Sensis has released the results of its ebusiness report 2015, drawn from a survey of 1000 small and medium businesses and 800 Australian consumers.

Here are some of the key findings.

SMBs and digital strategy

• Only 17% of online SMBs have a digital business strategy that has remained “basically unchanged” for the past two years,
• 78% of SMBs developed their strategy in-house and 15% spoke to an advertising advisor, and
• the average small business spent $3,900 on hardware and $4,300 on software this year, while the average medium business spent $25,455 on hardware and $21,245 on software.

SMBs and digital tactics

• The number of SMBs advertising online has increased 5% to 35% in the last year,
• 31% of SMBs use social media, with Facebook the most popular. 23% update it every day,
• 31% of SMBs use paid social media advertising, spending an average of $6,560 last year,
• SEM use has decreased from 26% last year to 18%. SEO use is at 28%,
• 29% of SMBs use email marketing,
• 6% have developed an app. 9% plan to develop an app this year,
• 43% of SMBs take orders online and 51% receive payments, and
• 75% of SMBs who have taken up ecommerce cite their top reason as to provide better customer service.

SMBs and websites

• 89% of medium and 55% of small businesses have a website,
• 61% of SMBs with websites say it has improved their business effectiveness, 43% have increased customer awareness and 13% have increased sales,
• 35% of SMBs have optimised their website for mobiles and other devices,
• 28% of those who have not optimised their website for mobiles plan to do so this year,
• 26% of SMBs with websites use video on their sites, and
• SMB websites with reviews and testimonials dropped 8% this year to 32%.