SMEs will continue the recent trend of shifting their marketing and advertising budgets to the digital environment, performance-based platforms and customer retention solutions over the next five years, according to a new BIA / Kelsey report. This will mean new opportunities for businesses or suppliers that work or offer their services to this type of company.

According to predictions for 2015, SMEs will allocate 30% of their budgets to traditional advertising (less than 52% of last year 2010), and the remaining 70% will go to digital marketing (mobile marketing, directories, etc.). to strategies of promotion and electronic commerce (pay-per-click, offers, coupons), and solutions for customer loyalty (e-mail marketing, Social Media Marketing, etc …).

As this trend accelerates, SMEs will look for suppliers of external solutions and will take advantage of the tools that allow them to maximize the efforts made by each new acquired client in the longer term. ”

Some of the calculations, forecasts and predictions of the research in this regard indicate that:

• In general, the expense of this type of company in the media, marketing and business solutions will grow from 22,400 million dollars in 2010 to 40,200 million in 2015, representing an annual growth rate of 12%.
• Spending on traditional advertising will not have essential changes, experiencing an annual increase of 0.6%, from the 11,800 million in 2010 to the 12,100 million predicted for 2015.
• Spending on digital media will grow from 5,400 million in 2010 to 16,600 million in 2015 (24.9% per year).
• SMEs will also increase spending on e-commerce solutions and transaction platforms and promotions from 1,700 billion dollars in 2010 to 4,600 million in 2015 (21.5% annually).
• Spending by SMEs on solutions to retain and retain customers will grow from 3,500 million to 6,900 million in 2015 (14.6% per year).

Mark Fratrik, Vice President of BIA / Kelsey, noted that “these forecasts clearly indicate that the allocation of budgets of small and medium enterprises and marketing to acquire and retain customers, will grow significantly in the next five years”

“Traditional media companies plus new companies that actively build their products and solutions in the digital world, applying SEM / SEO, e-mail marketing and the acquisition of other loyalty tools, will be in a good position to get the most out of it. benefit of this general change for the world of SMEs, “he concluded.