Dive Brief:
- GetResponse surveyed 200 SMB marketing executives on holiday marketing strategies and found that Facebook ads were reported by 33% of respondents as the tactic used most to drive holiday sales as reported in a press release made available to Marketing Dive.
- Another key finding was 76% of surveyed execs said video is important to their marketing efforts, but that video also brings challenges.
- As far as holiday spending goes, 60% said digital marketing budgets have increased. “SMBs recognize the growing importance of digital marketing in engaging customers and prospects,” said Simon Grabowski, GetResponse Founder and CEO.
Dive Insight:
Among the 76% of respondents who report video was important, 47% of that group reported it was “very important.” The challenges in video marketing for SMB marketers included resources (61%) and timing (38%). Grabowski pointed out in the release that video is a “resource-intensive asset” that requires a production process that SMBs often outsource to third-party agencies or creative shops, thereby raising costs for video content.
Content creation overall didn’t lead the list of biggest challenges and was cited by only 16% of respondents. Audience targeting led the way at 26%, followed by attribution and transparency at 19%.
One interesting data point from the survey is although email was the third most popular holiday marketing channel used for promotion and sharing information and content, only 6% of respondents reported using email to curb shopping cart abandonment, a figure Grabowski described as “surprisingly low” especially since reports have shopping cart abandonment higher than 66% across all online shopping carts.