All about SME'S

What are the biggest challenges facing brands marketing to SMEs? According to the brands at our Round Table event:

• Awareness - whether it’s being a big brand no one has heard of, or being perceived as only focusing on enterprise businesses, or cutting through the clutter of a crowded marketplace
• Lack of creativity – Leadership teams unwilling to try new channels and marketing methods, or who think creativity is a ‘nice to have’, or not relevant or achievable in B2B
• Balance: Finding the right blend of performance versus brand activity, understanding the channels and messaging that will drive success across the whole funnel.
  

Led by our Co-Founders Richard and Cos alongside our guest speaker Fi Sellick Head of Strategy for Square UK, the payments brand, we discussed six core areas crucial in successfully marketing to SMEs:

1. Understanding SMEs – if you don’t they will call you out!

Success in SME marketing is about really spending time with the audience to understand how your product fits in their world. In most cases it isn’t about what your product does—it’s about what it enables them to do. SMEs see most suppliers as commodities; they just need solutions that work, save time, and are easy to use. Using the Job-to-Be-Done Framework allows you to align marketing strategies with the actual needs and pain points of SMEs.

To cut through the noise timing and messaging are key. Consider when you are targeting, what mindset your audience will have at that time, and what you want them to take away from the encounter. Messaging has to evolve through the funnel so different channels and timing will be relevant for different messages.

1. 2. The importance of peer recommendation or advocacy

In the SME audience, more than any other, people are more likely to buy from the same brands they see their competitors and companies they aspire to be like buying from. That’s why testimonials work so well – if talking authentically to SMEs is key then there’s no better way to do it than via another SME. Sometimes B2B has a habit of being too focused on big case studies when a soundbite might be more effective and much simpler to achieve. There’s a reason why trustpilot is huge in the UK, and why google has invested in it’s reviews business.

SMEs can also be valuable enough for ABM from an LTV perspective – not just their own value but also considering that of their network through referral.

1. 3. Defining what success looks like

Performance marketing tends to be more rational and so brings in a greater volume of sales. ATL campaigns tend to drive more value. It’s important to agree what you want to measure and why. Is success for your brand about volume driven acquisition or value driven measurement?

The role of brand, and brand-led campaigns is in building memory structure, rather than direct sales. Bottom of funnel marketing appeals to the 5% of buyers who are in market. Top of funnel marketing is about raising awareness with the 95% of buyers who aren’t in market right now. Our research shows that in 90% of cases B2B buyers buy from one of the first 3 brands that come to mind when they are looking for a solution.

In an SME space where your audience are time-poor and inclined towards peer recommendation and familiarity, brand building is essential to success.

1. 4. Can you be creative in B2B, and specifically in marketing to SMEs?

One of the biggest topics of debate was around creativity, specifically what we mean by creativity and its place in B2B? Does it have to be funny or playful? Can "boring" or serious products, like business lending, be entertaining? Is creativity a luxury for big brands, or can it be employed by anyone who has nailed the golden triangle of product value, distribution, and a great brand?

One thing is clear: rational messaging doesn’t build brand awareness—emotion does. But while creative problem-solving is accepted, many C-suite leaders see creativity as fluff. Building a culture of creativity is a challenge, yet without it, brands risk disappearing in a sea of sameness.

1. 5. Using your budget wisely and effectively

This isn’t about saying video is better, or social is dead, or TV is unaffordable. It’s easy to make sweeping generalisations but the reality is that different channels and media targeting are appropriate for different messages at different times. For full funnel engagement you have to deploy a range, and there’s plenty of research to show that more channels are more effective.

Perhaps more interesting are the ways of precision targeting through channels that might previously have been incompatible with smaller budgets. Connected TV can be targeted more than ever before. Micro regional targeting can give a specific audience the perception that they’re seeing a much more far-reaching campaign. Showing up where the audience is more important than far reaching ATL. The key to success is really understanding specifically what you want each channel to do for you.

1. 6. Let’s talk about the middle of the funnel

Across all the areas we discussed today one aspect stood out. There’s not enough creative content that stimulates conversation around the middle of the funnel and the best mid-funnel channels. Understanding audience challenges and the best channels to use mid funnel is a great way to leapfrog the competition by playing in an often ignored space.

We at True create and advocate for B2B work that is commercially effective and not focused on some of the vanity metrics that are typical in B2B marketing. You can read more in volume 1 of our Beyond ROI papers – it talks through 3 principles to move businesses and marketers from vanity metrics to business metrics: https://www.trueagency.com/eff-up-b2b-volume-1-beyond-roi

One of our areas of expertise is working with businesses in any sector targeting SMEs, you can see a few examples here:

• Yell – raising awareness of their digital marketing services for small businesses in the Manchester area
• Peninsula HR – a highly targeted data driven campaign to change perceptions from an outsourced HR service only for large businesses
• Clicktravel – engaging a previously untapped SME audience with a new SaaS travel booking site

If you’re ready to shake up your SME marketing, to make your brand memorable in the minds of your audience and win more SME business, do get in touch.