Why do SMEs focus on face-to-face marketing?
Marketing offers a wide range of options for achieving results, but 71% of small business owners believe face-to-face techniques bring the best outcomes.
Given the influence of technology in the modern world, many SMEs are keen to utilise the factors that set them apart from the crowd – in many cases this is the people involved.
Attracting and discovering new clients can be difficult for businesses in their early stages, particularly due to the wide range of opportunities that exist.
A total of 10,000 business owners were questioned as part of the Display Wizard survey and more than 7,000 of them said they found traditional face-to-face conversation as being the most profitable.
These figures suggest that modern online marketing is struggling to compete, yet 67% of respondents revealed that this method wins them the most business.
Millennial entrepreneurs were found to be particularly fond on digital media, as 83% of them used it to gain business.
Some 38% of business owners place an emphasis on attending events too, saying that networking opportunities make this method worthwhile.
The results suggest that many firms need to take an open minded approach to their efforts to gain business, or they could face being left behind the competition.
Seeking growth is an essential part of any company’s development as it ultimately seen as the way of building profits to ease pressures on the bottom line.
Alternatively a firm might stagnate which often means it is no longer competitive in the market in which it operates – usually this results in financial losses and may make business turnaround procedures a necessity.
Not all marketing is ever successful, but opting to use certain channels over others does appear to provide better results.
Print media, radio and telemarketing were not popular methods among business owners in the study, while word of mouth was also credited highly with helping to drum up business.
Using personable approaches would therefore seem to provide the best outcomes for small companies when looking to expand.
By Phil Smith