According to Philippe Bernard, executive VP for Orange Business, “SMEs represent around 70 per cent of the B2B market. What is more, on average their revenue is growing about three per cent faster than that of larger companies.” It is little surprise then, that technology companies are so keen to market their solutions to SMEs. There is a baffling array of technology solutions for every problem a B2B marketer has ever had and there are just as many for problems they never had.
It is hard enough for large companies, with their extensive procurement departments, to pick the technology that will make a real difference to marketing performance. It is almost impossible for smaller companies. Yet, ironically, technology has most to offer these small companies. The right solution can save time, make resources go further, and maximise the impact of a marketing campaign. All a SME needs to do is find it.
In control online
The Internet has enabled small companies to have a global reach. While this has been a benefit to B2C companies, it has revolutionised the B2B market. In the past, most small B2B companies used to rely on local contacts, but now a firm of 10 people in Hastings can credibly tender for a contract from a company in Sydney. As a result, a good website is a fundamental requirement of B2B marketing.
A relatively new use of the Internet is online surveys. These allow companies to discover the views of a large number of people without the mailing or staffing costs traditionally associated with market research.
Peter Barnett is the MD of software vendor Perseus. He comments: “Our product allows small companies to find out if they are reaching the right buyers, if they are selling at the right price, and so on. The basic package costs just £70, making it affordable for SMEs. Users create their own questionnaires, publish them on the Internet, send an invite with a link to the people they would like to respond, and the results go immediately into a database which users can access and analyse.”
Another innovative use of the Internet is desktop marketing otherwise known as RSS news. David Long, founder of desktop alert company Skinkers, argues that email was intended as a one-to-one channel, and so is not a useful way for a business to communicate with many prospects. He describes his alternative: “Our technology provides you with a direct channel to your prospects’ desktops. You can control the appearance, timing and content of your messages, and as a result they are four times more likely to be opened than email.”
So far the technology has only been used by large companies but, with an entry level cost of £10,000, Long believes it will also appeal to SMEs. “If you can develop a good reason for people to want it on their desktops, such as special offers or training, then it can provide an excellent way to increase share-of-mind and so drive sales.”
Technically impeccable data
The key to good direct marketing is accurate data, and maintaining a database manually can be inefficient and costly. It is not unusual for business data to erode at 33 per cent each year. This means that even a small database of 5000 entries will see at least four entries change every day.
Chris Cuffe, MD of helpIT, a provider of data cleansing software, comments: “Deduplication software based on ‘fuzzy matching’ technology is the most effective way of combating duplicate records. It tracks records based on spelling and phonetics so would realise that ‘Bill Shore at the BBC’ is a duplicate of ‘William Shaw at the British Broadcasting Corporation.” He claims that effective deduplication software can cost as little as £100.
Experian recently launched Prospect Locator, an online list buying service targeted specifically at SMEs. Sue Walters, head of data analytics at Experian, says: “Many SMEs lack basic marketing knowledge, such as what response rates to expect. Very often they don’t get the results they expect and give up on direct marketing altogether. So, all our products are designed to be simple and easy to use. There is no minimum order value on Prospect Locator, and it offers only basic information such as what the company does, where it is located and what size it is. So far there are around 15,000 registered users, and the average order value is roughly £250.”
The announcement by the Royal Mail on April 7 that it will offer a one pence discount on every item of franked mail has given SMEs a further incentive to use direct mail. However, the liberalisation of the postal market is presenting marketers with a confusing array of pricing options. Vikki Lomas, head of communications at office technology provider, Pitney Bowes, suggests a solution: “Our intelligent franking machines link to the web, so that, at the touch of a button, marketers can ensure that their campaigns are being despatched at the best possible price.”
Campaign automation
Although effective marketing will always require human input, there are many elements of the process that can be automated. For instance, many marketers spend a large proportion of their time producing documents such as sales quotations, price lists and product brochures. Technologies such as Zetadocs PDF, from software manufacturer, Equisys, allow those marketers to automate the whole process, using standard document templates.
However, the proponents of customer relationship management (CRM) claim that automation can do more than just save time. They claim it can even improve the effectiveness of a campaign. While most large companies now use CRM software, the majority of SMEs tend to regard it as either too expensive or little more than the latest marketing fad. CRM software vendor SAP has developed a product specifically for SMEs called SAP Business One. It costs less than £2000.
In brief, it allows users to identify where and how sales occur and then to plan future marketing activity in order to replicate those successes.
Marketing automation
Spencer Gallagher, MD of new media agency Bluhalo is an advocate of CRM, saying: “A well implemented CRM system automates tasks and processes that previously required human intervention. Being able to access, process and understand customers’ data can help strengthen customer relationships, engender loyalty and create further sales opportunities.”
He does though counsel caution: “The biggest danger of using CRM is trying to fit a business around a system. Every company wants to store different information about their customers, and develop business processes which can benefit from that data. As a result, bespoke systems will always be more useful than generic ones. These are getting more affordable and will become much more popular in the SME market in the coming months and years.”
So, there is a lot out there that can help SMEs market to business, and new products are being released everyday. The key is to pick out what is useful and invest in that. It is also important to remember that the product will need to be installed, and staff will need to be trained on its use, so the post-sales service offered by the vendor should be an important factor in any decision.
Finally, all technology has a short shelf life, and so the sensible B2B marketer buys technology that is simple enough for today but also scalable enough for tomorrow.
