Vocus, Inc. (NASDAQ: VOCS), a leading marketing cloud provider, released The State of Digital Marketing for SMBs, a study conducted with Inc. The study will help SMBs leverage digital marketing for their businesses.

More than half of small and medium-sized businesses with $1 million or more in annual sales revenue already use some of the most popular digital marketing tools available today. Yet, small businesses still lag behind their enterprise counterparts when it comes to more sophisticated approaches to digital marketing, including custom content, ecommerce solutions, paid search and mobile strategies.

According to The State of Digital Marketing for SMBs study results, this trend is positioned to change.

“Digital marketing usage among SMBs is poised for significant and meaningful growth in the near term,” said Brendon O’Donovan, product marketing manager at Vocus. “During the past few years, the affordability and accessibility of digital marketing in general, have opened up digital marketing to smaller businesses as a viable channel to find and engage with their customers.”

SMBs are approaching digital marketing with a decidedly practical bent: the number one objective for companies in this space is to drive sales. This goal receives an average importance rating of 4.48 (on a scale of 1 to 5) by firms with more than $1 million in annual sales and 4.45 by all firms in the Inc. survey. Other objectives given high average ratings by $1 million-plus companies include driving customer engagement (4.29), increasing brand awareness (4.24), and reaching new customer segments (4.18).

The study also discusses: 

The State of Digital Marketing for SMBs is available to download for free today:http://www.inc.com/vocus/free-guide-2013.html

About Vocus

Vocus is a leading marketing cloud provider that helps businesses reach and influence buyers across social networks, online and through media. Vocus provides an integrated suite that combines social marketing, search marketing, email marketing and publicity into a comprehensive solution to help businesses attract, engage and retain customers. Vocus software is used by more than 120,000 organizations worldwide and is available in seven languages. Vocus is based in Beltsville, MD with offices in North America , Europe and Asia. For further information, please visit http://www.vocus.com or call (800) 345-5572.

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