Last month I alerted you to a global survey of small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs), which the Americans refer to as Small-to-Medium Businesses (SMBs) conducted by IvyWorldwide.
Top-level findings are as follows:
- Search is first consideration for SMB buyers: When building a criteria for a technology purchases, they largely start with search (49%)
- SMBs lean heavily on word-of-mouth referral such as third-party reviews (35%) or blogs and forums (34%)
- SMBs act like value-conscious consumers when buying technology: Price (33%) and third-party referral (25%) strongly influence decisions; in addition, a significant quantity (18%) focus on potential dual-utility for both business and personal use
- Traditional media, Twitter and Facebook not a factor in purchases: SMBs use traditional media (9%) and Twitter/Facebook (5%) minimally when making buying decisions
- 70% tend to purchase online
- Large companies miss the mark when marketing to SMBs: 75% feel they’re not effectively marketed to by the companies that target them
- * Most SMB purchasers do not have a specific technology brand in mind when seeking information
Click here to download the survey in PDF format.