Most Small Businesses Fear Search Engine Marketing

If you’re a traditional small business chances are you realize the potential benefits the Internet can possibly bring. You’ve spent years building your in-store sales and spent countless hours working on plans to drive foot traffic to your store. But what about online? You know the opportunity is there, but something’s holding you back. (See AdAge article)

A good majority of small businesses are still weary of creating a presence online mostly because of fear of the unknown. Worse, many of these small businesses are lost when it comes to online marketing. They need help with understanding marketing to the online crowds. According to a new survey by Microsoft, more than half of all small businesses with an online presence aren’t doing any kind of paid search marketing because of a variety of reasons.

More than 70 percent of all small businesses polled in the survey (roughly 400 companies) even went as far as to say they’d rather do their taxes than embark on any sort of search engine marketing campaign. Other reasons keeping small businesses out of the search marketing game:

• They think keywords may become too expensive
• They wonder if search marketing the best use of the marketing budget
• They believe paid search is just too complex
• They think the process is just too time-exhaustive
• They wonder if they need to spend big bucks on hiring an agency to handle for them

The survey goes on to report that those small business that ARE doing paid search marketing are actually very satisfied and happy with their results (higher than 70 percent).

To be fair, it is natural to feel intimidated by any sort of online marketing when it’s a world you probably haven’t operated in much. The truth is, though, that it doesn’t have to be very intimidating. And better yet, there are a lot of marketing tactics you can implement and manage without the need to hire an expensive marketing agency.

Be sure to bookmark this site below so you can check back with Understanding Marketing. Or click here to get daily updates and tips via email. We’ll share how you can start doing your own online marketing. With these tips, you’ll be amazed at how you can grow your business with moderate investment.

Also let us know what you are doing. Have you tried Search Engine Marketing?

Tagged as: marketing budget, marketing tactics, online marketing, online presence, paid search, search engine marketing, search marketing, SEM - Search Engine Marketing, Small Business