Survey Shows North West SME’s Online Investment Slows

Our research suggests many SME’s are still relying on traditional forms of advertising

A survey of over 200 top SME’s in the North West has revealed 35% have not invested in search engine marketing, with a remarkable 50% failing even to update their websites in the last 6 months.

The survey, through May and June 2009, also revealed that investment by Liverpool firms in their website was particularly poor, with around 80% of sites that failed the survey’s criteria originating from Merseyside.

John Elcock, Head of Search CL5 comments:
‘We expected our leading private sector companies to have invested a little more in their websites - even in a recession - but marketing spend in general appears to have been cut. On the positive side, July has been our busiest month of enquiries from Liverpool companies seeking specialist search engine marketing services’.

‘The trend is for businesses to rely less on their web design or PR companies and switch to specialist digital media consultancies. Online marketing is growing so fast because it delivers highly-targeted, relevant route to customers who are also receptive to the medium.’

In a separate study earlier this year by the IAB, Internet marketing was the only advertising medium in the UK that saw growth in 2008, out-performing press advertising for the first time.

Elcock continued:

‘Our research suggests many SME’s are still relying on traditional forms of advertising, but this may be a costly mistake. With a marketing budget between
£3k- £20k a year, you may make a bigger impact by shifting spend to digital’.

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

1. CL5 is a digital marketing consultancy founded in April 2009, and is the only wholly specialist search engine marketing company in Liverpool.

2. The survey was undertaken in May & June 2009 based on a data-set of 232 North West- based companies compiled from publicly-available sources. Companies were assessed against their ranking position in Google.com, page content and a number of other search criteria.

3. IAB – Internet Advertising Bureau http://www.iabuk.net

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agency@cl5.co.uk
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