Web Marketing
Marketing for Small Businesses
Most issues small businesses have aren’t marketing issues. They are rather matters of priority. There are more resources available than any one business can use and many of these resources are designed to be implemented with endless budgets and time. This article is designed for businesses with neither.
How much should actually go on marketing
Most small businesses should dedicated about 5 to 10% of revenue toward marketing if the business is stable and maintaining its market position. This increases to 10 to 15% if the business is trying to grow. Anyone who provides a definitive answer on this without knowing the value of the business is simply guessing.
The amount is not as important as what it purchased. Opting for 5% of revenue and using it to maintain measurable marketing activities is preferable to opting for 8% of revenue to support unmeasurable marketing activities. The real goal of the exercise is to set the number, and then honestly evaluate each marketing activity to determine if it deserves a spot.
Short-form videos without a complete makeover
The main barrier to most small business owners when it comes to using short-form videos is not the lack of knowledge or skills, it is believing that they are not comfortable enough doing it. Suggesting to someone to “just be natural” in front of the camera is not addressing the issue. The better approach is to not script it, do not light it, and do not try to put on a show. Just try to answer a question in a video that a customer asked you a week or two ago in your regular way as you would answer it in person.
It is better to start addressing questions that you are already answering on a regular basis through face to face communication or emails. They are easy to answer, it is nearly natural, and there is no need to think of something new to answer it. It will not feel natural the first few times. Typically on the 5th attempt it feels more natural than the first few. Do not assume that it did not work.
Email marketing is not a sexy option, but it does work
It is easy to say that email is the best way to spend your money because the return on investment is the highest compared to most other marketing options. It is frequently undervalued because people tend to forget how much it is still working even though it’s not as sexy as the newest social media platform. It is not used as frequently.
What actually matters has shifted. Sending one newsletter to a full list every month is among the least impactful methods of email marketing. Basic forms of segmentation (e.g. targeting each of different customer groups at their respective stages of the customer journey) improve marketing without time commitments or expensive tools. The first thing that should be further optimized is moving from a single email to all to no email at all. Every marketing method has an appropriate time and place.
Related reading: Is email marketing still worth it for a small UK business
What actually moves the needle at this scale
Real change comes with consistency over the long term. Once marketing efforts have developed a habit, the success of one marketing effort is not as important as the others. The most important single channel is almost always the most important marketing channel. Segmenting the market is important to ensure that the limited time and resources are not diluted over all of the possible channels.
Tracking what actually converts, not what feels productive. Posting content, running advertisements, and sending emails feels productive. However, each of these efforts has to be analyzed to see what (if any) of them is leading to a conversion.
Integration
This segment articulates how SEO, PPC, and branding converge in a time- and budget-constrained business environment. The optimal combination will not be the same for each business in this list. For this reason, each site begins with a proper diagnosis of the current state, as opposed to applying a generic framework.
Sources: marketing budget percentage guideline and channel performance data referenced from published 2026 UK small business marketing research (Capitalise, Bright Cat, Smart Choice Digital, Artemis Marketing).