As a small business owner, deciding where to spend our marketing budget can be a challenge. On the one hand you may want to be everywhere and not miss an opportunity to woo potential customers. On the other hand, you need to be strategic about your digital marketing spend to ensure you squeeze the most marketing juice out of your campaigns. 

​So how do you discover where your potential customers are hanging out online and how do you engage them there? Luckily we've found some great data to share...

Have you ever gone into a brick-and-mortar store and been frustrated by the experience? Maybe the aisles were too narrow or the line at the checkstand was too long. Or perhaps the music was too loud or the staff just unhelpful. As shoppers, we understand that these negative customer experiences impact sales. But as small businesses are we looking at our web presence in the same light? If not, we should and here's why. 

Last year's statistics on blogging are pretty compelling. Blog posts continue to be among the top performing web pages for both business-to-business (B2B) companies and those businesses that target consumers (B2C).  

Don't take our word for it. Review the blogging statistics infographic from Gate 39 Media, a financial services marketing and technology agency . It's worth a look. And be sure to review the additional resources and tips below the infographic on how to get your small business blog started.

According to Marketing Sherpa, 61 percent of email subscribers would like to receive promotional emails every week, and 38 percent would like to receive them more frequently. 

Although we question if those statistics should be applied to every industry, we do think that small business marketers should be communicating with their customers and subscribers at least once per month. By emailing your communities once a month you'll stay top-of-mind, be able to communicate special offers and sales, and better nurture your customer relationships. 

Here are some ideas from Constant Contact on how to spread the love all month long:

We have a lot of empathy for our small business clients who are struggling to make an impact on social media. It can be a challenge to devote time and resources to managing your social channels. It can be even harder to continue to tread that social water if you're not seeing results in the way of an increase in followers or engagements. 

But if your primary focus on social media is worrying about content ideas and what to post, you may be missing out on opportunities to engage your followers and grow your communities. Here are six things you should be doing on social media besides posting your own content to help you be more a efficient and effective social media marketer:

If you've been in business for awhile, eventually you face the reality that at some point in time you will need to raise your prices. Usually external forces are at play - either your suppliers have raised theirs or other costs of doing business have increased. Clearly, this is not the most pleasant aspect of small business ownership, but a reality nonetheless. 

​So how do you go about raising your prices without risking sales volume and loyal customers? ValPak offers some valuable insights and data points to consider:

Artificial intelligence and marketing automations are not just for enterprise and Fortune 500 companies. There are several time- and cost-saving applications that can help small businesses run more efficiently and scale some of their marketing operations.

​While not a complete list by any stretch, here’s a look at our three favorite, free, marketing automation “hacks” for small business owners. 

Halloween has always been great for small business and larger retailers and this year is will be scarily similar. Americans plan to spend $87 on average per person on the holiday according to the National Retail Federation.  The organization also claims that Americans are expected to spend $9.0 billion in total, slightly down on last year's $9.1 billion. And according to Statista, "45 percent of Americans will shop at a discount store this year while just under a quarter will make their Halloween purchases online. When it comes to how people will celebrate, 70 percent will hand out candy, 50 percent will decorate and 48 percent will dress in costume." 

Take a look at Halloween shopping stats presented as fun-sized eye-candy by Statista: 

We're finding that a lot of small business owners are inclined to wait until after Thanksgiving to really promote their holiday activities and events. But did you know that each year about 40 percent of consumers begin their holiday shopping before Halloween.? Yes! And according to the National Retail Federation, this number is growing each year. And likewise, this same retail organization reports that "20 to 40 percent of all sales for small and mid-sized retailers take place within the last two months of the year."