Although this is US based information, we are seeing this trend in the UK as well.

Small businesses are investing more of their advertising dollars online instead of in traditional advertising venues, according to a survey conducted by local advertising firm, Williamsburg, Va.-based Borrell Associates. Its 2011 Outlook survey asked 2,872 small and medium-size businesses about their advertising budgets, and found that they plan to increase their online ad spending by 29 percent this year, compared to a 4.5 percent increase for their offline ad budgets.

Overall, SMBs don't typically dedicate a big chunk of their budgets to advertising -- the survey found that the average small business spends less than $12,000 on all advertising efforts, with approximately $2,300 of it going to online advertising. The areas of online advertising that small businesses plan to invest in the most are email marketing campaigns and involvement with social media, as well as improvements to their company website. Of the respondents surveyed, 86 reported having a company website, a number that's expected to increase to 91 percent in 2011, according to the survey.

Source: http://smallbusiness.aol.com/2011/03/29/small-businesses-spending-more-o...