Pulse 2 v4 part 2

SEVEN SMB
PURCHASING TRENDS
FOR 2014

CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - PG. 2
©Business.com Media Inc. All Rights Reserved - Contact Us 888.441.44661
TREND 1: ONLINE MARKETING THRIVES, CONTENT MARKETING LEADS - PG. 4
TREND 6: LAYING DOWN A SOLID FOUNDATION TELECOM & IT INFRASTRUCTURE - PG. 10
TREND 4: TRANSACTIONS AND MOBILE PAYMENTS - PG. 8
OUR BOTTOM LINE - PG. 12
TREND 3: MOBILE TECHNOLOGY CONTINUES TO BE PERPLEXING - PG. 7
TREND 5: EMBRACING THE CLOUD AT A QUICKENING PACE - PG. 9
TREND 7: OVERCOMING OBSTACLES TO CASH FLOW - PG. 11
TREND 2: DIRECT MAIL MAY BE ON THE VERGE OF BEING FORGOTTEN, BUT IT’S NOT QUITE GONE. - PG. 6
METHODOLOGY - PG. 3

EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY•
In today’s digital age, business-to-business (B2B) buyers have
the ability to investigate and research sources wholly before
making a purchase decision. The meteoric expansion of the
tablet and smartphone market has driven marketers to revamp
their approach to reaching clients and customers. Challenges
in creating an effective online marketing strategy and a more
wireless workspace have influenced the purchasing habits of
many small-to-medium sized business (SMB) owners.
As technology advances and products emerge, complexity
enters the marketplace and purchasing behavior changes.
In a B2B marketplace that is in continual fluctuation, it’s
difficult to predict your buyer’s next move without bluntly
asking. This report aims to do that for you.
In this report, we’ll take a deep dive into SMB’s beliefs,
purchasing habits and budget forecasts in regards to seven
developing trends.
Some key highlights include:
29% of SMBs interested in loans, also interested in
web design services
70% of marketing budgets going to digital by 2015
29% of SMBs looking for phone systems, also wanted
call center software
This report reveals these purchasing highlights along with
actionable conclusions that will aid B2B marketers in reaching
market ready leads.

METHODOLOGY
The data for this report was derived from sampling and
investigating the purchasing behaviors of U.S. companies in
the SMB market (defined as 50 or fewer employees). The study
was conducted during the 3rd quarter of 2013 among the
small businesses that turn to Business.com to discover,
compare and purchase the products and services they need to
run and grow their companies.
We took a close look at the prevailing purchasing habits of
small businesses and examined the underlying patterns that
help inform B2B marketers when developing a strategy for
offering products and services.
We also gathered data from third-parties, such as the Pew
Research Center, Gartner and Forrester, to further validate our
findings. Throughout the report, we’ll feature our survey
results, as well as expert insights from third-parties, followed
by our expert insights and tips.
Disclaimer: This research report has been provided for your
use. The charts and graphics may be copied to your own
strategy planning and presentation materials, blog content and
social media posts; credited as published.

Without question, online marketing has become one of the
most influential channels for SMBs. After finding 29 percent of
SMBs are looking for small business loans to invest in web
design, we looked at what cross-sell categories were
associated with this group of buyers.
We discovered nearly three-quarters of those individuals
researched were aiming to purchase online marketing services
as well. These services can range from search engine
optimization (SEO) to directory listings, paid search
management, social media management and ecommerce
solutions.
“The Bredin Report” claims that online marketing budgets are
growing at a staggering rate. Nearly half - 49 percent - of SMB
marketing budgets were forecasted to be spent online in 2013.
At the same time, 65 percent of marketers anticipate their
online budgets will increase.
Money is flowing toward this resource, with 70 percent of
marketing budgets going to digital or online media by 20151
,
as the portion of costs allocated for traditional media
continues to stagnate or fall.
ONLINE
MARKETING
THRIVES,
CONTENT
MARKETING
LEADS
THOSE LOOKING FOR SMALL
BUSINESS LOANS ARE ALSO INTERESTED IN...
1 http://www.biakelsey.com/Company/Press-Releases/110830-Digital-
Advertising,-Performance-and-Retention-Solutions-Will-Be-70-Percent-of-SMB-
Marketing-Budgets-by-2015.asp

It’s clear SMB marketers are moving much of their focus to
online channels and recognize the power of content in
reaching their target audience. In fact, 58 percent of marketers
have plans to increase spending on this tactic2
with video
marketing a priority.
61% of CMOs are creating visually compelling video content
that engages with the customer at every stage of the buying
process.
66-90% of the buying journey is completed before a B2B buyer
ever speaks with a sales rep. Therefore, SMB marketers must
engage buyers at every stage of the purchasing process, and
advise allocating a portion of your marketing budget to
creating fresh content like whitepapers, eBooks, infographics,
and especially video on a regular basis.
To learn more about video marketing, read more on Why B2B
Marketers Should Incorporate Video Content to the Mix.
SMB ONLINE
MARKETING SPEND
3%
6%
11%
12%
16%
16%
18%
18%
Search marketing
Display ads
Site development
Social media
Mobile marketing
Email
Content
Other
3 http://www.bredin.com/bredinreport/092012SE.html
3
5

Seven percent of Business.com customers looking for web
design or online marketing vendors were also interested in
direct mail services.
SMBs are still setting aside a portion of their budgets for
direct mail marketing. In fact, marketers will spend 25 percent
of their offline marketing budgets on direct mail this year.4
For additional information on how SMBs are utilizing direct
mail to reach their target audience, download our Direct Mail
Checklist for Startups.
DIRECT MAIL MAY
BE ON THE VERGE
OF BEING
FORGOTTEN,
BUT IT’S NOT
QUITE GONE.
THOSE LOOKING FOR WEB DESIGN
AND ONLINE MARKETING ALSO INTERESTED IN...
7% of SMBs
want direct
mail
6
Tweet This Stat

MOBILE
TECHNOLOGY
CONTINUES TO BE
PERPLEXING
6 http://sherpablog.marketingsherpa.com/marketing/2013-smb-marketing/
5 http://www.biakelsey.com/webinars/Local-Ad-Dollars-2013-What-Business-Categories-are-Spending-and-Where.pdf
The growth of mobile devices has paved the way for a variety
of alterations to the way businesses operate, but marketers
have had an increasingly difficult time adapting.
Among the small businesses coming to our site with online
marketing interests, 24% of decision makers were also
concerned with purchasing mobile marketing services.
In 2012, only 0.9 percent of the $132.5 billion in local media
profits was drawn from mobile.5
On the other hand, direct mail
generated 27 percent of that lump sum.
While our belief is that mobile marketing is on the rise, much
of the recent research indicates businesses are having a hard
time understanding the role of this technology in their existing
marketing strategies, especially in the SMB market. In a 2012
survey MarketingSherpa indicated only 6 percent of SMBs had
a good idea of how much their customers use mobile devices
and interpret that data to guide policy.6
The priority for many SMBs will be to understand how to effec-
tively interact with other businesses and consumer with mobile
devices. We’re seeing the mobile-friendly CEO make purchas-
ing decisions on mobile devices, yet remaining weary of adopt-
ing similar mobile marketing strategies.
THOSE LOOKING FOR WEB DESIGN AND
ONLINE MARKETING ALSO INTERESTED IN...
24% OF SMBS
WANT MOBILE
SERVICES
7

TRANSACTIONS
AND MOBILE
PAYMENTS
Businesses see increased traffic and revenue when they accept
credit cards as a form of online or in-store payment and new
technologies are making it more affordable to include credit
card payments. With 15 million small businesses missing out on
a potential $100 billion in sales annually, SMBs are starting to
invest in payment processing technology to avoid unrecog-
nized revenue.7
More than one-third of small-to-midsize businesses interested
in payment processing services are using credit card process-
ing to support online conversions as well as phone-based
transactions.
Of those searching Business.com for products, 34
percent of SMB owners were interested in credit card
processing services to support e-commerce develop-
ment in addition to point of sale systems for
brick-and-mortar locations.
Mobile Payments
Long gone are the days when businesses only accept cash.
However, buyers still are hesitant to use their mobile devices
exclusively to complete purchases.
Only six percent of all smartphone users have made a payment
using their mobile devices to complete the purchase at a
company’s POS, according to the Federal Reserve Bank’s
“Consumers and Mobile Financial Services 2013” study. (But
there is a growing curiosity.) In fact, twenty-two percent of
smartphone owners expressed interest in using their mobile
device to purchase products or services.
7 http://about.intuit.com/about_intuit/press_room/press_release/2012/getbusiness.html
Worldwide mobile payments
(Transaction value in billions of dollars)
$25.6
$58.9
$105.9
$171.5
$255.8
Transaction value
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
$352.72014
8

EMBRACING THE
CLOUD AT A
QUICKENING PACE
8 http://www.spiceworks.com/news/press-release/2013/05-29
9 http://www.parallels.com/news/id_32363
Information technology has undergone a dramatic shift in the
previous year and a growing number of companies are starting
to seek out cloud computing services to create a flexible,
affordable and sustainable working environment.
In fact, sixty-one percent of more than one thousand SMB IT
professionals surveyed in a Spiceworks study said they use at
least one cloud service.8
What’s more, smaller organizations - those with twenty or
fewer employees - are more likely to deploy cloud services like
iCloud, OpenDrive and Dropbox. Within these representative
firms, businesses spend (19 percent) of their budgets on cloud
computing services. Surprisingly, this is double what
companies with twenty to one thousand employees spend.
Meanwhile, the annual expenses associated with cloud
computing costs continue to increase. A recent Parallels’ SMB
Cloud Insights report found the current SMB cloud market of
$18.9 billion is projected to grow at a nineteen percent CAGR
through 2015.
The main driver for spending on cloud computing is software
as a service (SaaS) applications, seeing sixty percent growth in
2012.9
In this market, increased storage is an appealing option
for many SMBs. Half of SMBs said they would be willing to pay
more for a larger amount of storage space.
For more on the implementation of business intelligence tools
among SMBs who also utilize the cloud, download our
Business Intelligence Survival Guide.
CLOUD COMPUTING BUDGETS
Less than 20
employees
20–1,000
employees
19% 11%
9
Tweet This Stat

LAYING DOWN
A SOLID
FOUNDATION
TELECOM & IT
INFRASTRUCTURE
IT and technology budgets grew by nineteen percent during
the first half of 2013.10
In the same sphere, SMB owners are
investing in a more sophisticated infrastructure.
Of those businesses who came to our site to
purchase a phone system, 29 percent also have call
center software in mind.
Pay-per-call lead generation has afforded many enterprises a
cost-effective means to develop leads.
In fact, recent BIA/Kelsey research demonstrates more than 60
percent of advertisers consider a telephone call from a
potential customer to be the most important kind of lead.11
This may help explain why many small business owners are
investing in telecommunications hardware.
We’re also seeing a general trend among businesses initially
coming to us for advice in other areas. We found that of our
SMB buyers turning to us with small business loan interests, 12
percent also have a need to upgrade their phone systems.
With SMBs allocating budgets to purchase more sophisticated
systems, the role of platform for communication and fostering
lead generation shouldn’t be ignored.
At the same time, the rise of Voice over Internet Protocol
(VoIP) is influencing the way businesses communicate. The
digital revolution has caused traditional phone systems to
evolve as VoIP technology provides businesses with high
quality and cost-effective telecommunications systems at a low
cost.
The market for this resource has expanded rapidly. According
to a 2012 Infonetics Research study, the number of small office
and residential VoIP subscribers grew by fourteen percent in
2011, reaching one hundred seventy-eight million users around
the world.12
10 http://itreports.spiceworks.com/reports/spiceworks_voice_of_it_state_of_smb_2013_1h.pdf
11 BIA/Kelsey Report, “Unlocking the Value of Phone Conversions: Why Basic Call Tracking Fails the Local Marketer” (2013)
12 http://www.infonetics.com/pr/2012/VoIP-UC-Services-Market-Forecast-and-SIP-Trunking-Survey-Highlights.asp
10

OVERCOMING
OBSTACLES TO
CASH FLOW
13 http://www.nsba.biz/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Access-to-Capital-Survey.pdf
Needing financial backing isn’t a novel necessity among small
business owners, however raising capital and acquiring a line
of credit to support expansion is causing some grief.
We found that fourteen percent of SMBs expressed a desire to
increase their cash flow with merchant cash advances (MCA), as a
result of increased dependence on credit and debit transactions.
This is compared to only two percent who were interested in small
business loans for increased cash flow.
Merchant cash advances (MCA) are a good way for SMBs to
increase cash flow fast. MCA providers take a percentage from
the revenue a business earns through a credit transaction to
earn back the initial financial disbursement.
A recent survey reflects many of the challenges SMBs face
when trying to get access to this funding. Forty-three percent
of small businesses depended on a revolving line of credit
from a bank or credit institution over a twelve -month period
for quick cash flow.13
As more SMBs gain confidence to expand their operations, the
need for capital on hand will grow. Using business profits as a
method of financing a company involves significant risk, which
may help explain why many businesses are looking for
alternative sources of cash flow.
To discover more ways SMBs are searching for funding,
download our report on small business cash flow trends.
THOSE LOOKING FOR CC PROCESSING ALSO LOOKING FOR CASH FLOW OPTIONS...
11
Tweet This Stat

OUR
BOTTOM LINE
With technology evolving quarter after quarter, it’s
exceedingly important for marketers to understand the current
and future strategies of small and mid-sized businesses to
avoid losing sales ready leads. B2B marketers and sales reps
are presented with significant challenges stemming from
ever-changing technology and are seeking answers using the
problem as a potential solution.
The bottom line is that many companies are interested in
purchasing products and services that will enable them to
better meet the needs of consumers and clients. They’ve
already begun their buyer’s journey and were willing to share
with us purchases they are looking to make in the near future.
They’re quickly embracing new forms of technology but are
still hesitant in certain areas.
Meet the business decision maker half-way. They’ve worked
hard to increase cash flow and are being careful where to
allocate their tight budgets by researching and investigating
businesses before making any moves.
Whether they’re looking to purchase credit card processing,
cloud computing services, or merchant cash advances, find
your buyer before they make their next move.
If you’re interested in finding out more about small business
purchasing habits or want to generate a marketing strategy
using this information, visit: business.com/info/advertise
Business.com is dedicated
to helping people grow
their businesses.
This is why over 30 million buyers, from small to medium-sized
businesses turn to Business.com to discover, compare, and
purchase the products and services they need to run and grow
their businesses.
It’s also why over 10,000 advertisers use Business.com to reach
these valuable buyers, generating well over $1.5 billion in
incremental annual revenues.
To assist with lead nurturing, Business.com provides
benchmark reports to our advertisers allowing them to see how
their follow up process compares to like competitors.
The Business.com Small Business Pulse delivers timely data &
analysis for marketers looking to reach the small to
medium-sized business market.

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