Why local business support is needed to support growth

Advertising spend: Most businesses that use social media do not spend any money advertising on it (72.3%). They don’t believe that they have the skills, or that it can work for their business. Of those who do advertise, spend is low, with only 16.3% of all survey respondents spending over £100 a month on social media advertising.

Measuring impact on sales: There is a lack of understanding of digital marketing. Most businesses (64.8%) recognise the significant impact of digital marketing on sales, but a similar amount (63.8%) do not take the time or are unable to measure the impact that social media activity has on their sales. Only a minority use social media management tools (16.6%). This is even though 43.1% of surveyed businesses make over a quarter of their sales online, and 31% of them sell services or products that are only available online.

Investment in time, people, and resources: Whilst consumers are spending an increasing amount of time on social media few businesses spend more than five hours a week managing their social media accounts. Consumers use social media to discover what to buy, to research before buying, and to chat with their friends and family about their decisions, yet businesses are not present in places where they can capitalise on these conversations. This lack of attention from businesses in social media is also reflected in how they apply resources to social media, with only a small number (16%) investing in third-party specialist support, and most businesses do not have any staff whose main role is to look after their social media accounts.

Skills and training: The lack of digital training and skills (60% of businesses have had no recent digital skills training) is an important factor, with business owners and employees simply not having the right tools and information to make the most of the social media revolution. There is evidence of demand for more training, with:

• 65.6% of respondent businesses are interested in accessing support/training to help them with marketing
  
• 58.3% want support with digital skills for social media, 
• 46.2% looking for assistance with digital skills for e-commerce to grow their business,

Critically, respondent businesses had a level of digital knowledge and experience above the average (they were signed up to panels on the Survey Monkey digital platform), and were clearly innovative, with 36.4% of businesses having launched a new product or service in the last six months. However, even these businesses do not have a good understanding of the potential of social media and are not investing sufficient time or money into it compared to its market importance.