“According to Brandmuscles’s 2018 State of Local Marketing Report which surveyed over 2,700 “dealers, agents, franchisees and distributors of national and global brands,” 64% said that the actual SMB owner executes all marketing efforts. Another 26% said marketing is a team effort but not anyone’s full-time job and 7% have a dedicated marketing professional on staff. Only 3% said they outsource marketing to an agency or vendor.
Based on this study, roughly 97% of SMBs execute some form of DIY marketing. Two years ago we discussed a survey of 1,000 SMBs that put this DIY figure around 71%. This suggests a significant increase, and the Brandmuscle study went on to say that the percentage of owners that execute all marketing efforts themselves went from 51% in 2017 to 64% this year.
While the data show an increase in DIY marketing in the SMB space, other data points indicate serious flaws with this approach. For example, Brandmuscle shared a stat from another study (not clear which study) that said 60% of SMBs do not know who owns their Google My Business listing. Additionally, the survey found 36% of SMBs aren’t sure if their website is mobile responsive.”
Todd Lohenry 