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Marketing a priority for small businessES in 2011

An overwhelming majority of small business owners plan to spend money on their business in 2011, according to a new survey by Manta, the world’s largest online community for promoting and connecting small business. Seventy-seven percent (77%) plan to spend in 2011 even though 85% reported they implemented across-the-board cuts in 2010. Nearly half (47%) have prioritized marketing and sales as their top spend, with 24% noting business development as the top priority and 23% opting for marketing and advertising. Another 23% of the respondents said they couldn’t prioritize expenditures for 2011, given the current state of their business.

According to Manta’s Pulse of Small Business Survey of 766 small business owners (the majority of whom [655] have less than 10 employees), more than half are likely to be considering social media in their marketing and advertising plans for 2011. Forty-two percent (42%) of the respondents said they find social media useful in connecting with their customers, and 14% plan to implement it in the near future. Thirty percent (30%) say they don’t find it useful, and 8% say not only is it not useful, they have no plans to use social media in the near future. Six percent (6%) said they don’t use social media and don’t think it will ever be useful to connect to their customers.
 

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Targeting Your Target Demographic

Big Brother is watching — and recording. Marketers, researchers and analysts mine all sorts of data to figure out what makes people tick. Input some information on your target customer demographic to find out what they do for fun, what TV shows they watch and what they spend their money on. Visit
marketplace.publicradio.org/features/consumer-profiler for 65 profiles of American households. The site is a collaboration between Marketplace — a daily radio broadcast from American Public Media — and ESIR, a mapping and data analyst company. Here are some examples:

Boomburbs

The power parents! You are in your mid-30s to mid-40s, you are highly educated, highly successful in your career and you make bank. You also make jellyfish costumes out of streamers and garbage bags for the 4th grade production of The Little Mermaid. You’ve got kids in school and they dominate your free time and your wallet. You drop most of your dough on toys, sports equipment, flat-screen TVs, family vacations and video games.

Senior Sun Seekers

The snowbirds! Break out the playing cards and the SPF, your golden years are all about sun. Your budget may be tight, but that doesn’t stop you from migrating between houses depending on the weather – while there, you like to invest in fixing the place up. You love eating out as well as painting and gardening. You’re very fit and active and also active in your community — belonging to local fraternal orders and participating in charities. You love the great outdoors, and are a frequent visitor to national parks and also like to hunt and fish.

Main Street USA

It’s the Griswolds! You are solidly middle class, average in your late 30s, own a house and most of you have kids. You’re very family oriented. You’ve got a solid job (which you NEED because braces, piano lessons and summer camp are not cheap). You watch your pennies and tend to prefer frugal activities like home movie night or board games. When you travel, it’s all about the munchkins — theme parks (Walley World!) and national parks. You enjoy working on your home and your lawn. You enjoy eating out when not savoring the latest installment from the Jelly of the Month Club. Also, you own cats. (Don’t let them near the Christmas lights!)
 

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Recession Causes Range of Hardships for Americans

Talk of the recession has dominated conversations for years now and nearly everyone has been affected in some way, but the number of Americans who lost ground compared to those who held their own during the economic downturn is roughly the same.

A study by the Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends project found 55 percent of Americans faced a mix of hardships, usually a combination of unemployment, missed mortgage or rent payments, shrinking paychecks and shattered household budgets. That means 45 percent of the country was largely free of such difficulties.

The survey found Americans largely fell into the "lost ground" or "held their own" categories based on where they lived. Easterners were significantly more likely than residents of the South, West or Midwest to have done well during the economic downturn. Also, Republicans and col-lege graduates were defining characteristics of those who better weathered the storm.

Despite the hardships experienced by millions of Americans, however, the pest control industry fared better than many other service industries, positioning PMPs for growth coming out of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.