Small- to mid-size businesses embracing modern marketing practices faster

After several years implementing modern marketing (revenue generation) processes for clients, it’s apparent that small- to-mid-size businesses (SMB) are embracing these new marketing strategies faster than their large-company competitors. Our observation was confirmed by a B2B Magazine study that said, “SMB marketers are taking greater advantage of modern marketing techniques and are more reliant on key digital marketing activities than marketers overall.”

The study reported that technology competencies identified by marketers — for example, analytics, conversion methods, and targeting — were valued more highly by SMBs than by marketers overall. It also found that an overwhelming 72% of SMBs cited increased sales as the most important result of implementing modern marketing solutions (see figure below).

Figure 1. Most important results of implementing a modern marketing solution identified by SMBs.

We believe these results are driven by the following factors:

• SMB marketing teams tend to be small and more likely to rely on technology to extend their reach, productivity, and capability.
• With a more entrepreneurial spirit and less bureaucracy, smaller companies are faster to adopt new ideas and implement technologies.
• SMBs have less installed IT infrastructure that requires expensive integration with new technologies.
• Large enterprises tend to incrementally budget, maintaining traditional marketing programs from year to year.
• Big companies rely on internal resources that do not possess modern marketing competencies

The takeaway is that B2B marketers in large organizations must adopt the new revenue generation strategies if they are to compete effectively with smaller companies in the new buyer-centric, Web-driven marketplace. For smaller businesses, there is great advantage in employing this model against larger competitors.