Some Small Business Looking to Increase Ad Spending in 09

Ad-ology has released results from a Small Business Marketing Outlook survey it conducted. Perhaps surprising to some, it found that in 2009, a quarter of small business owners plan to spend more on advertising while another 60% plan to spend about the same as they did this year.

When broken down by media type, over half of small business advertisers plan to spend the same or more on the following:

• Online advertising (69%)
• Yellow Pages (54%)
• Newspapers (51%)
• Direct mail (51%)

Other key findings include:

• “Knows my company/line of business” is the top attribute small business owners look for in a media advertising sales rep. “Delivers what they promise” is the second most desirable attribute.
• 52% of small business owners surveyed agree with the statement “you can gain market share by marketing while your competitors are cutting back.”
• 74% believe their company “must be one of the first 2-3 that come to a customer’s mind” when they need what the small business owner is selling.
• More than half of respondents plan to spend the same or more time and money on their Web sites and email marketing in 2009.
• The majority of small businesses are not using other emerging media: 77% do not use online video, 83% do not podcast, and 82% do not use mobile advertising.

While many small businesses appear to be budgeting more for online advertising in, some Adsense users are reporting decreases in revenue in late 08. I'm curious to if the trend in 2009 will be to seek more innovative online promotion methods.

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