Small Business Marketing Forecast in 2011

Marketing the small business can certainly raise the revenue and establish the company worldwide. Of course Small businesses must be flexible in order to be successful. When economic times change, business firms must change their sales forecast. The marketing and finance departments can work together to provide a meaningful sales forecast.

As a new year begins small business should keep track on all these for sales accurate prediction and promotion.

• Study the economic data and find out how much are sales in your particular line of business (retail, manufacturing, etc.) expected to drop or rise?
• Confer with your marketing department and sales force. What are they experiencing out in the field?
• Based on your particular line of business, adjust your sales forecast up or down? For example, some businesses are recession-proof and actually do well in a recession. Other businesses, such as those offering luxury items, will not do well in a recession.

When discussing about Small Business Marketing Forecast in 2011, the results tend to show there will be remarkable improvement in online marketing tactics. The reason behind it is online marketing is cheaper. Small business firms may not have the resources of big businesses, but things like online and social media help level the playing field.

With social media only growing stronger, we're starting to see more companies using email to drive a conversation within social media. Companies always link to their social media properties, such as their Face book, You Tube, and Twitter pages, as well as blogs and email marketing campaigns.

Simultaneously, there seems to be some relatively untapped, cost-effective digital options like online videos, as well as increased mobile advertising, as viable marketing options this year.

Small companies are putting energy into their websites and e-mails also.

Researches say

• 45 percent of businesses plan to use online video in their marketing in 2011, vs. 28.4 percent in 2010.
• 35.9 percent of small businesses surveyed plan to use mobile advertising in 2011, vs. 21.3 percent in 2010.
• Approximately 15 percent say group deals and social couponing sites like Groupon and LivingSocial are beneficial to business.

Other key results say

• Nearly half of SMB owners plan increased ad spending for 2011; just 29 percent said that for 2010.
• Twenty two percent say trying to understand online advertising frustrates them.
• Sixty four percent report having a website, up nearly 20 percent from the surprisingly low 53 percent last year.
• Fifty percent say they plan to devote more resources to trade shows in 2011.
• Traditional media types such as direct mail (24.9%) and newspapers (19.2%) also should see increased resources in 2011.