Digital Marketing Platform Constant Contact unveiled its "Small Business Now Report," showing how mom and pops are navigating economic pressure.
"As you might imagine, the top concern we see is inflation," says Constant Contact Director of Small Business Success, Dave Charest.
The next concern was weak consumer spending, but that's not stopping them from showing up.
"A majority of them, almost 70% of them, are actually planning to spend more on their marketing efforts," Charest said. "I think this is interesting because typically, when you run into a situation where you feel like you have to tighten things up, marketing is one of the first things to go."
Charest says local businesses are realizing the importance of staying visible.
"Particularly when consumers are going to be more picky with where they spend their dollars, it's really more important to be seen than to not show up at all," he said.
That mindset has shifted focus toward efficiency.
"AI-powered tools, for example, are really helping the majority of them be more efficient," Charest said. "I think if we think of where AI sits today, it's really moved beyond just a kind of nice-to-have and really an everyday help for a lot of small businesses."
In addition to content creation, AI helps with business analysis.
"Really, it's about how do you use it to help spot trends in your business," Charest said. "How do you use it to decide what matters by helping you analyze the data? And then of course, how do you create things faster?
Charest says in addition to social media, the most valuable tool used by small businesses is email marketing.
"E-mail comes in, and the strength there is that ownership, right," he said. "You're not renting that attention. These are people raising their hands to say they want to be connected to you. That allows you to build that direct relationship."
Those connections prove invaluable.
"When you think of a small business owner, they have so many hats to wear," Charest said. "It's easy to not pay attention in some areas just because you're being pulled in so many directions. Again, like I said, oftentimes marketing is one of those things that gets cut first, but it's great to see them understand the need for that."
Charest went on to say it's not just about getting your business seen, but showing up with intention to build connections to drive growth.
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