According to the Federation of Small Businesses, small firms (with up to 50 employees) contribute more than 50 per cent of the UK turnover. There are around 4.7 million small businesses in the UK. The vast majority of these 97 per cent employ less than 20 people, while 95 per cent employ less than five. These are the real microbusinesses. Defined as those employing up to ten people, because of their small size these businesses are as much consumers as they are businesses which means it’s critical to understand the business owner as well as the business. The owner often is the business and so the key to making a marketing message stand out rests with understanding and targeting this individual.
Effectively reaching microbusinesses relies on the marketer’s ability to identify distinct characteristics, behaviours, attitudes and triggers to engage them.
Blended data
Across the board, it’s fair to say the value of mass media and mass marketing has diminished; meanwhile in difficult times competition for the share of wallet across all business segments is stronger than ever. This is where blended data has a powerful role to play. Using consumer information on the small business owner, blended with the attributes that describe the business, gives the B2B marketer a more thorough view of the needs, behaviours and attitudes that will drive a response.
But what does this blended approach actually mean and how does it differ from a more traditional approach? The businesses themselves may not be the most sophisticated, but to successfully penetrate the microbusiness category, a traditional business-centric approach is not sophisticated enough. Traditionally B2B marketing campaigns have been targeted on core criteria such as Standard Industry Classification (SIC) code, employee size, sales size, geographic region, business credit risk or by key contact. These standard business characteristics, while important to understand the business, are too superficial and high level when targeting the microbusiness segment as they do not capture the information that personalises and drives small-business owners; such as their lifestyle, tastes and habits. But having this perspective is essential if marketing messages and product offerings are to be accurately targeted and have maximum impact.
Within this segment, business owners are the decision-makers and their consumer influence on business purchases and decisions cannot be overlooked. For example, there are many microbusiness owners that have financed their business using their own consumer credit or personal bank funds. Or what about those who set up a business doing what they love, whether photography or designing birthday cards? The growth of their business helps to further the work they love and their attitudes and interests are a direct reflection of their business.
In such instances what the marketer needs to do is take traditional criteria, such as SIC code, then append behavioural and attitudinal profiles using a B2B segmentation solution to really bring the business and the small business owner into focus.
Using this technique, it’s evident that what might be thought of as quite similar industries actually have distinct differences.
With such information, marketers can learn much more about the business segment they are targeting and so target them more effectively. But it’s essentially a first step to really driving relevance from a micro-marketing campaign and there are a number of additional pointers to bear in mind. These are:
Are you addressing the most responsive audience with your offers?
Are you communicating the right messages and offers?
Which channel is your audience most receptive to direct mail, email, telemarketing or mobile communications?
Are you reaching your prospects at the appropriate time of day?
Segmenting the audience
To be profitable in these challenging economic times, marketers must find new ways of making their messages stand out to small businesses. Marketing strategies need to move beyond firm-focussed segmentation to engage directly with microbusiness owners.
A winning formula for reaching the microbusiness segment incorporates a sophisticated household segmentation system and comprehensive contact strategy along with business targeting. By using behavioural segmentation of microbusiness owners along with B2B targeted marketing lists, marketers can match their offers to owners’ needs, making campaigns more relevant.
With nearly pinpoint accuracy, marketers can determine who their best prospects are by knowing how they will respond to an offer, exactly where they live and the best method and time to contact them.
