Small-to-medium businesses (SMBs) across Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) are the most likely country to put off marketing tasks, and they are also the most likely to procrastinate managing their email marketing campaigns, according to a 2024 study conducted by Constant Contact.
The Small Business Now: The State of SMB Marketing report from Constant Contact, found that ANZ SMBs are cognisant they need to do more on the marketing front this year, with an uncertain economy spurring many of them to double down on marketing in 2024. ANZ SMBs are more likely than any other country polled to spend more time on marketing, increase their budgets, and the number of marketing channels they use in 2024.
“Nearly 90 per cent of small businesses across Australia and New Zealand are concerned about the current economic climate impacting their businesses negatively this year, which might suggest they’d want to pull back on their marketing spend to reduce costs,” said Renee Chaplin, VP Asia Pacific for Constant Contact. “But the data tells us they intend to increase their marketing efforts in a bid to survive economic headwinds.”
Constant Contact partnered with Ascend2 to survey over 1,300 SMBs across ANZ, Canada, the UK and the US for the study, which examined sales and marketing insights of decision-makers at Director level and above at companies with under 250 employees.
Macroeconomic conditions causing uneasiness among SMBs in ANZ
While just 27 per cent of ANZ SMBs feel “very concerned” that the current economy will negatively impact them – the lowest level of concern displayed across the four regions polled by Constant Contact – 56 per cent said they were “somewhat concerned” (17 per cent said they were “not concerned”).
Combined, this total level of concern (83 per cent) is only behind the UK (84 per cent) among those regions polled.
“This level of concern shouldn’t surprise many, as Australia in particular experiences higher wages and has just seen interest rates skyrocket,” said Chaplin. “The key to why interest rates have risen is to curb inflation – in other words, to reduce consumer spending.
“This might explain why they’ve spent so little on marketing this year.”
When asked ‘how much do you currently spend on marketing each year’, 50 per cent of respondents reported they spend less than $15,000 per year on marketing, with 23 per cent reporting they spend less than $1,500 per year.
“This lack of spending on marketing can become something of a self-fulfilling prophecy,” said Chaplin. “Often small business owners lack the knowledge and time to effectively market their business. When faced with economic concerns, the instinct is to conserve cash, and often marketing is the first place SMBs look to cut back.
“However, those that double down and invest in marketing during these times are able to increase loyalty to retain customers and attract new ones when they need it the most.”
