eMarketer: Small Businesses Keen on Big Net

eMarketer reports that an Interland study shows just about all small businesses think the web is an important channel for them. But Interland is an Internet services provider and only interviewed its own customers. The study does make for nice charts, showing a web presence and search engine marketing as top media choices, even above print, direct mail, yellow pages and other forms of traditional marketing. Online banners didn't prove as popular, falling below newspaper ads with merely four percent of businesses reporting use.

But the numbers are extremely skewed by the audience polled. For instance, newspaper advertising alone, among small businesses not chosen to participate in studies by Interland, accounts for about half of all ad spending. The results show how results can radically change based on the pool polled. The study does show that among companies engaged in web marketing, web marketing is extremely popular relative to other options.