grow at least 25% in the next three to five years, compared to 64% of those without a site.
Source: GoDaddy - Only 64% of small businesses have their own website.
Source: Clutch - 50% of small businesses survive five years or more.
Source: Fundera - 47% of small businesses spend less than $10,000 on digital marketing.
Source: Clutch - 47% of small business owners handle marketing efforts on their own.
Source: Fundera - 35% feel that their operation is simply too small to warrant a website.
Source: GoDaddy - In 2019, worldwide digital ad spending was expected to rise by 17.6% to $333.25 billion.
Source: eMarketer - By 2019, mobile advertising was expected to represent 72% of all U.S. digital ad spending.
Source: Blue Corona - Digital was expected to account for roughly half of the global ad market.
Source: eMarketer - Google is responsible for 96% of all smartphone search traffic.
Source: BuildThis - Several countries have users that experience greater than 125 Mbps, paving the path for the future demands of video.
Source: Cisco - Connected home applications, such as home automation, home security and video surveillance, connected white goods, and tracking applications, will represent 48% of total Machine-to-machine connections.
Source: Cisco - According to Fundera, 92% of small business owners do not regret starting their own brand.
Source: Fundera - Business News Daily claims that micro businesses are the cheapest ones to start.
Source: Business News Daily - Salesforce reports that 72% of business leaders are optimistic about the future.
Source: Salesforce
Overall, in 2020 and going forward, we can expect a great amount of digital business activities to move to the digital space. The advancements in technology will lead to greater automation in business operations, mobile and email marketing, and eCommerce. Furthermore, we can anticipate extra focus in user experience, and search engine marketing, as well as improvements in content creation and lead generation.
Mobile Marketing Trends
- In 2019, there were more than 5.11 billion people around the world using a mobile phone – a year-on-year increase of 2.7% – with smartphones accounting for more than two-thirds of all devices in use today.
Source: We Are Social - The number of smartphone users worldwide today surpasses the six billion mark.
Source: Statista - Over 230 million consumers in the U.S. own smartphones, and around 100 million U.S. consumers own tablets.
Source: OuterBox - In the 4th quarter of 2021, mobile devices generated about 54.4% of the global web traffic.
Source: Statista - Up to 70% of web traffic happens on a mobile device.
Source: CIO Dive - 71% of marketers believe mobile marketing is core to their business.
Source: Blue Corona - 57% of all U.S. search traffic in 2017 came from smartphones and tablets.
Source: BrightEdge - Back in 2021, the overall mobile advertising spending reached about 288 billion in US dollars, which is record-breaking.
Source: Statista - Mobile advertising is projected to reach 413 billion US dollars in 2024.
Source: Statista - 76% of people who search for something nearby on their smartphone visit a related business within a day, and 28% of those searches result in a purchase.
Source: Think with Google - 77% of smartphone shoppers are more likely to purchase from companies whose mobile sites or apps allow them to make purchases quickly.
Source: Think with Google - According to Review 42, most people spend about 5 hours on their mobile devices in a day.
Source: Review 42 - Smartphones running the Android operating system hold an 87% share of the global market.
Source: Statista - The mobile operating system developed by Apple (iOS) has a 13% share of the market.
Source: Statista - 89% of people on smartphones are using apps, while only 11% are using standard websites.
Source: Blue Corona
Mobile is big and it’s here to stay, so it’s time that you optimize your web strategy for it. If you are unsure where to start, we have a few suggestions:
- How to Optimize Your WordPress Layouts for Mobile Traffic
- 3 Aspects of a Successful Mobile Web Monetization
- Hot Web Design Trends to Follow in 2021
Online Shopping and eCommerce Statistics
- The average shopping cart abandonment rate is 69.82%.
Source: Baymard Institute - StableWP reported that by optimizing the checkout process of a customer, the number of people who proceeded to complete the purchase rose by 5.3% which resulted in a 28% growth and an extra $270K in sales.
- 80% of smartphone users use mobile phones for shopping research. And 80% of those shoppers do their mobile research in-store.
Source: Quoracreative - 56% of participants report visiting a brick-and-mortar store after receiving a deal or offer on their mobile device when they were near the store.
Source: Opportunity Health Center - In 2017, consumers opted to purchase or reserve items, track the status, receive updates and facilitate pick-up all from their smartphone.
Source: Mobile Payments Today - 48% of the newcomers on the Internet want their sites to sell goods online.
Source: GoDaddy - 68.1% of website visits are done using a mobile device, compared to a desktop computer.
Source: Perficient Digital - 70-80% of people research a small business before visiting or making a purchase from them.
Source: Blue Corona - 70% of consumers consult reviews and ratings before purchasing.
Source: StableWP - 71% of the buyers said it is very important to understand product limitations before buying, but only 42% of the vendor respondents expressed this view.
Source: Business2Community - 58% of the revenue going to mobile retailers come from mobile websites. So, your website needs to be compatible with mobile.
Source: Business Insider - Insider Intelligence expects the US retail eCommerce sales to grow about 16.1% in 2022. That means that the industry will bring about a total sales of 1.06 US trillion dollars.
Source: Insider Intelligence - Up to 95% of businesses are expected to be done through eCommerce websites by the year 2040.
Source: Findstack
The most important eCommerce trend we can expect is extensive mobile shopping optimization. As consumers’ preference for convenience becomes more prominent so will the need for seamless and frictionless online shopping.
User Experience Trends
- Ideally, your website page load time should not exceed 3 seconds — on mobile or desktop.
Source: Neil Patel - 88% of online consumers are less likely to return to a site after a bad experience.
Source: Small Biz Genius - 80% of smartphone users are more likely to purchase from companies with mobile sites or apps that help them easily answer their questions.
Source: Source:The Radicati Group - 46% of people say they would not purchase from a brand again if they had an interruptive mobile experience.
Source: Think with Google - Added to that, research has shown that 40% of people will abandon your website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load.
Source: BuildThis - 40% of the businesses said they’re yet to optimize their sites for mobile devices.
Source: eMarketer - If your site doesn’t load in four seconds or less, 40% of those who navigated to your site will have left.
Source: Neil Patel - Websites that load within 2 seconds have an average bounce rate of only 9%, while those that load in 5 seconds have a massive bounce rate of 38%.
Source: Website Builder Expert
User experience is a fundamental part of every website. With the main theme of all small business trends for 2020 being adapting to digital, it is not more important than ever that your website is well-designed to understand user needs.
Search Engine Marketing Statistics
- 47% of small businesses spend $10,000 or less on digital marketing each year.
Source: Clutch - Google drives around 70% of mobile search traffic, followed by Baidu and Bing at 13.31% and 12.53%.
Source: Net MarketShare - Google now processes over 40,000 search queries every second (on average). That means it processes over 3.5 billion searches per day which accumulate to 1.2 trillion searches per year worldwide.
Source: Internet Live Source - Businesses using Google AdWords earn about $3 for every $1.60 they spend for every $1.60 they spend.
Source: PowerTraffick - The #1 result in Google’s organic search results has an average click-through rate of 31.7%.
Source: Backlinko - 31% of small businesses use social media instead of having a website.
Source: Source: Top Digital Agency - Only 0.78% of Google searches got a click on something from the second page.
Source: Backlinko - 76% of people who search for something nearby on their smartphone visit a related business within a day, and 28% of those searches result in a purchase.
Source: Think with google - Titles with questions had a 14.1% higher click-through rate compared to titles without a question.
Source: Backlinko
Search Engine Marketing has marked significant growth over the past years and in 2022, it will become a pivotal marketing channel for all digital businesses. To make the most of it for your small business, stay alert for algorithm updates and SEO trends.
Social Media Marketing Statistics
- In 2021, the social network was projected to generate 94.69 billion U.S. dollars in ad revenues, up from 55.01 billion U.S. dollars in 2018.
Source: Statista - Total ad spending on social media will increase to $76 billion in 2020.
Source: Zenith - There are 5.11 billion unique mobile users in the world today, up 100 million (2%) in 2019.
Source: We Are Social - With almost 2.5 billion monthly active users as of the fourth quarter of 2019, Facebook is the biggest social network worldwide.
Source: PR newswire - Today, about 302.25 million people in the USuses some type of social media.
Source: Statista - The United Kingdom (UK) was home to 53 million active social media users in January 2021; that’s 77.9% of the population of the UK.
Source: Statista - 64% of small business owners look to social media for business advice.
Source: Business Insider - 61% of small businesses invest in social media marketing.
Source: Clutch - Referrals remain the top source of leads at 73%, with tradeshows and events at 46%, email marketing at 33%, Inbound Marketing and SEO at 28% each, and Social Media Marketing at 24%.
Source: Sagefrog Marketing Group - The most implemented marketing tactics for marketing are email at 78%, SEO and social media at 75% each, blogging at 66%, and tradeshows and events at 65%.
Source: Sagefrog Marketing Group - The most used social media websites for B2B marketers are LinkedIn at 90%, Facebook at 77%, Twitter at 63%, and Instagram and Youtube at 34% each.
Source: Sagefrog Marketing Group - Next to offers/promotions, images are the top content type to influence people to click on a link on social media (25% of people). Videos are third, at 16%.
Source: Visual Objects - The social media platforms most often used by B2C marketers worldwide are Facebook (97%), Instagram (78%), Twitter (57%), Youtube (54%), and LinkedIn (46%).
Source: Statista
Following up on everything mentioned above, the biggest social media trends that small businesses should anticipate for 2020 and going onwards are social commerce and video.
Email Marketing Statistics
- Around the world, 4.3 billion people have email. This is approximately half of the world’s population.
Source: The Radicati group - Gmail had about 1.5 billion monthly active users in 2019.
Source: CNBC - By late 2017, Outlook.com had over 400 million users.
Source: Lifewire - The average expected return on investment is about $42 for every $1 spent on email marketing.
Source: Oberlo - Customers receiving cart abandonment emails are 2.4x more likely to convert than those who receive only one follow-up email.
Source: MediaPost - B2B companies that sent 16 – 30 email campaigns per month had a median click rate of 6.0% and 5.6% for B2C.
Source: HubSpot - Persona-driven content generated by inbound increases the volume of Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) by 45%.
Source: 93x agency - The average office worker gets 126 emails per day and spends as much as 6.3 hours each day checking his personal and business messages.
Source: The Radicati Group - Daily email traffic has increased by 5% each year from 2015 to 2019.
Source: The Radicati Group - It’s predicted that 246.5 billion emails will be sent each day in 2019, it includes 128.8 billion business-related emails, and 117.7 billion consumer-related emails.
Source: The Radicati Group
Overall, when it comes to email marketing trends for 2020, we can expect greater automation, personalization and email list segmentation.
Blogging and Content Marketing Statistics
- 76% of marketers use inbound marketing approach as their primary strategy.
Source: HubSpot - 10% blog posts are compounding, meaning organic search increases their traffic over time up to 50%.
Source: HubSpot - 49% of podcast listeners do so while at home.
Source: Edison Research - 53% of the businesses are convinced that content marketing delivers ROI that they can measure.
Source: Smart Insights - Marketers who prioritize blogging efforts are 13x more likely to see positive ROI.
Source: HubSpot - 66% of B2B marketers reported using a formal marketing plan, rather than a sporadic and reactive approach to the marketplace.
Source: Sagefrog Marketing Group - 47% of businesses emphasize marketing as their top growth strategy.
Source: U.S> Small Business Administration - Video accounted for 57.7% of downstream internet traffic volume.
Source: Statista - 67% of marketers find Facebook to be the most important social media channel for their business.
Source: Lyfe Marketing - 60% of those marketers said video tends to drive more engagement.
Source: Databox - Companies allocate 32% of their total marketing budgets toward content.
Source: Content marketing Institute - Among B2B marketers, 88% use content marketing as part of their marketing strategy, but only 32% of them actually have a documented content marketing strategy.
Source: Content Marketing Institute - Around 80% of marketers agreed that interactive content was more effective at capturing attention, converting site visitors and ensuring brand message retention.
Source: Content Marketing Institute - 64% of business users expect printing to still be important by 2025, compared to 78% today.
Source: Quocirca
Long-form content will continue to be a top priority for small businesses in 2020, with more focus on interactive content, especially video.
Lead Generation Statistics
- Content marketing generates three times as many prospects as outbound marketing, but costs 62% less.
Source: Demand Metric - Improving brand awareness (42%) and increasing sales revenue (41%) are among the most critical challenges that marketers faced in 2019.
Source: Ascend2 - In the same survey, improving brand awareness is a primary objective for a content marketing engagement strategy to achieve for 55% of marketing influencers.
Source: Ascend2 - The inability to generate enough qualified leads was an impactful barrier to 37.8% of sales leaders to achieving success in 2019.
Source: Korn Ferry - 40% of marketing influencers consider their strategy to be very successful, or best-in-class compared to competitors.
Source: Ascend2 - 25% of the marketers have no idea about their conversion rates.
Source: B2B Technology Marketing Community(Facebook Page) - Expertise in lead nurturing results in a 50% increase in sales-ready leads, along with a 33% decrease in its cost.
Source: Weidert - 63% of consumers requesting info on your company today will not purchase for at least 3 months 79% of marketing leads never convert into sales. Lack of nurture is the main cause for this.
Source: Marketing Donut - Only 56% of B2B companies check valid leads before passing them to the sales department.
Source: MarketingSherpa - Only 4% of website visitors are ready to buy.
Source: Marketo
When it comes to ,lead generation practices there’s always something new to try. In 2020, the top small business trends in this marketing area will be continuing with influencer marketing, while also improving brand awareness and lead sourcing.
Conclusion
Small business marketing is very much needed, but yet to reach its prime. That’s because most of the small business owners still need to know:
- How online marketing works
- How to use the web effectively
- How to utilize social channels to their maximum
These 100+ Small Business Marketing Stats are convincing enough to realize how important online marketing is for any business. And, the only way you can grab an online audience is by creating a dynamic strategy that focuses on each and every aspect we’ve mentioned above.