Small Business Digital Usage on the Rise

Want to know what U.S. small business owners are most apt to purchase for their business over the next 12 months? A study conducted this month by business-to-small business (B2SB) marketing agency Cargo found that the following are top areas of planned increased spending:

Business Development: 40.7%
Office Equipment/Supplies: 30.7%
Employee Recruitment: 28.7%
Marketing/PR/Ad: 28%
Computer Services/IT: 27.3%
Travel: 26%
Telephone/Internet Services: 24.7%
Employee Training: 24.7%

Brand marketers in these categories and others can learn much more from Cargo’s B-Side Study, particularly as it relates to attracting and retaining small business customers. One significant finding is the big jump in social media usage that has occurred over the past six months among small business owners (SBOs). Cargo’s study shows a 16 percent rise since last spring in the number of small businesses utilizing social media for business-related purposes (64% today vs. 48% in spring). The platforms with the most small business engagement are:

Facebook: 74%
Twitter: 45.8%
Tagging (Google Plus): 39.6%
YouTube: 34.4%
Couponing (Groupon/Living Social): 31%

The amount of time SBOs spend online for their business has also increased substantially since Cargo’s last study was conducted in April. Nearly 55 percent of SBOs spend three or more hours online each day for business-related matters, a 28 percent increase. And if you really want to know when to catch them, Mondays between 9:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. is the highest day part of the week for all small business Internet usage.

It’s not just social media and search that’s being utilized, however. Email is widely preferred as a method for SBOs to learn about product and service offerings, as well as to receive communications immediately following the purchase.

“The main thing brand marketers need to adhere to,” says Cargo Managing Director Dan Gliatta, “is relevance. Ensure your communications are directed specifically at the small business you’re targeting and you’ll instantly gain the respect of the overworked and often under-valued small business owner.”

Customer Relationship Management tools are a great way to manage this effort, according to Gliatta. “CRM tools make it easy to personalize content and to provide information at a time and place the SBO needs it,” he says.

Cargo’s Fall 2014 B-Side Study also found that more SBOs are making purchase decisions more quickly than just six months ago. Seventeen percent of respondents to the current study say they make a purchasing decision within one week, while last spring only 11.3 percent said they made a decision that quickly. However, more brands are being considered, too: 57.4% say they consider 3 or more brands during their search.

Once a purchase is made, 52.7% of SBOs say email is the preferred method for follow-up. And what do they want?
– News and updates: 28.7%
– Satisfaction requests: 18.7%
– Customer support info: 16%

“Brand marketers targeting small businesses as customers often make the mistake of approaching them the same way they would a traditional B2B customer,” explains Gliatta. “Unfortunately, that’s not a wise approach because it tends to involve hard selling rather than listening and offering practical solutions for the individual business. It’s a different strategic approach but it can be done incredibly successfully,” he says.

To download a full report of the Fall 2014 U.S. B-Side Marketing Project, visit thecargoagency.com.