83% of Small Businesses Believe Their Digital Marketing is Working, Survey Says


2018 Digital Marketing Stats

Businesses are using digital marketing, and according to the latest Clutch survey, 83% of them think their marketing effort in this platform is working.

But as the survey points out, businesses rely on a number of channels to deploy their marketing campaigns to drive sales and revenue. And with 2.14 billion people slated to shop online by 2021, being able to effectively market your business on a digital platform will be increasingly more important.

For small businesses identifying the right channel along with marketing goals is key to ensure the best possible ROI when launching campaigns.

According to Kristin Herhold, Content Developer & Marketer, Clutch, businesses have to use digital marketing to reach consumers and stand out from the competition as more consumers turn to technology for their shopping needs.

Herhold goes on to say, “A business must have a digital presence, whether it uses social media marketing, SEO, email marketing, a website, or, ideally, a combination of channels.”

The Clutch survey was carried out with the participation of 501 digital marketers from companies with more than 100 employees across the United States.

The respondents were made up of managers at 36%, Associates at 15%, C-level executives at 13%, senior managers at 12%, and directors of 12%. Seventy-three percent of the respondents came from B2C companies, the remainder 27% were made up of B2B companies.

2018 Digital Marketing Stats

More 2018 Digital Marketing Stats

When it comes to being effective in achieving the digital marketing goals, 83% believe they are on the right track. They attribute this success to digital marketing making things much easier to reach customers than traditional forms of marketing.

As to the top five digital marketing goals for 2018, 28% of companies said increasing sales/revenue as the top priority. This was followed by improving brand awareness at 19%, converting leads at 15%, standing out from competitors at 13%, and increasing website traffic at 11%.

Herhold says the value of digital marketing is its ability to influence purchasing, and ultimately the strategy should lead to a sale.

Digital Marketing Channels

In order to reach as many people as possible, businesses have to use multiple digital marketing channels.

The survey revealed social media is at number one with 81% of the companies with websites coming in second at 78%, followed by email at 69%.

2018 Digital Marketing Stats

Over half of the companies also use display/banner ads, mobile apps, and content marketing at 55, 53 and 53 percent respectively.

Image: Clutch


More in: 3 Comments ▼

Michael Guta Michael Guta is the Assistant Editor at Small Business Trends and currently manages its East African editorial team. Michael brings with him many years of content experience in the digital ecosystem covering a wide range of industries. He holds a B.S. in Information Communication Technology, with an emphasis in Technology Management.

3 Reactions
  1. I wish that 83% KNEW it was working and how well. Digital has such potential for tracking, yet too many don’t take the time to set it up correctly.

    • Hi Robert,
      That is one of the great things about digital marketing, all the data it generates. If properly implemented and set up correctly like you mentioned, you can track/monitor how your marketing efforts are performing.

  2. It all stems from the belief. But I think that the results should speak more.