A statistic is a fact about a group of people. It isn’t a fact about your business. That’s worth remembering the next time a salesperson quotes a percentage on the phone or someone forwards you an article with forty of them.
We looked for small business marketing statistics that are current, come from a named organization, and can be checked on that organization’s own page. Five made the cut. For each one we say what was measured and what we think it means for an owner who wants the right work coming in.
Five small business marketing statistics, and what they mean
1. 99.9% of US businesses are small businesses
It can feel as if you’re competing with companies that have marketing departments. Mostly, you aren’t.
The SBA Office of Advocacy’s Frequently Asked Questions About Small Business 2026 says 99.9% of the country’s businesses are small. So the other names a customer in Richboro sees when they search are mostly owners like you, fitting the marketing around the work. In our experience, the difference between them is seldom a huge budget. More often it’s a few basics kept up to date. Think about which of yours has gone longest without attention, and start there. The hours on your listing and the photos on your site are common culprits.
2. 17% of small businesses do not have a website
Having a website used to set a small business apart. Now it mostly means you’ve caught up.
Clutch’s 2025 report, The State of Small Business Websites, found that 83% of small businesses have one, up from 64% in 2018, and 17% still don’t. That’s a survey of 406 owners, so treat it as a good indication, not a census.
If you’re in the 17%, someone who hears about you finds nothing to judge you on. If you’re in the 83%, the site alone isn’t an advantage. What it says is what counts. A visitor should be able to tell what you do, which towns you serve and how to reach you. There should be a page for the service you most want to sell this year. Those are where we start in any website design project.
3. Only 18% of small businesses feel very confident in their marketing
If you can’t say what your marketing did last month, you have a lot of company.
Constant Contact’s Small Business Now report for 2025 surveyed 2,500 small business decision-makers. Only 18% said they feel very confident in their marketing. The most common frustration, named by 23%, was not knowing what is driving results.
Say you own a fence company and you pay for search ads, a mailer and a directory listing. Twenty calls come in. If nobody asks or writes down where each one came from, all three get the credit, and you can’t tell which to keep.
That’s where analytics and call tracking earn their place. Analytics shows how people reach the site and what they do there. Tracking ties a call or form to its source. Neither has to be elaborate. Our article on how to know if your marketing is working explains how, and it’s worth doing before you plan any marketing campaigns for a small business.
4. 97% of consumers read reviews for local businesses
A neighbor’s recommendation is still the best lead there is. These days it usually gets checked.
BrightLocal’s Local Consumer Review Survey 2026, based on 1,002 adult consumers in the United States, found that 97% read reviews for local businesses, and 41% say they always read them when browsing for one.
You may have seen a figure for the share of all Google searches that are local. We couldn’t trace it to a source we could check, so we left it out. The review number makes the practical point anyway: people look a local business up before they call.
Look yourself up the way a stranger would. Check how recent the latest review is, whether anyone from the business replied, and whether the reviews mention the work you want more of. We can help with the profile and the process. Asking a happy customer at the end of a job is something only you and your crew can do.
5. 84% of US adults use YouTube, and 71% use Facebook
Owners often ask whether social media is worth the effort. The first part of the answer is that your customers are there.
Pew Research Center’s Americans’ Social Media Use 2025 report surveyed 5,022 adults and found that 84% say they use YouTube and 71% say they use Facebook.
That tells you where people spend time. It doesn’t tell you they’re shopping for a contractor while they do it. Imagine a neighbor recommends your tile company in a local Facebook group, and someone clicks through. Recent photos of real jobs make the recommendation easy to act on. A page that went quiet two summers ago makes them hesitate. For most local businesses, one or two platforms kept current beat five that are neglected.
What these statistics can’t tell you
Every figure here comes from a survey or an official count. Each survey asked a different group, and people answered about themselves. They’re honest snapshots, and they’re also averages of other people’s businesses. A statistic can tell you what’s common. It can’t tell you what’s true for yours.
None of them knows your town, your margins or which jobs you’d happily never do again. No statistic can tell you that a piece of marketing will bring a set number of calls by a set date, and neither can we. Timing depends on where you start, the competition for the work you want, and what gets done.
The numbers only you have
The figures that matter most are your own. How many inquiries came in last month? Where did they come from? Which ones were worth having?
If you don’t know yet, that’s a normal place to start, and finding out is usually the first piece of work. It’s also what separates a package that fits from one that doesn’t, which is why our marketing packages are built around what follows from those answers. A national survey can tell you which questions to ask. It can’t answer them for your town.
Pull last month’s inquiries
This week, pull last month’s calls and form messages and mark the ones you were glad to get. It takes about twenty minutes and costs nothing. Then tell us what you want the business to do next and what you’ve already tried. We’ll look at what’s in place and explain what we’d recommend and why. Your first consultation is free.