SMB Marketing Weekly: Jan 20-27, 2026

Here is your second SMB Marketing Weekly roundup for January 2026. Five stories from the past week that matter for small business owners and marketers.

1. Email Marketing Benchmarks for 2026 Released

Mailchimp and Constant Contact both published their annual email marketing benchmark reports this month. The headline numbers: average open rates for small business emails held steady at 35-40%, but click-through rates dropped to 2.1% across most industries. The takeaway is clear — people are opening emails, but only clicking when the content is highly relevant and personalized. Generic newsletters are losing ground to targeted, segmented campaigns.

2. Google Ads Rolls Out Simplified Smart Bidding for Small Budgets

Google Ads introduced a new “Smart Start” bidding option designed for advertisers spending under $1,500 per month. The feature consolidates bid strategy selection into three simple goals: get calls, get store visits, or get website leads. Early reports suggest it reduces setup time significantly while delivering comparable results to manual bidding for small-budget campaigns.

If you have been intimidated by Google Ads bid strategies, the new Smart Start option might be worth testing. It removes much of the complexity while letting Google's AI optimize for your specific goal.

3. LinkedIn Adds AI-Powered Post Suggestions for Business Pages

LinkedIn rolled out an AI assistant for business pages that suggests post topics, drafts, and optimal posting times based on your industry and audience engagement patterns. While the generated drafts need editing to sound authentic, the topic suggestions are proving genuinely useful for business owners who struggle with “what should I post?” paralysis.

4. Study Finds Local Businesses with Blogs Get 55% More Website Traffic

A January 2026 analysis of 10,000 local business websites found that those with active blogs (at least two posts per month) receive 55% more organic traffic than those without any blog content. More importantly, businesses that published content answering specific customer questions saw the highest engagement. This reinforces the value of content marketing even for businesses that are not “content companies.”

For businesses looking to build out their content strategy, tools like Search Atlas can help identify the specific questions your potential customers are searching for, making it easier to create content that actually drives traffic.

5. Facebook Groups Algorithm Change Favors Active Moderation

Meta updated the Facebook Groups algorithm to give higher visibility to groups with active moderation, regular posting schedules, and genuine member engagement. Groups that rely on auto-posting or have minimal moderator involvement will see reduced reach in member feeds. For small businesses that run community groups, this means showing up personally — responding to comments, starting discussions, and removing spam — is now directly tied to how many members see your posts.

The Week Ahead

As January wraps up, it is a good time to review your marketing performance for the month. Did you execute on the goals you set at the start of the year? If you fell behind, do not wait until February to course-correct. Pick the one initiative that would have the biggest impact on your business and focus your energy there for the next 30 days.