For many of the small business owners that I meet doing anything online much less building a search marketing campaign is scary, but scarier than doing your own taxes? In a recent study commissioned by Microsoft Adcenter  73 percent for small business owners would rather do their taxes than build a search marketing campaign.

“The study revealed that 59 percent of small businesses with Web sites don’t currently use paid search marketing, and of those, 90 percent have never even attempted it.”
As an aside this study was an online survey so the results are probably sceued in favor of online activities and the results from a phone survey probably would have been even more dramatic. Just ask 10 small business owners that you know if they have websites. I doubt that you will find 6 out of 10 already have websites.

Why are small business owners afraid of online marketing? In many cases it’s a matter of age. The majority of small business owners are over 40 with many of them being over 50. They don’t go to the web to find out information so they assume that their client base doesn’t either. Sometimes they are right, but in most industries they are wrong.

Most small business owners are also working long hours already working in their companies instead of working on their companies. They are so busy working that they don’t have time to think about learning something new, much less actually take the time to learn something new. They also don;t have time to spend online, so they assume that their customers don’t search either.

They have been seduced by the brand advertising that they see on TV and feel that they need to advertise their business the same way that the national brands advertise. There are stories about advertising agencies that knew that they needed to polish the egos of the executives in their client companies by producing beautiful ego gratifying ads without worrying about actually selling anything.

Small business owners need to be educated that search marketing is the best tracking method for many businesses. Does that mean I feel that it will work great for every business, no I don’t. But with the tools and tracking that is available they will at least know whether or not it is working.

If you would like to read more about the study you can access it here

Microsoft adCenter Study Reveals Small Businesses Build Online Presence, but Fail to Invest in Search Marketing: A surprising 73 percent surveyed would rather do their taxes than start a search marketing plan.

Tags: searchmarketing, small business online marketing, microsoft adcenter