Street Fight recently teamed up with Alignable, a social network for small businesses, to find out which marketing tools small business owners find most useful.

While the sample size was small—only 100 small business owners were surveyed—the findings were anything but minute. One key takeaway was that small businesses are embracing digital marketing while still using more traditional methods, like print ads.

So, which digital tools do they prefer? What follows are the findings:

  • 67% – social media
  • 43% – SEO
  • 35% – email
  • 28% – review sites

Surprisingly, good old-fashioned print ads and shopping flyers ranked higher than paid search, mobile and online display ads at 15 percent.

In conclusion, results from another Street Fight Local Merchant Report revealed that while small business owners are seemingly embracing social media, a large majority (38 percent) complain of its lack of return. The article suggests that is because business owners don’t have accurate measurement in place, clear objectives defined, no integration with other digital vehicles or a combination of all of these.

Reference:

Card, David. “Small Businesses Rate Social, SEO, Email as Most Effective Marketing Tools”. Streetfightmagcom. 10/20/2015.