The SMB Landscape for 2023

There is approximately 300+ million SMBs (small to mid-sized businesses) worldwide. Over 30 million of those businesses operate in the US, with a further 5.5 million in the UK, and 25.1 million in the EU. For the US, UK, and EU, 99% of their business population is in fact SMBs. 

That is a lot of information to take in at once, however, what these stats show is that SMBs are the life force and foundation of the business world.  

These past few years have led to drastic ups and downs within the SMB world, so let us take a deep dive into some hardcore SMB stats, landscape predictions, and changes in 2023. 

SMB Overview 

• Over 500,000 new businesses are started every 30 days globally
• 53% of US sales are generated by SMBS
• Over 1/3 of SMBs now prioritize long-term customer relationships, over adhoc transactions
• 70% of SMBs focus on growth as their primary business objective
• Though the biggest challenge SMBs face is economic uncertainty, 60% of owners believe that the current economic climate is having a positive impact on their business
• In Europe, 23 million SMBs generated 3.9 trillion Euros (over 4.2 trillion Dollars) for the European economy
• Over 50% of SMBs want technology to aid their business objectives and expect technology experts to suggest new solutions which improve their business strategy

The SMB Landscape 

SMB leaders are innovators, risk takers and trend setters. They look towards the future and utilize new tools and strategies to help their businesses grow; implementing some of the methodologies corporate giants use in a much more refined and size appropriate way. 

For this reason, being aware of current SMB landscape changes, consistencies and adaptations should be paramount for any SMB owner or thought leader, especially as a way of seeing the path towards growth and optimal business health.

One of the most significant stats which SMBs should be aware of in 2023, is the growing importance of customer relationships and retention. With an uncertain economy being the most challenging factor for such businesses, prioritizing repeated customer transactions through relationship building and overall customer retention should be a top priority. This is one of the many ways SMBs can maintain a healthy business model during uncertain times.  

“Depending on the industry, the cost of acquiring a new customer can be 7 times the cost of retaining an existing customer.” – Source 

Customer Retention for SMBs

Being proactive, not just reactive, is one of the core pillars for building strong customer relationships and growing client retention. Thought leader and owner of Dynamic Wealth Strategies inc., Adam Tau recently spoke about this issue, highlighting the importance of personalized experiences and communications. In his example, Adam noted the importance of frequent communications with clients that are catered towards their preferred frequency. 

“Some people like an annual review; others like a check-in once a week. Some people find frequent contact annoying, while others fear being forgotten altogether.” – Adam Tau, Forbes Article 

In this instance, a proactive approach towards customer loyalty is shown through awareness, consideration and personalization. For customers to have a positive experience with a company, businesses should strive to proactively ask questions and personalize each customer’s experience. The last thing businesses want are “non-contact” or unsubscribed customers who stopped engaging with your business, because they either felt badgered by or abandoned by your internal teams. 

One of the ways in which SMBs can achieve this level of refined personalization is through Sales and Marketing Automation. As business leaders, expecting your Sales and Marketing personnel to remember each and every individual customer’s preference for the level of contact they prefer is far too much. Instead, Sales and Marketing Automation takes away this stress and can be set to automatically update contacts when they want and through which platform enabling SMB leaders to ensure the right message is being sent at the right time with no ‘stones left unturned’. 

Want to find out more about Sales and Marketing Automation? Click here and request a demo for our latest solution, ClickDimensions Sales Engagement.  

Content and the Customer Experience

Content is more than just eBooks, blogs and social media. It’s a way of connecting with your customers and providing them with the resources they want and need, depending on which stage of the buyer journey they are in. For this reason, content has the honorable and much desired trait of improving business growth.  

“Stats also affirm that Content Marketing costs 62% less than outbound marketing and ensures 3 times more leads.” – Source

It is important to note that for smaller businesses, which perhaps do not yet have access to the funding and tools they need to compete with the big brands, content does not need to involve high-end production. Instead, high quality and viral worthy pieces of content such as case studies, testimonials and more are forged from good customer relationships. Through these positive relationships, you will be able to utilize the high-level insights into your customer base and create content that caters to your specific customer’s needs.  

GE Reports (part of General Electric) are experts at using insight-based content to direct traffic to their website and increase brand awareness. They do this through frequent in-person interviews and old-fashioned ‘Shoe Leather’ reporting. 

GEs customer specific content is part of the reason why their posts often go viral on Reddit with little advertisement needed.  

Content marketing is more than just basic blog posts, it’s about creating pieces which are not only written with your customer in mind, but also to address customer needs and answer their questions.  

*Tip: Platform your content strategy, by creating and delivering content into their inboxes exactly when they want it. Did a potential lead just fill out a Product Demo Request? Follow up with a demo confirmation and a FAQ content piece answering an array of the popular questions which tend to be asked by customers about the product. If you are already a ClickDimensions customer, don’t forget to check out our Campaign Automation tool, which helps to produce, automate and track such interactions with customers. 

Adopting New Technologies

SMBs love new technology, especially when it makes their daily life easier and more efficient. This is why they are the trend setters of the business world. Unlike bigger corporations, SMBs have the ability to integrate more technology into their database, without negatively impacting their customers through routine testing to ensure new technology is compatible with existing systems. Imagine the difficulty large companies would face if they had to go through every part of their business to ensure that the new technology hasn’t lost precious customer data, broken GDPR or any other misfortune.  

Three ways SMBs expect technology adoption to improve their business: 

1. Improve business efficiency 
2. Improve sales and marketing efforts 
3. Improve customer retention 

Early adopters of new technology are two times more likely to achieve high revenue growth. This is due to their ability to know exactly which technologies are having the greatest impact on their bottom line.  

For SMB leaders and owners, being on top of new technologies is a must, especially if growth is a key focus for 2023.  

What Does the Future Look Like for SMBs? 

The SMB world includes every type of business possible from niche industries to well-known markets, which can make it difficult to identify and track trends and technological changes. However, with so much happening all at once, there are three key movements taking center stage in the SMB world this year.  

The Influx of Touchpoints 

Both B2B and B2C prospects now require more touch points throughout their buying process. OTM Director, Tom Sennitt recently stated that “Buyers and prospects continually circle back and forth online, discovering new options and expanding their knowledge and consideration set.” For growing SMBs, this means that you must be on top of all sides of your business including social media, reviews page, website and more. This is just to guide an opportunity into the consideration stage of the buying process.  

In order to match customer expectations and grow in 2023, SMBs need to develop their omni/multichannel marketing strategy.  

Inhouse Upskilling

SMBs are very good at utilizing the tools they have around them, especially when it comes to technology. But not many SMBs are utilizing their own teams. 

One of the biggest struggles small businesses face is the limited access to expertise due to time or funding restraints. To tackle these issues, some businesses have started to utilize their staff through upskilling programs. These programs provide staff members with training which can then be used to positively impact the business, without spending copious amounts of money using third party expertise. 

“Reskilling would yield positive economic returns in about three-quarters of cases and (…) effective reskilling tends to bring a productivity uplift of 6 to 12 percent” McKinsey 

Upskilling your staff also leads to lower staff turnover as your employees feel valued and invested in, leading to higher employee loyalty. 

Did you know that 94% of the UKs workforce requires upskilling to match changing business expectations? If you’re thinking of investing in your staff, check out our Marketing Services team who provide comprehensive training and marketing expertise that will put you and your company in the lead. 

Personalization

We briefly touched on personalization in the Customer Retention section of this article, but let’s go further into detail here.  

In 2023, non-personalized experiences pose a business risk due to subsequently low customer loyalty, meaning personalization matters more than ever. 

71% of customers expect personalization 

76% get frustrated when they don’t receive a personalized experience 

Source 

A lack of personalization is a huge threat to SMBs, as customers no longer cling onto the ideas of brand loyalty given the oversaturated market being easily accessible through the internet.  For SMBs they need to focus on providing personalization in the areas of:

1. Content 
2. Sales communications (celebrate milestones, buyer updates) 
3. Ads 
4. Website experiences (triggers set based on website interactions) 
5. Relevant product/service recommendations 
6. Onboarding 

And more 

Conclusion 

In 2023, the SMB landscape is proving to be more difficult as owners and leaders must employ a more hands-on approach. This puts the customer experience and retention at the center of your business plan, especially as economic stability is never guaranteed.  

But it’s not all doom and gloom. SMBs are at the center of change and innovation meaning they have the room to explore more options, test out new technologies and level out the playing field between them and enterprise business.  

As an SMB leader or owner, being more flexible in your approach towards technology will only benefit your business. Using technology to improve your customer experience and retention strategy, sales and marketing alignment, as well as investing in some staff upskilling, all greatly contribute to your growth and revenue goals for 2023, and should be prioritized over the coming months.

Want to learn more about Marketing in 2023? Download our latest eBook “The Marketing Survival Guide 2023” to find out more.