65% of Israeli small businesses don't advertise

A survey finds that most of them depend on word-of-mouth marketing.

Every large business knows that in order to succeed and reach customers, it must advertise and market year-round. It appears, however, that this strategy is not sufficiently understood by small businesses. A survey carried out by Bezeq International Ltd. through the Giora Golan Qualitative Research Insights institute and SQ, including dozens of in-depth interviews, reveals that many small businesses are unsystematic and inconsistent in their marketing, operating by trial and error, and without a defined budget.

Among the reasons for the lack of a marketing and advertising policy, small businesses say they lack the time and budget resources to do it.

56% do not promote themselves on Google

The survey shows that 65% of small businesses do not advertise themselves, relying mainly on word-of-mouth marketing (51.9%), passersby coming to the store in person (10.63%), and commercial cooperation and salesmen (2.3%). Furthermore, the survey discovered that 63% of small businesses had no website.

Figures from the survey, conducted on the occasion of the launching of Bigger, a Bezeq International service offering a range of marketing solutions for small businesses and self-employed people, show that 56% of businesses do not promote themselves on Google, the dominant search engine in Israel. There are 466,000 small businesses in Israel employing up to 10 employees, constituting 92% of businesses in Israel according to Central Bureau of Statistics figures.

Bezeq explains that the main challenges facing small businesses are expanding their customer base, improving the type of customer, retaining random customers and turning them into repeat customers, and focusing and streamlining their marketing efforts.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 21, 2014

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2014

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