In advance of the Search Starts Here conference taking place later this month, SMB DigitalScape released information from a study, which said small business marketing departments may need to get better at providing links to their contact information and social media websites.

The report said only 19.5 percent of small and midsize businesses provide a link from their website to their Facebook page, with even fewer providing a link to Twitter or LinkedIn. Six out of 10 websites are missing local or toll-free numbers on their website. The report said 93.3 percent of websites are not compatible with mobile devices either, seemingly another big mistake.

"Small and medium businesses are already challenged in many ways, as they try to coax consumers through a buying cycle that may integrate online and offline marketing elements," Miranda Miller said on Search Engine Watch. "It is critical that companies are able to guide consumers seamlessly onto the next step, with readily available contact information and access to the type of information they are seeking at the time."

Cynthia Boris recently wrote on Marketing Pilgrim that she can understand businesses that have yet to add Facebook links to their marketing messages, but said that businesses that don't have phone numbers will see a lot of people move to another company.

Jason Anderson, Director of the Georgia Southern University Small Business Development Center, said mobile and email marketing have caught the attention of small business marketing departments everywhere, but legal issues need to be kept in mind when operating online.

"A few simple actions will go a long way toward achieving compliant mobile marketing," Anderson said on Savannah Now. "For text messaging campaigns, always get express consent from the mobile user to contact them. This means that you should get the user to opt-in to any campaign by having them take an affirmative action, such as replying to a text message. The user’s consent is specific to a campaign and you should not send that user texts that are not related to that campaign."

Anderson said small business marketers should treat consent given to a third-party as no consent, as this could get businesses in hot water legally. Privacy laws also create problems, so companies should be sure that all of their lists, whether it be for email or text messaging, are comprised of individuals who chose to opt in.

EMarketing & Commerce said other legal issues to keep in mind with marketing emails are not using misleading headlines, deceptive headlines or a return address that is not correct.

Making the most of marketing emails can be a difficult process, and some companies may be making the process even harder for themselves by not targeting small businesses. An Inc. Magazine and Cargo survey of 546 small business owners shows that 52 percent said brands are not effective at marketing to them.

"A strong and growing buying force, [small business owners] are often the neglected target audience within company and agency marketing plans – the so-called 'B-side' of marketing," the study said, adding that small business owners' attitudes and behaviors can be used to market better to this sector. "Future phases of the project include an online community, real-time polls/surveys and roundtable sessions."

Other statistics from the survey show that 43 percent of small business owners believe that companies don't meet their needs, 45 percent said companies don't make an effort to understand them and 46 percent said companies are more focused on selling than establishing a clear line of communication.

Segmentation with marketing automation software can be helpful in reaching these business owners. A few tips to help improve email marketing are to track consumers' visit history, demographics and location in order to better segment them into different lists.

Small business marketing in the business-to-business sector has moved more toward social marketing in recent years, according to ClickZ, and companies are finally starting to see the value of this type of marketing. The website said companies should start shifting their focus toward social media to help build an engaged community.

ClickZ said lead engagement, listening and analyzing the data together are all important aspects of bringing forth a better social marketing plan for a small business.

"Skincare company Philosophy is a good example of a brand that saw the opportunity with social and jumped on it," ClickZ said. "The company analyzed which types of Facebook content drove the most social engagement (shorter posts, photos, etc.) and used that analysis to plan its social content."

By focusing on management, ClickZ said the posts are more likely to be displayed in a user's news feed. This led to a big boost in the average engagement of posts and people clicking on the content.

Fast Company said LinkedIn may be a better resource for small business marketing for B2B companies than Facebook or Twitter. When building a social media marketing campaign, businesses need to first evaluate their needs and goals before selecting on a definitive plan.

With many small business marketing professionals looking for ways to connect its marketing emails with the brand's social media account, Molly Niendorf, content manager of Emma Inc., took to BtoB Online to explain how brands can connect these two mediums for great results.

"Expanding your email's reach beyond the inbox takes a two-pronged approach," she said. "First, make it easy for subscribers to share your email with their social networks by including social sharing buttons within your email to Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Second, post your email to your company's social networks. Remember to customize content for each platform."

She said her company surveyed 579 of its customers, businesses and organizations across the world, and found that 39 percent asked for tips on connecting these two mediums. Eighty percent of companies preferred Facebook, 8 percent wanted to connect LinkedIn and 7 percent wanted Twitter. She said these companies should consider allocating more time and effort to these types of media to help get them up to par with other companies that use social media.

Internet Retailer reports that one company specializing in marketing emails said 40 percent of businesses offer an email signup option on their Facebook page. This could be a great way to go for many people working in small business marketing.

While celebrities, big companies and regular people have been jumping on the Twitter bandwagon like crazy over the past few years, FoxBusiness said small business marketing departments would be wise to follow suit and get in on the social media website.

Jason Hennessey, CEO of Everspark Interactive, told the website that it may be now or never for small businesses on Twitter, as keeping up with new trends and technology is part of the job description.

“It’s the way of marketing nowadays, and is the quickest way to reach your market,” he said. “Most people set it up and then never use it again. It’s important to set and track goals to see how your campaign is working.”

The website gave some suggestions for how to get into the flow of things on Twitter, including starting to follow people, engaging in conversation with other accounts online, using Google alerts to see when the company is mentioned and using the account to draw people to the website.

Ecommerce-Guide suggests using shortened links on Twitter to help track the flow of traffic to the website. This coupled with marketing emails could go a long way in making more people aware of a company.

Meg Hoppe, a contributor to Business 2 Community, said there has been a noticeable change in the way people look at small business marketing. She points out the 2012 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, which shows that businesses plan to use more online and social media marketing in the coming years.

"The report also looks at what marketers aren’t using," Hoppe said. "There’s plenty of evidence showing that social media – and online efforts in general – is getting the marketing dollars once spent on traditional media."

According to the survey, 68 percent of businesses look to increase search engine optimization, 61 percent will increase business email marketing in the near future and 37 percent said they plan on doing more webinars. Forty-three percent of marketers said they plan on increasing online advertising, including pay-per-click advertisements.

Hoppe said marketing emails were about flat from last year's list in part because many marketers were unable to compile effective lead lists. Small business marketing professionals worried about this should invest in CRM to help get a better sense of their customer base, as email is still a great way to get value from marketing.