‘Digital Deniers’ Risk Losing Trade

According to a new study, over half of trade businesses are being
left behind by the digital revolution, allowing their more tech-savvy competitors to win new customers at their expense.

IronmongeryDirect, the UK’s largest online and mail order supplier of ironmongery products to the trade, invited 10,000 tradespeople to take part in an annual study which examines the marketing habits of trade businesses across the UK. The findings show a clear split
between those companies investing in growing their business
using digital marketing,developing effective websites as well as harnessing the potential of Google ads and social media.

59% of businesses admitted that they currently spend nothing
marketing their business online,with just under half this number(25%) wanting to harness digital marketing but admitting that they didn’t know where to start. A hardcore of digital deniers (13%),were insistent that they didn’t need anything more than word of mouth to bring in new work.In contrast, 33% of businesses are
using digital marketing to grow their customer base, spending on
average between 1-5% of their annual turnover on digital. A smaller
number were also using social media as a tool to bring in new business. The most popular was Facebook (12%) followed by Twitter(5%). IronmongeryDirect MD,Wayne Lysaght-Mason, said: “The growing use of social media as a marketing tool shows businesses are using digital marketing as a way to tap into people using sites such as Facebook to pass on recommendations.”