WILLIAMSBURG, Va.—Many small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) are expected to increase their advertising spend in 2018, with online and local television getting bigger slices of these budgets, according to a new report from Borrell Associates, an advertising and media consulting group based here.
The firm, in a report issued earlier this month, forecast that local advertising in the United States by SMBs will grow by 7.6 percent next year, which compares with less than 1 percent expected growth in 2017. The estimates for 2018 show online advertising rising by 16.8 percent, local television increasing 14.6 percent and out-of-home advertising moving up 2.8 percent.
Telemarketing is projected to increase 1.4 percent, while losing market share next year are directories (a decline of 10.1 percent) and newspapers, which are projected to decrease 10.3 percent, according to the firm’s report.
Asked about the most effective local marketing channels, 15 percent of respondents identified search-engine marketing as “extremely effective,” followed by email marketing (12 percent) and broadcast TV and social media (both with 11 percent of respondents identifying the channel as “extremely effective”).
The survey also found that “print media continues to face the biggest challenge” heading into the second half of 2017. Asked to identify media channels they planned to eliminate in 2018, 9 percent of respondents identified both printed directories and magazines. Only 4 percent indicated plans to eliminate broadcast TV, and 5 percent noted their intentions to eliminate cable TV.
The study, which was conducted between April and July 2017, reviewed responses from more than 3,500 respondents, about 22 percent of whom identified themselves as “master marketers.”
Borrell develops and produces industry-related advertising reports and produces industry-related advertising reports and offers revenue benchmarking for local online operations.