SME Survey

What marketing channel works best for you?

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half”

John Wanamaker

You have maybe heard this quote before? It is now over a 100 years old and nowadays there should be no excuse for not knowing what return you get from your investment in marketing.

Whichever marketing channels you use, you should be measuring the results you get from them. It is far easier to do today then in the past; particularly with Google analytics and the various tracking data you can get from email marketing and your social media activity.

If you are unsure of where to spend your marketing budget, then this edition’s survey should be of interest.

A total of 88 respondents completed the survey. The first question asked: “What marketing channel works best for you?” with a follow up question: “What works second best for you?”.

Figure 1 shows that the top three channels for those that took part in the survey were networking (58.2%), social media (14.3%) and website (11%); with all other options being less than 2.2%. Clearly networking seems to give the most “bang for your buck”!

Likewise (see figure 2), the same three channels come top again: social media (37.4%), networking (20.9%) and website (14.3%); with other alternatives once again being 3.3% and less.

This would certainly suggest if you are not using these channels to reach your target audience, it may be something you should consider. And, if you are, but they are not working for you, then it is worth reviewing your activity to establish what isn’t working for you.

Of course there may be other channels not falling into any of these three areas that are successful for you, the point is if you are not measuring it, you can’t manage it. If you know where your return on investment is coming from, then focus your efforts on those channels that are working for you.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Get involved

To take part in the next survey – What’s your biggest operational challenge? – visit here: https://forms.gle/ oEy4WA1TMfXS7Xiv7. The results will be shared in the next edition of this magazine.