Columbia Business Marketing Health Report

Last year at the 2014 Business Expo, MayeCreate conducted a marketing survey to better learn how mid-Missouri businesses market their companies.

We surveyed 70 businesses spanning many industries, sizes and ages. Happily, the trends we found are consistent with our gut and other marketing research. The analyst in me knows my current data set is anything but complete, so we’ll continue gathering data from local businesses and release more trends as we uncover them. However, we thought you might be interested in knowing what we’ve discovered so far.

1. 40 percent of businesses surveyed planned on increasing online marketing spending 2014.

Mediums in Which Businesses Plan to Increase Spending

In 2014 businesses planned to increase spending or begin participating in a variety of new mediums. Eighteen percent planned to increase spending in a form of traditional mass media such as TV, radio or print publications. Many businesses, 44 percent, planned to increase spending on online marketing such as websites, social media, online advertisements, blogging or email marketing. This finding is consistent with national trends displaying the growing acceptance and adoption of online marketing mediums.

2. Most businesses have a website.

Businesses That Don’t Have a Website

The number of businesses without a website is decreasing at a rapid rate. This makes MayeCreaters happy because it looks like job security for us. It also means that having a website is becoming a status quo among mid-Missouri businesses.

3. Blogging is a growing trend.

Businesses That Have a Website and Blog

Blogging is a growing business trend, though 56 percent of those businesses surveyed that have a website did not include blogging in their marketing mix. Of those that did blog, 15 percent blogged one to two times per month, 12.5 percent blogged less than once per month, 7 percent blogged weekly and 8 percent blogged multiple times per week. Blogging can be a confusing term to many people. They think blogging is keeping an online diary, and for some bloggers it is. Business blogging is a different beast altogether. Many business owners are doing anything but online journal entries and use their blogs to drive valuable traffic to their websites and create leads for their businesses.

4. 32 percent of businesses send one to two marketing emails per month.

Businesses That Do Email Marketing

More than half of the businesses surveyed did use email marketing to supplement their marketing mix, while 44 percent did not engage in the activity. Most businesses, 32 percent, were sending one to two emails per month, 8 percent emailed quarterly, 5 percent emailed multiple times per week or less than once per month and 4 percent emailed every other month.

5. 64 percent of businesses surveyed use Facebook.

Social Media Popularity

Social media is a growing trend among mid-Missouri businesses; however, 34 percent of those surveyed did not use any form of social media to promote their business. The majority of those surveyed did implement at least one type of social media in their marketing mix: 64 percent used Facebook, followed by 29 percent on Twitter, 18 percent on LinkedIn and 15 percent on Pinterest.

6. 44 percent of businesses gather between one and five website leads per month.

Number of Qualified Website Leads Per Month

Many businesses experienced the benefit of online lead generation. Twenty-five percent of businesses surveyed generated more than 11 leads per month through their website, but 22 percent didn’t receive any online leads at all. The majority of businesses, 44 percent, gather one to five leads on their website. This is one area in which I feel many local businesses show room for improvement. Online sources such as Forbes.com, Pardot.com and others have been reporting on the disappearing sales process and citing that prospects are engaging with sales representatives between 60 to 70 percent later in the process. Buyers are researching online and educating themselves about products and solutions first, then contacting sales. Most local websites only encourage visitors to contact at the end of their research to initiate a sales conversation. National websites are trending toward offering resources for prospects throughout their research phase in an effort to gather leads early in the buying cycle and nurturing them until they’re ready to make a purchase.

We hope you enjoyed our newfound data and resource pairings; they will become even more relevant as we gather more data. Come see MayeCreate at the 2015 Business Expo to enter your businesses data, or learn your score and prescription on how to improve by participating in our Marketing Health Survey at mayecreate.com/marketing-health-report.