What do Small Business Owners Want from Marketing?

With all that’s happening in the economy and business sector, it’s difficult for small business owners and entrepreneurs to know what they need.

A slowing economy, changing consumer base, lower margins, AI disruption and opportunity, talent shortages, and the trend to deglobalization is changing every aspect of business. It’s a confusing time for everyone. And how they’re managing marketing is all over the place. Some are experimenting with AI and reduced staff, hiring freelancers, and even changing their product or business models.

When you ask the question of “what do small business owners want from their marketing” the number one answer might be affordability. That would be followed by consistent high-quality leads, strengthened customer loyalty, and increased sales. The question then becomes, what’s the best marketing solution to achieve that?

Currently, because of Marketing AI tools, there is a lot of DYI sweeping the digital marketing sphere, which may reduce costs.  However, quality, depth and creativity often suffer in this scenario, with owners often learning this, then seeking someone to help them find the right solution. It’s a process driven by life experiences.

The big secret is that finding and testing the right UVP/offer/content for the right audience then connecting with them online when they’re shopping, is what works. In the end, your content represents you, so what’s needed is research and development of great content, and then promoting it strongly.

In this post, we look at what small business owners want and need from digital marketing and what likely will be the solution going forward.

Every Year, the USA Becomes the Focus

Customer bases are being eroded, supply chains are insecure, US dollar plunging, and sales are coming more from Americans than internationally. Tariffs are changing Americans’ buying habits and they will need to find made-in-USA products, services and experiences.  This spells opportunity for American small companies, VCs, and entrepreneurs with startup ideas.  Growth is there, but perhaps not enough locally.  Marketing then might be best geared to the regional and national scene (and yet you still can dominate a local market).

This doesn’t mean you can’t have your International cake and eat it too, only that the good old USA is the future. And as the stock market broadens out to small-cap companies, the US economy will dominate owners’ awareness. And when you ace the US market, you have more strength to build massive visibility for international markets as well.

What Business Owners Consistently Value Most

Before jumping impulsively at miracle or mediocre marketing fixes, it’s wise to patiently review small business performance features:

• Performance and ROI. Increasing visibility, traffic, leads, engagement and sales against the amount spent on digital marketing.
• Speed of impact + minimal effort. Especially for small teams, what’s preferred is services that bring relatively quick gains with minimal friction/commitment (lengthy, complex setups).
• Quality over quantity of leads. Innovating creatively by generating high-quality assets and campaigns with strong reach rather than wide expanded visibility for lower quality leads.
• Integration & ease. Integrated funnels with leads, CRM, follow-up, and automation should hook together well (not disparate systems).
• Predictability and consistency. Rather than one-off spikes, a steady pipeline flow you can plan around.
• Scalability and adaptability. As your business grows or the market shifts, you’d like the marketing service to adapt and adjust (adding innovation and services).

With that in mind, here are the lead generation or marketing services that are often viewed as most valuable right now (for travel, real estate, and manufacturing).

Services Most Valued by Small Business Owners

Below is a loose ranking of digital marketing services that tend to deliver high perceived value among small business owners in these fields.

1. Paid Digital Advertising (pay for leads)

• • Paid ads (Google Ads / Bing / Facebook / Instagram ppc services) allow strong targeting by location, interest, and intent.
  • In B2B / service-based sectors, paid search (i.e. intent-based ads) is often favored — according to SCORE, 54% of respondents find paid search effective for lead generation.
  • For real estate specifically, platforms like Zillow, Realtor.com, or hyperlocal Facebook ad campaigns are commonly used lead sources.
  • For travel agencies, retargeting ads (to people who visited the site or viewed certain packages) often help recapture interest.

Downside:

• • Cost per lead can be high in competitive markets (especially in real estate).
  • Performance depends heavily on targeting, ad creative, and landing pages and excellent conversion analytics.
  • follow-up or sales process has to be excellent.

2. Lead Capture & Optimized Landing Pages / Funnel Design

• • Once you run ads or get traffic, converting that traffic into leads is critical. Many small businesses undervalue how much lift comes from better funnel design: intentional landing pages, forms, persuasive copy, strong calls-to-action, trust signals, etc.
  • In surveys, landing pages are among the top-performing channels (e.g. 44% of marketers cite them as effective)
  • For real estate, offering home valuation tools, “just-listed / just-sold” alerts, or buyer/seller guides via landing pages is a common tactic.
  • For travel, offering gated content (e.g. “best travel itineraries,” “special deals”) via landing pages helps capture leads.

3. Retention, Reactivation, Referral, and Upsell Marketing.

• • Enticing with irresistible offers that activate impulse buying.
  • Influencing them to keep current desires active with a view of fulfillment.
  • Rewards/incentives for referred leads

4. Email Marketing, Nurture / Drip Campaigns, and Automation

• • After capturing a lead, many small businesses struggle to keep momentum — so drip sequences (welcome series, reminders, content) help turn “cold” leads into engagement or direct contacts.
  • Personalized messaging and content is shown to improve clickthroughs and lead conversion.
  • Automated follow-up is especially valued because human resources are limited in small operations.
  • Integration with CRM to score, segment, and automate is also high on the wish list.

5. Content Marketing / SEO / Organic Traffic

• • Creating content (blog posts, guides, videos, destination reviews, etc.) to grow organic search traffic is a longer-term play, but many see it as a valuable “evergreen” lead engine closely associated with business sustainability.
  • Organic presence gives more stability, trust, authenticity and comfortable experiences for customers.

6. Local / hyperlocal Marketing & Partnerships

• • For business models tied to geography (realtors, local travel services), proximity matters. Some of the most valued tactics are local SEO, Google My Business optimization, Google maps, local ad targeting, along with community partnerships.
  • Referral partnerships and cross-promotions (e.g. local businesses, tourism operators, relocation services) are also commonly prized.

7. CRM, Pipeline Management & Analytics

• • A lead is only as good as how well you manage it. Small business owners often appreciate services that include CRM setup, lead scoring, reporting dashboards, attribution tracking, etc.
  • Many complaints about lead-generation services stem from difficulty in matching leads to ROI, lack of data transparency, and poor follow-up processes.
  • In the SMB space, when agencies or providers bundle CRM + lead generation + accountability, they tend to retain clients longer (since clients see themselves more “plugged in”)

8. Retargeting / Remarketing

• • Because many visitors don’t convert on first visit, retargeting ads (display, social) to remind them or re-engage them is a frequently used “boost” tactic.
  • For travel, this is particularly effective: someone looks at a trip, doesn’t commit immediately — retargeting nudges them back to reconsider.

9. Social Proof, Testimonials, Reviews, and Influence Marketing

• • For travel and real estate businesses, trust is a huge factor. Services that help collect, display, and leverage client testimonials, reviews, case studies, social media mentions, and even micro-influencer endorsements tend to be valued.
  • More than lead volume, owners often value “better perceived trust” in the market, which helps conversion downstream.

10. Specialized / Niche Services (e.g. predictive analytics, AI targeting, geo-fencing)

• As data and tech evolve, some business owners — particularly in competitive markets — place high value on more cutting-edge or niche services:
  • Predictive lead scoring or predictive buyer/seller models
  • AI-powered ad targeting or dynamic creative
  • Geo-fencing (to show ads when people are physically in certain areas)
  • Audience segmentation / lookalike modeling based on past client profiles
  • Intent signal monitoring (e.g. tools that detect when someone is researching a move, relocation, or travel etc.)

These are typically valued more by more mature businesses having the budget to experiment.

Zooming In: Realtors and Travel Agency Businesses

• Realtors / Real Estate Brokerages:
  • Leads are expensive; owners tend to value exclusive, high-intent leads more than volume.
  • Time-to-contact is critical — often the difference between winning or losing a lead is minutes. So providers that help with immediate routing or instant follow-up are highly valued.
  • Local / hyperlocal advertising is essential (targeting neighborhoods, zip codes, school zones).
  • Visibility on property listing sites (Zillow, Realtor.com) and integrations with MLS and IDX systems matter.
• Travel Agencies / DMOs Tour Operators:
  • Leads tend to come earlier in the purchase decision (people researching destinations). So content, SEO, retargeting, story telling play a big role.
  • Bundling cross-sell or upsell (add-ons, insurance) means lead gen plus marketing automation is more intertwined.
  • Seasonal demand cycles play a big role — so services that help flatten off-season or boost shoulder season leads are particularly valued.
  • Visual & experiential marketing (video, immersive content) is more important.

Key Business Segment Nuances:

Business Type	Most Valued in Lead Generation / Marketing	Unique Nuances
Realtors / Real Estate Agents	Exclusive, high-intent leads + instant follow-up	Hyperlocal targeting (zip code, neighborhood), MLS/IDX integrations, speed-to-contact is everything
Travel Agencies / Tour Operators	Early-stage inquiry capture + emotional storytelling + nurture sequences	Visual marketing (video, photos), retargeting over long decision journeys, seasonality / off-season smoothing
Other Local Service SMBs (e.g. contractors, wellness, legal, etc.)	Steady flow of consistent inbound calls/appointments	Mix of local SEO + referrals + reputation building; often value “done-for-you” more than “teach-you-how”
US SMB Manufacturers (B2B or B2B2C)	Highly qualified buyer-ready leads + long-term accounts over one-off leads	Longer sales cycles, smaller target audience, heavy emphasis on credibility content (case studies, technical specs, certifications). They tend to value industrial SEO, LinkedIn outreach, trade directory listings (ThomasNet, GlobalSpec, MFG), RFQ automation, and sometimes even channel/distributor recruitment marketing. Decision-makers often respond better to account-based marketing (ABM) and ROI has to be clearly measurable to justify budget.

And What About AI Agentic Automation and Personalization?

SMB entrepreneurs and business owners definitely have this on their radar too. However, they see it as a helper or an assistant. Personalization is the key feature, but having AI-automated workflows is a nice-to-have, to take more administration away from their plate.

How Small Business Owners Feel About AI-Powered Digital Marketing & Agentic Automation

Business Owner Type	General Attitude Toward AI	Concerns / Motivations
Early Adopters / Tech-Optimistic Entrepreneurs	Excited and actively looking for AI-powered solutions to cut costs, reduce admin, and scale faster.	Want “more done with fewer staff”, especially in follow-up, email replies, social content, quoting, and customer support.
Cautious Pragmatists (most SMBs)	Interested but unsure what’s real vs. hype. Open to AI if it’s “proven, plug-and-play, and trustworthy.”	Fear of impersonal messaging, brand damage, or “AI hallucinations” saying wrong things to customers. They don’t want robots ruining relationships.
Relationship-Centric / Old-School Myths (common in real estate & travel)	Skeptical — they believe “my clients want a personal human touch” when they actually want efficiency, automation and ease.	Some fear AI creates a new work environment where they will be replaced or their role is less relevant — yet they’re open if AI is presented as their assistant, NOT their replacement.

SMB owners may not mention marketing and sales analytics in this regard, yet customer awareness and campaign success depend on good information.

So many solutions, channels, opportunities and people to carry them out. Yet, smaller marketing budgets, a shifting marketplace, and competition means marketing needs to create great content, strategize it, generate visibility, make an impact, and build on the trusting relationship with customers. Marketing needs more insight into customer preference via testing and good analytics.

For small companies under 50 employees, hiring a freelance content marketer talent is more affordable, particularly if you find one in Canada. Escaping employee benefits costs and with lower salary, you’re getting better talent for less. And the right talent can help you build your marketing program one piece at a time, gathering the data needed, before you commit to big campaign spending. A talent with content, SEO and social media skills helps you maximize FREE!

And, other talent can be hired as needed to fill key gaps (e.g., web design, graphic design, videography, etc.). When the work becomes too much for a single talent, you can outsource or expand your roster if possible.  If you’re patient and use a good plan to leverage your new talent, and consider offering equity to them, you increase their commitment to the company.

Please do investigate the freelance marketer value proposition, and how it’s the most progressive and efficient solution.

Gord at 416 998 6246.

Title image courtesy of Stockcake Photos