A growing number of consumers are leveraging mobile devices as a primary tool to find and and engage with small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). However, SMB investment in mobile marketing is lagging far behind consumer behavior.

According to a new survey, 92% of local business owners, regardless of age, believe their mobile device is essential to running their business. Yet only 6% said that mobile is a primary marketing channel in terms of dollars spent.

The majority (~80%) of SMBs also indicated that they are currently using SMS and/or chat as a form of customer service. Given SMB familiarity with text messaging, marketing services providers have an opportunity to help SMBs formalize messaging-based communication with their customers as a loyalty and marketing tool.

The data comes from a survey of 3,500 U.S. and Canadian SMBs released by flok titled, “The Pulse of Local Business.” To access the graphic above, click here.