Does Your Business Still Advertise Itself?

Small business owners have found it difficult to craft a marketing strategy going into the new year after almost three years of economic uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a looming possible economic-driven recession on the horizon. SMB marketing experts must land on an overall strategy to acquire new customers, pivoting to offer new products and services in many cases.

One question many owners and experts are asking themselves, as they consider discretionary spending in their annual budgets, is whether or not it is still worth it to dedicate spending on advertising and marketing. Oversaturated markets are rife with competition who are just as desperate to shore up their revenue streams, and even the most well-crafted brand image would be hard pressed to attract significant attention from potential customers. 

UpCity posed this question to their community of expert B2B service providers: Do you think that small businesses need to advertise? The feedback we received shows that owners and marketing experts feel that marketing should remain a focus and priority in some way in the coming year.

Those who stated that they weren’t leaning on paid marketing tactics were relying on more organic methods such as SEO, Google My Business, and other affordable and low-cost methods designed to boost local search ranking. Many weighed in on the benefits of marketing, as well as the most effective forms of digital marketing and traditional marketing they feel are still relevant and will carry your business successfully through the year.