Figure 1. enlarge

Small business owners are embracing the Web as a marketing tool, favouring it over more traditional advertising methods.

Interland, a provider of online services for small and medium-sized businesses, recently released the results of its Spring 2004 Business Barometer of Online Activities, a survey of online usage by small businesses. The small business owners surveyed were asked to select which marketing tools were critical in driving business. Please view Figure 1 to see how respondents prioritized their responses.

The survey found that small business owners favored many online marketing methods over offline. An overwhelming majority of small business owners cited online resources as being very or somewhat important for business success in the coming year.

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Almost all the small business owners surveyed (99.5%) rated online identity such as website and business e-mail, as very or somewhat important to their businesses. About two-thirds felt similarly about site interactivity – blogs or e-newsletters – and online promotions such as search engine optimization. 

Interland conducted its online survey among its small business customers making up to $5 million in annual revenue, with three-fourths reporting under $1 million in annual sales. 30% of the companies had a website for more than five years, and 31% had been online for two years. Please review Figure 2 for further findings.