Pitney Bowes has seen a few changes in the business world in its 90+ -year history.
When I think Pitney Bowes, I think huge, but its hardware and software products touch small and large businesses alike.
Recently, the company conducted a small business marketing survey.
There were some surprising results.
About the Survey
Respondents to the survey were small business customers of Pitney Bowes.
The following are some of the results I found surprising.
#1 – Most do not use social media
Only 17% of the small businesses surveyed use social media for their marketing efforts.
The report suggests the reason may be due to how long the companies have been in business.
- Marketers are more comfortable with what they know
- That is traditional forms of communication
- None of the businesses 11-15 years old used social media
The survey did not share what industries the companies were in.
The top three communication channels were ~
-
- Email (46%)
- Phone (22%)
- Direct mail (11%)
Social media is the great equalizer. The little guy competes with the big boys, so the fact that so few respondents use social media was surprising.
#2 – Most do not use email for marketing.
Despite holding the #1 spot for communication channels, only 40% of the respondents use email for marketing.
Businesses that do, split their email marketing between newsletters (20%) and announcing customer events (20%).
Lost opportunities?
#3 – Most do not measure their marketing efforts
Okay, so maybe this doesn’t surprise me that much – but it should.
- 73% do not measure email marketing metrics
- 80% do not measure direct/transactional mail metrics
Transactional mail includes items such as statements, invoices and payments.
A popular adage these small businesses might want to adopt is ~
You can’t manage what you don’t measure.
Most email marketing services capture measurements, such as the following.
- Open rates
- Click-through rates
- Response rates
At a minimum, knowing the conversion to sales is vital for assessing effectiveness.
A great tip I read in Lori Widmer’s Marketing 365: Daily Strategies for Entrepreneurs and Small Business for transactional mail is Tip #304.
Use invoices as promotional tools.
Lori suggests announcing a new product or sale on your next invoice – what a simple, innovative marketing idea.
Make Your Own Opportunity
If you relate to these small businesses, embrace the marketing opportunities.
- Develop social media strategy – Start small. Find out where your prospects hang out and market to that platform.
- Explore email marketing services – There are several good ones. Not only do you have templates and design help, but they also provide metrics feedback.
- Create your own or get help with benchmarks – Determine what spells success for your marketing campaigns. More leads? Conversions to sales? More subscribers? Start there and measure, measure, measure.
If small businesses are your target market, imagine the possibilities.
- Do you offer marketing consulting?
- Are you a social media specialist?
- Do you offer training courses?
- Writing services?
Your service may be the answer to their prayers.
Are you a small business owner?
Is this a target market for your services?
Do the survey results match your experience?
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Wow, Cathy. It appears that the old times are not bothering to keep up with the times. How interesting.
On a previous subject: I made the words bigger on the Sequoia Blog for today. I can’t change the color of the font, but I can direct the size. Thanks for standing up with me.–Annie
These results are a good indicator that my business of teaching social media marketing to small biz owners is going to be viable for a looooong time!
It’s good when the business plan works, Martha. 🙂
Hmm…So you are surprised by these results? These are people that pay money to have a machine that takes up space that delivers a stamp facsimile that the post office delivers for free to one’s office….
As you say- one does not manage what one does not measure. They obviously don’t manage their business assets already…
Roy: Pitney-Bowes has a few more things than postage meters. But, I get your point. 😉
The survey results are not really all that surprising. Small business is small. They can’t do everything. So many things get left off the table. Including measurement.
I have many colleagues who are about as small business as you can get as sole proprietors. They use both social media and measurement tools for marketing. I was more surprised by the high number not using social media.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, David.
Sorry, Ann. Had to rescue you from the spam folder. The survey did note that those who had been in business a shorter time were more prone to participate in social media.
And my eyes thank you for the change. 😉