Digital Marketing - Capturing The Local SMB Market

Around 99.7 percent of all employer firms in the United States are small or medium businesses (SMBs). While these businesses account for about 23.6 percent of expenditure on local advertising, they account for only 14.1 percent of total online ad spends. As of now, no Internet major has been able to capture a significant share of the small and medium business market, even though they have launched many attractive digital marketing schemes for local businesses.

A few decades ago, media analysts believed that companies publishing newspapers and Yellow Pages would be the ones who would have the advantage when it came to digital media, because of their trusted relationships with local sales forces. Then again, these sales forces have lost their credibility with SMBs, mainly because of their penchant for pushing expensive traditional advertising products (radio and television spots) at the cost of lower-priced digital marketing options.

Google was one of the first companies which tried to attract the interest of local businesses with its AdWords digital marketing product. Even though Google earned over $30 billion in revenue, it managed to convert only around 1.1 million local businesses, or 4 percent of the SMB market. While some of Google's digital marketing programmes like Authorized Google Resellers and Google Local Ad Partners have managed to permeate the market, they have displayed churn rates of above 50 percent.

This means that even Google, with its massive digital marketing resources, has not found the answer to penetrating the SMB advertising market. Google has also been unable to properly manage structural data, such as names and contact information of SMBs. This slowed down the sales of small and medium businesses, and made them feel like Google is not an efficient digital marketing investment. Facebook soon entered the fray, giving local businesses a digital marketing product which was more easy to use.

At the same time, daily deal sites like Groupon, and check-in services like Foursquare also began looking for a slice of the SMB digital marketing pie. However, as these sites offer features that can be easily assimilated by the more powerful Internet giants, they are not considered very significant. If Facebook or Google really wants to attract SMBs, they need to provide them with a simple lead generation and customer relationship platform, which can be bought both online as well as at local offices.

Qudos Digital is a leading digital marketing agency and can be contacted on 020 8891 2077 or info@qudosdigital.co.uk.

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