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12 November 2007
UK small businesses missing out on web potential
New research from Microsoft suggests 62% of the UK’s small to medium-sized businesses (SMEs) could be wasting upwards of £3bn on websites. Their investment is wasted because potential customers can’t find them or are unaware of them.
The Microsoft AdCenter research identified a lack of investment by SMEs in search marketing. The research suggests SMEs consider search marketing complicated and prohibitively expensive, making them reluctant try it. However, of those that do, 76% see an immediate increase in sales.
Microsoft states that their research highlights some of the common misconceptions SMEs have about search marketing:
- Many thought that a paid search campaign would take a day or more to set up when they can take as little as 15 minutes to go live.
- It’s possible to invest as little as £5 a month to get results but some SMEs gave cost as a reason for not investing, believing all the best keywords have already been taken.
- Another turn-off was the perception that the process was too complicated, with 89% saying they thought it more complicated than online banking.
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