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RSSBut my perspective changed over the past year after joining my latest startup. I moved out of my comfort zone because I wanted to grow, and I saw a great opportunity. Yes, I'm still tactically focused on marketing another small, early-stage company. But my strategic and intellectual focus now is centered squarely on the issues of smaller advertisers. Specifically, my company has a Web solution to make online advertising simple and profitable for small to midsized advertisers.
What have I learned? "Small to medium" is actually huge.
For example, I became acutely aware that half of the online advertising market is comprised of small and midsized businesses. The advertising trade press tends to cover the mega brands most -- the head of the tail, not the torso nor the long tail. However, digital innovations are having just as profound an impact on the lower to mid foundation. It's exciting and there's incredible disruption and innovation going on.
I am now more aware of the diversity of savvy businesses that make our economy go round, and support half of all online advertising. I've seen Santa Claus training schools, blood-warming device manufacturers, retailers of exotic strollers, and hunting-license-examination prep courses. I learn of new types of businesses every day.
I also became more conscious of how much advertising is taking place not only electronically, but via personal credit cards. I always knew it was huge, but I never really embraced how a majority of revenues at one of the world's most valuable media companies (Google) are processed: via hundreds of thousands of credit card transactions each month, and growing. But now I'm keenly aware of how that trend is enabling many small, nimble businesses to turn the dial up or down at lightning speed, depending on performance. As a result, the little guys are really the ones pioneering the way most advertising will eventually be managed.
I've also become more aware of the great significance of local online advertising. It's complex, but a sizable and growing opportunity. When you work in the big-brand world of national advertising, it's easy to forget that a lot of business-customer interaction happens in person, in your own neighborhood. Digital is steadily transforming the way businesses think about local.
Finally, and perhaps initially counterintuitive, I learned that small and midsized businesses have some of the best marketing and advertising professionals in the world. The brightest minds are certainly not all working in large advertisers or agencies. Far from it! In fact, I'm beginning to believe there is more marketing and advertising accountability inside small and midsized businesses versus the average mega advertiser.
Why? There are several probable reasons: First, the people doing the marketing in smaller businesses often are sharp, agile entrepreneurs with high stakes. Second, by definition, smaller businesses have less bureaucracy and more defined line accountability. Smaller businesses often are leaner and feel a direct connection between a dollar of revenue and a dollar to keep the lights on. Managers at small businesses often have to get their hands dirty, and that creates greater visibility and intuition over what's working and what's not. Not surprisingly, these factors prompt smaller and midsized businesses to lean toward performance-based marketing programs.
What I've learned more than anything else: All that is great is not necessarily big.
RSS FEEDS
I didn't mean to exclude the effort employees of a small business that are not "principals" -in some cases there may not be a significant difference. However, the fewer the employees of a business the more the activities of the business reflect the energy and attitude of one or two people- even Google was Sergey and Larry at one point, right?
Small business certainly can excel at performance-based (and I think we’re really saying measurable) marketing efforts. I think a sound metrics plan (web as well as internal business metrics) are an invaluable part of running a business at any level.
However, the opportunity to extend the face of the business into the online realm is what I see as truly powerful and distinct from those easily-measurable solutions. Investing in daily blog posts and maintaining a Twitter presence, for example, seem more like the analogue of the offline activities which stem from the heart and soul of small business. The energy of entrepreneurs and hungry, helpful sales and customer service staff don’t translate very well to display advertising or search marketing campaigns- they're not personal.
Small business people know their clients and invest in those relationships in a way that large businesses usually don’t. So I think the lesson for larger firms is to try to get some of that energy back. Enthusiastic and empowered sales staff and customer service reps are rare. When such employees feel like small business owners, they deliver great service and retain customers. C-level business executives (principals) shouldn’t miss the opportunity to lead the way in creating a public and human face for their company.
-Ben
What can big companies learn from this?
Extraordinary personal relationships are critical to the operation of many small businesses. I wonder, how can the experience of a personal contact, the friendly face, the person who knows you, be extended online? Imagine a device supplier who followed his sales leads on Twitter, creating a community of customers and partners that also allows him to reach out to specific people at just the right time? Creating a useful blog just for your industry, a resource that leverages the energy of your customers and brings in new ones, is another example.
The art of the personal connection isn't going anywhere, but I worry that a focus on performance marketing ROI might lose the message in the medium.
Ben