Campaigner Survey Reveals that 46% of Small Businesses Expect Revenue Growth Coming Out of the Recession

OTTAWA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Campaigner (www.campaigner.com), a leading email marketing solutions provider today announced the results of its State of Small Business Online Marketing Survey. While the economic climate has challenged businesses of all sizes, many small business owners are seeing the beginnings of a turnaround and are positioning for stronger growth in 2010 through the use of web-based marketing tools.

“Email marketing is one of the best ways for small businesses to attract and retain customers while also growing revenue, which were two of the top business challenges identified by small businesses in the survey”

According to Campaigner’s 2009 State of Small Business Online Marketing Survey, 46 percent of small businesses expect to report higher revenues by year end, 22 percent said that they anticipate flat revenues, and 32 percent anticipate revenues to decline. Of the small businesses surveyed, those positioned for higher growth in 2010 are spending more on marketing, especially email marketing and other online tools.

Campaigner sponsored the online survey conducted by Hurwitz & Associates, gathering responses from 259 small business owners. Today’s announcement provides highlights from the first of two reports investigating how North American small businesses with 1 to 20 employees are succeeding today, and how they are adapting their marketing plans and budgets to compete more effectively.

The first report – Small Business Marketing Health Check – is free and available for download at www.campaigner.com/lp/hurwitz.aspx.

Growing small businesses continue to invest in marketing

Small businesses expecting growth are more likely to spend more on marketing, the survey revealed.

65 percent of small businesses that expect revenue growth reported that they are spending more/plan to spend more on marketing by year end
In contrast, 32 percent of those that expect flat revenues, and 36 percent of those expecting declining revenues are spending more/plan to spend more on marketing this year

Small businesses shifting marketing online to take advantage of new business opportunities

Overall, small businesses are shifting more of their marketing initiatives from traditional media to Web-based tools such as social media (blogs, social networking, online communities/forums) and email marketing.

When asked which marketing vehicles they use most, the top four categories respondents cited were social media, email newsletters, search engine marketing and Webinars/podcasts. Traditional marketing vehicles followed, including direct mail, tradeshows and local newspaper advertising.

“The survey clearly reveals that the use of low-cost Web-based marketing tools is playing a strategic role in helping businesses succeed,” said Laurie McCabe, partner, Hurwitz & Associates. “Making a few changes to incorporate more online tools into the marketing mix seems to be a key ingredient to small business success.”

The survey also revealed that small businesses anticipating growth are more likely to be using or planning to use email marketing.

82 percent of small businesses that currently use/plan to use email marketing expect revenue growth
18 percent of small businesses that do not use/have no plans to use email marketing expect revenue growth

“Email marketing is one of the best ways for small businesses to attract and retain customers while also growing revenue, which were two of the top business challenges identified by small businesses in the survey,” said Steve Adams, vice president of marketing for Protus, the provider of Campaigner. “The survey also showed the growing importance of email marketing and other Web-based tools in driving business growth. As we head into 2010, now is the ideal time for small businesses to look at their marketing programs and make sure they have a combination of Web-based and traditional marketing tools in order to best position their businesses for strong revenue growth.”

Small businesses are relying more on Web-based marketing tools to help them meet business challenges. Attracting and retaining customers (50 percent), growing revenue (15 percent), improving cash flow (9 percent) and maintaining profitability (8 percent) were the top business challenges identified by the survey respondents.

For more information, please visit www.campaigner.com or http://blog.campaigner.com/.

About Campaigner

Campaigner's software-as-a-service email marketing solutions enable organizations to have highly personalized one-to-one email dialogues with their customers, measure how they respond, and analyze those responses to interact in a more intelligent, automated way - resulting in more profitable relationships. It is part of a total Software as a Service (SaaS) business communications offered by Protus that also includes MyFax, the fastest-growing Internet fax service used by individuals, small, medium and large business, and the my1voice feature-rich virtual phone service. Additional information is available at www.campaigner.com.