Published:

04/04/2013 09:04pm

Women Business Owners Challenged to Find New Customers

The National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) recently posted the results of their 2013 State of Women-Owned Businesses Survey.

Results indicated that women business owners found that gaining new clients was one of their biggest challenges and they were considering what marketing tactics would have the greatest impact. Here's what they found:

Finding New Customers through Online Investments and Social Media Marketing

When asked what they see as their biggest challenge to running their business in 2013, nearly two in five (39 percent) of WBOs said that it was gaining new customers. To gain customers, nearly three quarters (73 percent) of WBOs plan to invest more in marketing in 2013. Specifically, they will invest in social media marketing (36 percent) and search engine optimization (SEO) (36 percent). This is not surprising, as nearly half (44 percent) predict that social media and SEO are the future of small business marketing. Conversely, WBOs anticipated that traditional outreach approaches, including print and direct mail (1.6 percent), online advertising (4.4 percent) and email marketing (6.2 percent), will have less impact on small business marketing in the future.

When considering what marketing tactics currently have the greatest impact on a business' bottom line, more than half (52 percent) of respondents indicated that website design and maintenance was very important, followed by social media marketing and SEO (38 percent) and email marketing (25 percent). And WBOs indicated that LinkedIn (27 percent) is the most valuable social media platform to them, followed by Facebook (26 percent), YouTube (18 percent) and Twitter (17 percent).

"Women business owners are laser focused on reaching new customers, and their strategy for doing so is focused on improving their businesses' online presence," said Web.com executive vice president and chief people officer, Roseann Duran. "This is great news for time-strapped consumers, as they can expect to have an improved and more socially engaged online experience with many of their favorite businesses in 2013."

I wholeheartedly agree with the results of this survey. While I disagree that email marketing will have less impact, I believe that using it as a tool to drive traffic back to your website and social presence is the best way to continue to drip on clients and prospects and increase SEO.

These are the challenges we help our clients manage. If you're struggling to organize and implement your online presence and social media marketing, or you know it's not the best use of your time, please contact us for a complimentary consultation to see if we can help you gain new clients by focusing on your Internet marketing and social media.

Wishing you all the best for success in 2013!

Jeannine Clontz, IVAA CVA, MVA, EthicsChecked™, provides marketing and social media support, training and consulting to busy entrepreneurs. For information about finding a VA, download her FREE 10-Step Guide to Finding the Right VA, or to learn why Social Media should be an important part of your marketing plan with her FREE Report, Social Media Marketing Benefits, visit: http://www.internetmarketingvirtualassistant.net, or contact her at info@internetmarketingvirtualassistant.net