The SME Marketing Landscape Survey reveals that SMEs in Southern Africa see the need for a marketing strategy but do not plan or track their results efficiently.

 At least 87% of business owners spend money on marketing, yet only 37%  keep track of their results.

That’s according to recent findings by marketing consulting firm Firejuice in its annual SME Marketing Landscape Survey.

“People are throwing money at marketing, but they don’t know what they’re doing, why or how, it’s a mess and frustrating,” explains Bernard Jansen, Marketing Consultant and Founder of Firejuice.

With over 100 entrepreneurs and executives at small and medium-sized companies across the country surveyed, it also came out that although 90% of businesses plan to do some marketing in the coming months, less than half of them have a documented plan for those marketing activities.

“That means people are really not being strategic with their marketing. The idea of strategy gets thrown around a lot, but results are rarely measured,” says Jansen.

Jansen says that he is surprised that Public Relations (PR) came in as the least popular form of marketing for SMEs – lower than television, radio, billboards, and even flyers. The survey also revealed that there has been significant marketing activity taking place via digital channels including, LinkedIn, Facebook, and email, but a decline in flyers, word-of-mouth and billboards.

Jansen says that while the COVID-19 lockdown might have impacted this, these channels should not be ignored if they can produce measurable results.

“A marketing strategy targets a clear set of objectives through a plan, providing businesses the opportunity to raise awareness with their target audience and make the sales processes more manageable and profitable.” Jansen unpacks.

He adds that there is clearly a gap in the market for some insightful thinking around how small and medium-sized businesses approach marketing.

Jansen concludes: “Marketing is done as a knee-jerk reaction with little strategic thought behind it and most small to medium-sized businesses struggle with marketing rather than benefit from it.”

For more on the survey and its finding visit http://www.firejuice.co.za/