Small Business Marketing Budget and Gross Revenue – Real Numbers

I’ve been looking for this number for years. So, I had to make it up. It turns out my number was low.

Small Business Marketing Budget as a Percentage of Gross Revenue

According to Marketing Sherpa, Small organizations, small business, spend 11% of gross revenue on marketing. I said: 5-10%.

Medium organizations of 100-1000 employees spend 9% and larger organizations spend 6%.

From the report. . .

This chart reflects the economies of scale more so than it does aggressive marketing spending by smaller organizations compared with larger counterparts.
For companies of all sizes, a decline in revenue has resulted in marketing budget reductions and a shift to more cost-efficient digital tactics, such as email, search and social media. Organizations that have been required to stretch every dollar during this recessionary period are getting more mileage from these new media tactics. It is somewhat surprising that the capital intensive industrial/manufacturing sector is budgeting nearly the same share of revenue on marketing as the higher-margin and typically more marketing-aggressive business technology sector. For additional research data and insights about B2B marketing, download and read the free Executive Summary from MarketingSherpa’s 2009-2010 B2B Marketing Benchmark Report.

QUALIFIER . . .
For those of you [like me] who want to know who answered this question: 2631 marketing professionals

Because we work with companies who want to optimize their marketing spending, I’m wondering what’s in the 11% that small business organizations spend on marketing. When you add up your marketing budget do you include salaries, promotions, design, content development, advertising, training?

Stretching dollars is important for any business. Although integrating social media may appear to be cost-efficient in terms of time and investment, it’s only effective when the strategy matches the business objectives. Three times in the past week people commented [complimented!?!] me on my strategic social media approach. What makes the way we work with clients so different? The way we work is more about communications and relationships. Social media? That’s only a small piece of design. Small, but huge, when designed correctly.

What do you think? How much does your company spend on marketing? How does social media fit into your business objectives? Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

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