Now is the right time for SMBs to take their marketing to the next level
by Francesca Noli | Director, Product Management
I am always interested in understanding Small and Midsize Business (SMBs) and help them compete in today’s market and differentiate their products and services from their competitors.
There was a good article last month on destinationCRM.com (http://www.destinationcrm.com/articles/default.asp?ArticleID=7232) that focused on SMBs(Small and Midsize Businesses) and how they can take their marketing strategies to the next step.
In the article, the reporter states that “With the rise of on-demand services, marketing solutions have become significantly more accessible both financially and technologically”. SMBs have different priorities than their bigger competitors. Key benefits for SMBs include a short time to market as they don’t have the budget and the resources to work on an extended implementation. SMBs typically want to aggregate their marketing database with their email program, promotion management and reporting/analytics as they don’t usually have the resources, time and money to have a separate analytics solution. When creating a product that empowers SMBs the key goal must be to keep it simple to use and manage while providing the flexibility that SMBs need. Loyalty Lab delivers loyalty management, promotion/offer management, refer a friend, email, reminders, dynamic content, reporting, and support all in one place and our organization supports clients through the learning course associated with designing and launching a self-maintaining loyalty program and/or an email marketing program. Finally, the article makes another interesting point: “When companies begin to think about CRM, they tend to immediately turn to sales force automation (SFA). While it is beneficial to automate the routine sales activities of a business, SMBs might want to consider an alternative early on: turning to marketing automation instead.” And “SMBs can see great return on investment from a marketing automation initiative compared to one involving SFA — and it’s often much easier to execute. (There’s also less of a participation hurdle: Because the benefits of marketing automation tend to be more readily visible, marketing staffers are often more willing to adopt the technology than salespeople are.)”
Well said.
