Source: www.insideradio.com, December 2022

Nearly two thirds of local advertisers (62%) surveyed by Borrell Associates say it’s gotten harder to sustain a small business. That’s up slightly from 60% at the same time last year. Meanwhile the amount who say it’s gotten easier to sustain a small business fell from 14% to 7% during the past 12 months.

In another stat showing a slightly gloomier outlook among local businesses, 19% said they would characterize the current economic situation in the U.S. for sustaining a small business as good/excellent, down from 26% last year. And the number who said the outlook is poor rose from 24% last year to 28% this year.

Looking ahead to the next six months, 13% of local advertisers surveyed by Borrell said the economic conditions for sustaining a small business in the U.S. will get better, down from 19% last year and 40% said it will get worse, up from 34% last year.

“It’s a little on the gloomy side,” Executive VP of Local Market Intelligence Corey Elliott said in the latest episode of his Local Marketing Minute. “I think the ‘R’ word is still looming out there.”

While their outlook has been dampened a bit, 62% of local advertisers surveyed said they intend to maintain the same level of spending they did in the last six months, while 19% said they will spend more and 17% said they will spend less.

Asked in an open-ended question about their biggest marketing advertising priority for 2023, 37% said it involved either retaining or growing their customer base. “We noticed when they talked about their customers, they’re either talking about retaining and growing current customers or growing and acquiring new customers or sometimes both,” Elliott explained.

But the numbers were heavily tilted toward growing new customers as opposed to keeping existing ones. “That’s the opportunity to help a local advertiser expand the reach beyond their own people and get new ones,” Elliott elaborated. “If they say they’re focused on customers, there’s a four out of five chance that they’re going to be interested in gaining new customers and that’s where marketers come in.”