Small and Local businesses are really starting to catch on to the fantastic benefits of online markeitng.  In the process, they are gravitating towards the simple and affordable online marketing opportunities such as FaceBook and other social media, local online listings and paid search.  Amazingly, in a recent study conduted by MerchantCircle, it appears that many of these marketing methods are not yet fully tapped.   Which is great news for this blog… we have so much opportunity to share with you.

Here are some highlights of the survey:

• Local businesses have little time or budget to give to marketing
• Social media is moving to the top marketing strategy for local businesses
• Traditional online methods  like search still are more accepted verses new, unproven approaches
• Use of traditional offline marketing such as TV, Radio and Print continues to decline
• Online marketing services companies are aggressively targeting local businesses

If you want to learn more about the MerchantCircle survey, check out their blog post on the results.