Impact of Digital Marketing on Sales Growth of Small and Medium Enterprises in Sri Lanka

In the fast-moving environment of contemporary business, the incorporation of digital marketing has evolved to become an imperative for several enterprises, especially small and Medium-sized Enterprises, which rely heavily on its potential power to drive their sales upward. The study used a descriptive cross-sectional research design to allow analysis of SMEs in Sri Lanka at the same time. The target population was mainly from the 20 SMEs for the last 5 years and it had a population of 400 SMEs. A sample size of 20 SMEs was determined and randomly selected to answer the research objective from this population. Primary data was collected using a questionnaire as the data collection instrument which was sent to either the SME owners or marketing heads. The questionnaire was structured in a way that would create uniformity in the responses. Responses were analyzed by the use of mean score, Pearson’s correlation test, and Kruskal-Wallis test using SPSS v.21 software. The outcome of the study revealed that email marketing and social media marketing have an influence on SMEs sales growth and to a large extent. Mobile marketing, SEO marketing, P.P.C, and online marketing all had a significant effect on SMEs’ sales growth and to a moderate extent. The study findings indicated that a lack of digital media knowledge was the greatest challenge for SMEs in the adoption of digital marketing, followed by a lack of suitable digital marketing techniques and the lack of finances. The findings led to the conclusion that email marketing and social media marketing are important to improve SMEs sales, while the other techniques, such as mobile marketing, SEO marketing, P.P.C, and online marketing, had little or moderate effect on sales. The study recommended that SMEs should be trained and sensitized on the available digital marketing techniques and how they are suitable for their businesses. This study also recommended that proper policies be put in place by the government to assist SMEs in adopting digital marketing. Lastly, the study recommended that funds should be provided to the SMEs to finance their digital marketing.