the Bredin Report

Subscribe | January 2011

In This Issue

Marketing to SMBs in 2011

Reaching Decision-Makers

SMB Marketing Initiatives

SMB Market Research

Marketing to SMBs in 2011

How do your peer marketers to small and medium businesses plan to meet their 2011 revenue goals? To find out, we conducted a brief survey. The 37 responses – from leading marketers including American Airlines, American Express OPEN, AT&T, Capital One Bank, Cablevision, Comcast, Deluxe, Google, HP, IBM, OfficeMax, RBC, Regions Bank, Sage, T-Mobile, U.S. Bank, Union Bank and Yahoo! Small Business – may help you benchmark your own plans.

•	There is a strong bias toward acquisition. 62% of respondents are primarily focused on acquisition – compared to 36% in last year's survey – reflecting increased optimism about the economic recovery (and marketing budgets).
•	Marketers will slightly increase their spending on offline media versus last year. On a scale of 1 (significantly decrease) to 5 (significantly increase), PR (3.7), telemarketing and direct mail (both at 3.6) are set to increase the most; TV/radio and print (both at 3.4) and events (3.2) will increase slightly.
•	Marketers will increase their online spending more strongly. Spending on every tactic will increase, from online resource centers (3.9) to podcasts (3.4).
•	Research budgets are set to increase slightly. Marketers will place more emphasis on segmentation, competitive analysis, new product exploration and media and message testing, although customer satisfaction and SMB economic outlook will also receive more attention than they did in 2010. Marketers expect to use all research formats more than they did in 2010 except phone surveys, which will be flat.
•	Sales support programs will be more focused, especially on specific market segments (4.0) as well as influencers / marketing partners and lead gen programs (both 3.8).
•	While responses varied on how SMB marketing strategies will differ versus 2010, many respondents mentioned a more aggressive acquisition approach and a continued shift to online. Budgets and internal organizational constraints were the most common challenges cited in marketing to SMBs this year.
•	The businesses and the economic outlook versus last year continue to be moderately optimistic. On a scale of 1 (significantly worse) to 5 (significantly better), respondents rated both their business outlook at 3.9 and the U.S. economy at 3.7 (versus 3.7 for both last year).

>> Wells Fargo Launches My Money Map
Wells Fargo debuted My Money Map, a new online tool to help customers gain quick insights into managing their finances. The Wells Fargo Mobile feature enables small business customers to connect to their Wells Fargo accounts through text messaging, a mobile website or smartphone applications.

>> YouInWeb Releases SEO Service
YouInWeb announced a new search engine optimization service that helps small and medium businesses achieve higher ranking with Google's instant search function. YouInWeb is also working on a service to help businesses get high results in mobile device searches.

>> Equifax, Biz2Credit Join Forces
Equifax announced a strategic partnership with Biz2Credit to help small businesses find financing options. Through the partnership, Equifax's small business information will be incorporated into Biz2Credit's evaluation process so entrepreneurs have more insight and options as they look to start or grow their companies.

>> Local.com Enters Group-Buying Space
Local.com acquired iTwango, a technology platform that enables group buying of discounted daily deals from local businesses. iTwango's system allows advertisers to set minimum and maximum price amounts. Local.com anticipates rolling out its first products in mid-2011.

>> BizCardText Debuts Mobile Text Service
BizCardText launched a new text message mobile marketing service to help small businesses reach consumers. The company charges a monthly subscription fee and 5 cents per text so businesses can send special updates, offers, deals and announcements to consumers via text messages.

>> Discover: 44% of small business owners who use smart phones want better mobile applications to help them run their businesses.

>> Office Depot Small Business Index: 65% of small businesses expect both their company's sales and profits to increase in the next six months.

>> Symantec's 2011 SMB Disaster Preparedness Survey: 44% of SMBs said they would lose at least 40% of their data in the event of a disaster.

Reaching Decision-Makers
For a major technology provider, we developed a comprehensive acquisition campaign to introduce a suite of solutions to CEOs and heads of sales and marketing. The campaign included a letter, brochure, response card, email and telemarketing. Contact us to discuss how we can launch your next integrated campaign to achieve your SMB marketing goals.

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