The small business market represents a large – and largely untapped – opportunity for brands, but marketers continue to struggle when it comes to winning the hearts and minds of small business customers. Find out what our joint study with Imperial College London uncovered about small business owners.…
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It was exactly a year ago this week that I realised I couldn’t drive. Sure, I’d passed my driving test 13 years earlier, but when I turned the key in my hired Skoda, it quickly became obvious to me that I was in fact still unable to drive. A mere 30 seconds after picking up Claudia, a film producer who was joining me on an 800 mile trip around the UK, I had stalled trying to drive up the small…
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Targeting small businesses? Then tread carefully, because they’re a whole different animal. We’ve produced a guide to help you navigate the small-business minefield.…
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Tight for time? Then this checklist is for you – how to build stronger rapports with small business owners, in ten bite-size chunks. Look beyond firmographicsDon’t forget the human stuff when segmenting. Try psychographics, which look at buyers’ emotional drivers Go visit peopleFace-to-face meetings build stronger connections than phone calls and emails ever can. Stop selling, start helpingSmall business owners feel swamped. Help solve their problems and the sales will follow. Support networking eventsOffer a space to meet. Run workshops.…
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We met with Tony Snaith, founder and CEO of Communicate PLC, at the company’s new offices in a business park just outside Middlesbrough. Tony has a clearly-defined direction for his business, which is something he believes is vitally important for all small businesses, but he feels that a gradual loss of direction is holding many small businesses back once they start to grow: “Do you know what amazes me? Every single person writes a business plan either to take to…
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The nod Do you know The Nod? You know The Nod. Let me give you a quick example of The Nod in practice. My Dad has just bought himself a riverboat, and a few weeks ago took me on my first trip down The Thames. As I sat on the front soaking up the sunshine, I noticed the same thing happening every time another boat passed – the driver would lock eyes and then give The Nod; a subtle, respectful, bow of the head. The…
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You’re in the right place. Think Small is the B2B insights hub with everything you need to win the hearts and minds of small business customers.…
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If you didn’t know any better, you might think marketing to small businesses was pretty much like marketing to big businesses, but in miniature. A sort of bonsai marketing. Trimming bits off. Tiny scissors. But no. In fact, you need to do the exact opposite. You need to supersize many aspects of your efforts. Go big or go home. At least that’s what we found out in our Think Small road trip. We recently invited some other curious marketers to talk…
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Small business purchase journeys can be quite different from their enterprise counterparts Moving prospects along the awareness-research-purchase journey is bread and butter to marketers, but when the prospect is an SME, things just aren’t that simple. If they were, 90% of brands wouldn’t be struggling right now to connect with small business decision-makers. At some point on the journey, something just isn’t landing. Probably because the marketing was conceived with corporates in mind and, unsurprisingly, SMEs don’t think or act like big corporates.…
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Firmographics are used by many B2B marketers to segment their prospects, but these don’t allow for the individual characteristics of SMEs to be taken into account. It’s time for a different approach. The good news is that, according to Circle Research, 91% of B2B marketers segment their market. The not-so-good news, though, is that 81% of them rely on firmographics. Not so good because firmographics are the business equivalent of demographics. They lump small businesses together by size, location and…
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