Most small business owners expect to spend more time AND m

Page updated: 13 Aug 2026

Whole-practice growth for wellness practices. Rooted in Wiltshire, UK, working worldwide.

Practices that hear "spend more" and simply spend more, without checking whether the extra effort goes anywhere useful, tend to end up busier and no better off.

Original Research	A marketing platform's own page claimed that most small business owners expected bigger marketing budgets and more hours spent on marketing in the coming year.
Source	https://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2026/54347/more-spend-more-time-small-business-marketing-trends-for-2026
Overview	The figures relate to general small business marketing expectations from 2019, published by Constant Contact, with no named survey or independent study behind them.
Year	2019
Publisher	Brand, Constant Contact
Relevance to Wellbeing	The claim is about small businesses generally, not wellbeing practices specifically, and it isn't UK-focused, so treat it as background noise rather than guidance.
Our Verdict	Too early to tell a figure with no named study, no sample size, and no way to check it, so it belongs in the "somebody once said" pile.
Our Summary	It reflects a mood most practice owners will recognise: everyone feels they should be doing more marketing. There's no survey name, publisher study, or sample size attached to the number, just a claim on a page. The year is 2019, which in marketing terms is a different era entirely. It's a decent prompt to check your own budget and hours rather than guess at industry averages.
Our Geo View	Applies broadly to all countries, though the original claim doesn't specify which countries were involved either.

Abstract of wellbeing niches and revenue flow

Recognise how this might impact your practice

Why this might matter to you

Coaching: this matters because coaches often feel pressure to "do more marketing" without ever checking whether more means better.
Therapy: this matters because therapists working alone rarely have spare hours to burn on marketing that isn't going anywhere.
Training: this matters because trainers juggling client sessions and admin can't afford to chase vague industry vibes.
Alternative Healing: this matters because healers are often told to "just be more visible" with no evidence that visibility alone brings anyone through the door.
Clinical: this matters because clinics have compliance and reputation to think about before throwing more hours at unproven advice.
Retreat/Centre: this matters because centres with bigger budgets are exactly the ones a vague industry claim might tempt into overspending.

Where this came from

A marketing platform published a page suggesting small business owners were bracing for bigger budgets and more marketing hours in the year ahead.

Constant Contact, publish date not disclosed on the page itself, and no named study or survey cited anywhere.

Methodology: not disclosed. Sample size: not disclosed. Publisher type: a commercial brand, not an independent research body.

How we scored this

A relevance score out of 100, built from three things: how well it fits the six practice types, how recent it is, and how solid the methodology behind it is.

13%

Practice fit, 25How new, 10How solid, 0

Marked down for sitting outside your specific practice types, for being several years old now, and for having no attributable methodology behind it whatsoever.

It's worth considering changes to your marketing practices

What this means for your marketing

Don't quote this figure to clients or on your website; if you mention it, call it "one industry claim" and leave it there.
Check your own marketing hours and spend for the last quarter before assuming everyone else is upping theirs.
Brief your team that "the industry is spending more" isn't a strategy, it's a rumour.
Put your energy into one channel that's already working rather than adding hours everywhere at once.
Ask any vendor pushing this stat at you to name the actual survey before you take it seriously.

Who this is most useful for

Practice type	Relevance	Recommended action
Coaching	Low	Ignore the figure, review your own numbers instead.
Therapy	Low	Skip it, focus time on referrals rather than volume.
Training	Low	Use it as a prompt to audit your own marketing hours, nothing more.
Alternative Healing	Low	Don't let it push you into spending you can't justify.
Clinical	Low	Treat as background chatter, not a benchmark.
Retreat/Centre	Medium	Question any budget increase pitched using this stat.

Best before

Best before: this figure was already stale by the time most people read it, so treat it as expired now and look for a named, current survey instead. Original source.

Something Brought You All The Way Down Here.

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Small wellbeing practices may be told to spend more on marketing this year, but nobody's actually proving it works