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Asides

• This is a great example of using a small dataset to extrapolate inaccurate results. I was reading this article, which reads like it was a press release,  and thought it had some interesting statistics and I really agree with what they have to say. Smart business owners are increasing their marketing efforts:
  
  “With the critical holiday buying season on the horizon, it’s no surprise that small businesses are concerned about the uncertain state of the economy. Rather than accept the dire predictions of lower sales, most small businesses will bolster their holiday sales efforts with aggressive marketing plans”
  

  “History shows that small businesses have led the way to better economic times in the past, and we are confident that today’s small businesses will do so again.”
  
  But when I saw this statistic I had to check to see who was surveyed.
  
  
  Email Marketing Most Effective

  Small businesses tend to use a mix of marketing methods, but the majority (60 percent) say they rely on email marketing most for the holiday season
  
  60% will rely on email marketing?? What?? Every survey that I’ve seen showed that only 30-40% of small businesses even had websites. Which fits with my own personal experience. Even if we were to assume that every small business with a website used email marketing; which is highly unlikely,  we would still be short 60% of respondents.

  When I checked to see who was surveyed I found out that Constant Contact had surveyed their customers. Now that made sense, 60% of the people who have a service to do email promotions are going to do promotions for the holidays. That’s like going to a soccer game and asking everyone to tell you their favorite sport.

  What happens most of the time is that someone reads an article like this grabs the data and starts repeating it. But before you do that you must learn to see what the dataset for the survey was. It will keep you from repeating data that obviously is not true for the whole population.

  Here’s the link to the rest of the article if you are interested.

  U.S. Small Businesses Boost Marketing Efforts in Response to Economic Uncertainty Constant Contact Annual Small Business Holiday Survey Shows More Businesses Plan Heavier Promotional Push Earlier

  U.S. Small Businesses Boost Marketing Efforts in Response to Economic Uncertainty - MarketWatch
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