Ignoring SMB Marketing Shows B2B Marketers are Clueless
Small businesses are the backbone of the American economy, making up 44 percent of the US GDP and employing nearly half the country’s workforce. Yet, SMB marketing remains a blind spot in the world of B2B marketers.
According to a joint survey by Intuit and eMarketer, 53.1 percent of marketers admit that targeting SMBs is still an untapped business opportunity. That’s despite a growing realization that these companies are nimble, digitally curious, and open to innovation.
So what’s stopping marketers from diving headfirst into this massive and eager segment? And what are they losing by staying on the sidelines?
The core problem is SMB marketing, and businesses get sidelined
Despite the potential, many marketers are hesitant. The numbers speak for themselves. About 14.3 percent of marketers don’t target SMBs at all. Another 38.6 percent allocate only 30 percent or less of their budgets to them. That’s a startling underinvestment in a sector that makes up almost all US businesses.
Kelsey Voss, Principal Analyst, eMarketer, captures the challenge clearly:
“SMBs are harder to reach at scale—they have diverse needs, smaller budgets, and faster buying cycles. Many marketers also lack the data and tools to target them efficiently, which makes performance harder to measure.”
One of the biggest issues is sheer scale.
The US Small Business Administration reports there are 34.8 million small businesses across the country. That’s a massive and fragmented audience to reach effectively.
Marketers also cite the diversity of the SMB market as a barrier. About 36.6 percent said they struggle to meet varying needs and priorities across sectors and regions. On top of that, 27.6 percent find it hard to identify and reach the actual decision-makers inside these smaller businesses.
These two make SMB targeting a logistical puzzle.
Unlike enterprise accounts, where buying committees are more predictable, SMBs are often run by owners or small teams wearing multiple hats. That means marketing efforts require not just personalization but surgical precision.
And with limited budgets and lean teams, many marketers default to targeting enterprise buyers where the pathways are clearer and return on effort appears more predictable.
The hidden cost of ignoring SMBs
The consequence of ignoring SMBs is more than lost revenue. It’s a missed opportunity for building long-term loyalty and diversifying audience reach.
As Voss points out, “While individual deal sizes may be smaller, the opportunity adds up. Marketers who build credibility early can earn long-term loyalty.”
The data supports this.
Among marketers who have invested in SMB campaigns, many are seeing positive outcomes. About 44.5 percent of marketers who plan to increase their SMB-targeted campaigns this year cite growing demand from small businesses as the primary reason.
Another 28.1 percent pointed to positive ROI and conversion rates from previous SMB marketing efforts. And 33.5 percent said expanding to SMBs helped them unlock a new audience.
So why do B2B marketers still hesitate? One common reason is the perception that the cost of acquiring SMB customers doesn’t justify their lifetime value.
In fact, 34.7 percent of marketers agree that the acquisition cost can feel disproportionate.
But this logic overlooks the repeat purchase potential and referral power that SMBs often bring, especially when brand trust is established early. What are the solutions?
Solution 1: Dedicated SMB marketing strategies, not afterthoughts
One of the biggest missteps marketers make is treating SMBs as an afterthought, tagging them onto broader enterprise strategies.
Dave Raggio, vice president of Intuit SMB MediaLabs, sees this often. “Oftentimes, the SMB strategy is just an extension of a larger strategy or an afterthought. But with small businesses making up almost half of the US GDP, they are a massive opportunity, and now one that can be targeted directly and more efficiently.”
To win SMBs, marketers need to reimagine their messaging and how they position products.
About 55.9 percent of marketers say they talk to SMBs like a business rather than a consumer, which is encouraging.
Raggio explains it best through a simple analogy.
In the CPG world, a detergent brand may pitch a consumer on how it makes whites whiter. But for an SMB owner, the value may lie in space-saving concentrate formats that are easier to transport. It’s the same product, but the value proposition must shift to align with operational needs.
Marketers must adjust the messaging tone and value framing to resonate with small businesses. That includes simplifying the sales funnel, offering flexible pricing, and highlighting business utility over general appeal.
Solution 2: First-party data and retail media to the rescue
One of the most promising solutions for cracking the SMB marketing code lies in the growing field of retail media. Yet, it remains underutilized.
While 59.6 percent of marketers use social media and 59.1 percent use email to reach SMBs, only 17.2 percent are tapping into retail media networks.
This is a missed opportunity. Retail media uses first-party data and real-time behavior insights to deliver highly targeted ads at purchase. It’s already showing results in sectors like consumer electronics, where 73.3 percent of brands report using retail media networks to reach SMBs. That’s 34 percentage points above the survey average.
According to Raggio, the key to making commerce media work is the quality and specificity of the data.
“The big challenge in brands leveraging commerce media for small businesses is that so many offerings have SMB targeting mixed within a much larger consumer data set, making them hard to tease out.”
Retail media networks help marketers target by business size, age, industry, and region. They can advertise directly on platforms SMBs already use for operations, like QuickBooks, Shopify, or Square.
The proximity to purchasing behavior makes campaigns not only more relevant but also easier to attribute. That solves two of marketers’ biggest problems: finding the right SMBs and proving ROI.
Time to think small for big returns
The numbers, logic, and tools are all pointing in one direction. It’s time to take small businesses seriously. The reasons for hesitation are scale, fragmentation, and difficulty in personalization, which can now be solved through dedicated strategies and smarter use of data.
As Kelsey Voss puts it, the traditional B2B playbook won’t work for SMBs. “Most B2B marketers follow the same playbook they use for enterprise, long-form content, gated assets, and slow nurture tracks. But SMBs don’t buy that way. They want clarity, speed, and a clear reason to act.”
Cut to the chase
SMBs represent a massive, still-underutilized B2B audience. They are fast-moving, digitally native, and open to new ideas. SMB marketing needs an overhaul as it can unlock a powerful source of long-term growth.
