Help me, don't sell to me - how to win hearts & minds with SMEs

Help me, don’t sell to me
How to win hearts & minds – and drive ROI – with SMEs

SMEs offer a huge opportunity
SMEs vs Large enterprises
Number of enterprises in the EU (%)
0.2%
99.8%
99.8% of all EU
businesses are SMEs
133 million employees
across the EU
£1.8 trillion revenue
in UK alone
SMEs
Large enterprises
Source: Eurostat
© Earnest (London) Ltd 2016
www.earnest-agency.com

There’s no surprise that blue chips want a piece of the action
70% of marketers believe
the SME market is
extremely important
to their business
38% say they will
aggressively boost
their SME marketing
investments
Two out of three big business
brands are planning to
increase their focus and
investment in engaging SMEs
Source: CMO Council, 2015 Survey

But there are three BIG
challenges to overcome
1
Hard to
define audience
2
Expensive
to reach
3
Difficult to
speak to

Challenge #1: It’s an extremely hard to define audience
Who is the decision-maker
and how is the decision made?
It’s tempting to start with job
titles and industries…
Only 8% of marketers
have a complete view of
the SMB customer
9 out of 10 struggle to
identify and connect with
actual small business
decision makers
Source: CMO Council, 2015 Survey

A new way of segmenting
Firmographics & Psychographics
Sets of characteristics to segment
prospect organisations. What
demographics are to people,
firmographics are to organisations
Source: Wikipedia
The study and classification of
people according to their attitudes
and aspirations
Source: Wikipedia

Why Firmographics?
Goes beyond SIC/SOC:
Performance
Status or
structure
Size
Location
Industry

Why Firmographics?
And means we can communicate
to them in a life-stage transition:
Profit
Loss
Start-up
0
Years
Pick-up
Scale-up
Maturing
Strugglers
Grow to a large firm
Exit

Why Psychographics?
Because in business decisions
personal drivers outweigh
business drivers by 2:1.
Google CEB/Motista survey
We must consider both when segmenting:
Explicit
goals
Implicit
goals
Category
specific
Buyer
specific
Driven by the
individual
Driven by the
organisation

The Earnest Goal Matrix
Progress I need to do this
to get ahead
Gain an advantage
over others;
Innovate;
Lead the field
Receive acclaim;
Advance career;
Win awards/accolades
Stay on top;
Maintain status quo;
Be empowered
Need to comply;
Fulfil promises;
Be true to my word
Be secure; Prevent
losses; Avoid threats
Personal discovery;
Learning experience;
Challenge myself;
Helping others
Go-getter
Status seeker
Adventurer
Worrier
Controller
Box-ticker
I need to do this
to look good
I need to do this to
stay in control
I need to do this
because it’s expected
of me
I need to do this
to learn/because
it looks interesting
I need to do this
to avoid losing out/
losing something
Recognition
Stimulation
Avoidance
Control
Obligation
PROMOTION
Implicit goals Primary driver Motivations Persona
PREVENTION

Bringingitalltogether: example personainaction
Name: Jacqueline
Business: Tech consultancy
Job role: Managing Director
How they buy: Online industry
forums. Peer recommendations.
Social and search.
“If I had a solution to help keep track on
my people and their projects – my work/
life would be so much easier”
Firmographics
Lifecycle: Scale-up
Industry
Location
Size
Status
Performance
Psychographics
Persona: Go-getter
Explicit drivers
Implicit drivers
Challenges
Triggers
Technology Help clients. Provide tech recommendations.
Grow the business.
Be valued. Be more than just an IT service
provider.
Time poor. Lacking support and
infrastructure.
A new client win – needing to expand
headcount.
Brighton, UK
Small (25 employees)
Privately owned, self-funded
Growing y-on-y

Challenge #2: SMEs are difficult and expensive to reach
Low average cost per sale
and addressable market size
prevent big awareness push
82% of SMEs say
telemarketing is not
effective
And the old ways just wont cut it…
<1% response rate to
cold data emails
Sources: Circle Research, Fastcompany

We must align to how they research, choose and buy
Awareness
Exploration
Purchase
Delight
Buyer need
What’s my problem?
Who’s in this space?
Who can help me?
Get our message out in
an impactful way
Who’s saying something
interesting and different?
Who’s helping my thinking?
Create interesting content
that inspires and helps a
potential buyer
What do I need to buy?
Do I trust this company?
Be the easiest to buy from.
Overcome any potential
objections
Have I made a good decision?
Does this company care about
my needs?
Continue to reinforce and
demonstrate value across
the relationship. Surprise
& Delight!
Our task

And target them contextually
Jacqueline, MD of IT Consultancy
B2B buyers are
exposed to up to
5,000 marketing
messages per day
Hubspot
Breakfast Travel On the job On the job Travel Home SocialiseLunch break
WoM
OOH OOH

So how can we be the most helpful
brand out there?

Case Example:
HubSpot Website Grader
Click here to grade your site!

Case Example:
Town Square content hub
Click here to check out the site

Case Example:
YouTube Director app
Click here to learn more

In summary: Key principles for planning your campaigns
Base around the
buyer journey –
and be the most
helpful brand around
Go beyond ‘interruptive’
marketing – answer
their needs
Take an iterative
approach – learn from
your data

Challenge #3: Many brands get their tone completely wrong
“I am not an ‘SME’. I am a small, or owner-
managed, or independent, or growing, or
self-employed, or new, or young, or boutique
business. When I go to a party I do not say “Hi,
I’m an SME.” And as for the ‘smee’ word, what is
that all about? I never ever call myself a ‘smee’.
I do not want to be patronised. If people talked
to you the way that corporates speak to small
businesses – you would punch them on the nose.”
Robert Craven, Managing Director, Small Business

An experiment...

Testing: going beyond focus groups
The problem with focus groups:
People adopt a persona
Unconscious ‘herd mentality’
Artificial environment
Eye tracking
EEG (electroencephalography)
Neuro marketing

Case Example:
Hiscox
Click here for full case study

Case Example:
iZettle 12 Hour Store
Click here to watch video

Six key take outs
Segment your audience
through firmographics
& psychographics
Take an iterative approach:
test and learn
Plan your campaign
around the buyer journey
Be wary of testing creative
in focus groups
Be the most helpful brand
out there
Not all small business
owners run flower shops
and hold an ‘OPEN’ sign!
1
4
2
5
3
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@andrew__last
12 Great Titchfield Street,
London W1W 8BZ
Expect the unexpected

Help me, don't sell to me - how to win hearts & minds with SMEs

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Help me, don't sell to me - how to win hearts & minds with SMEs