Technology – Reaching SMEs
A brief twitter conversation between Benjamin Ellis and Chris Garrett caught my eye, gist of which is SMEs are hard to reach when it comes to technology.
Thing is, small business owners aren’t interested in technology the way techies are. The only way I see a route to their hearts/wallets is to wrap it all up in the benefits to their business. And use lots of simple analogies.
And before anyone accuses me of suggesting that techies treat SMEs as stupid that’s not what I meant. Techies need to keep their explanations very simple otherwise we send SMEs to sleep.
It’s like the question of accessibility. During a discussion at a Web Standards Group (WSG) meeting in London a while back delegates were bemoaning the fact that businesses weren’t interested in making their sites more accessible, even if they became more legally compliant. But to me it was obvious that you don’t go into a client talking about accessibility compliance, but instead talk about SEO and the benefits of better rankings as a result of the work techies carry out. Talk about improved task flow and retaining customers because they find the site easy to use. In fact, don’t mention accessibility until the end, with a throwaway comment like “Oh, and it’ll also make your site more accessible, which is a legal requirement these days.”
I hate to say it, but to use a marketing cliché talk benefits not features – then the techies will start to get the attention of SMEs. Getting back to the point about reaching SMEs, what SME is going to turn down the opportunity to improve the bottom line once they understand which tech tools are going to help them achieve that.
In conclusion, if we speak to SMEs in their language they’ll start listening. But we need more Tech Evangelists speaking the SME language. It’s a challenge for the techies but they CAN do it.
[Sent from my mobile]
I’d say go even further, when marketing to SMEs, focus on the application, even more than the benefits. Owner managers don’t have the time to figure out what it is that you can do for them, or how it is going to help, so joining the dots is important.
The SME space is notoriously fragmented, hence my and Chris’s conversation – finding us SME folks together is tought. Hopefully social media will fix that!
So if I understand you right, Benjamin, actually show/demonstrate the technology, not just talk benefits.
In a totally unconnected way, I’d been thinking of running a ’show and tell’ session with existing/potential clients. Of course, the exact same concern came up – how do I motivate these SMEs to come along?
Agree that social media could be the key, but as I think only 5% of computer users use RSS what are the chances of increasing those figures and by extension into social media.
I’m going round in circles here – are we back to more tech evangelists?
I recall in 1996, it was all education, education, education. No one in Lincolnshire seemed convinced that the Web was where it was going to be for businesses.
Back to square one – over to you Benjamin and Chris… :)
Hmm… One to ponder. you certainly can’t reach them via the cutting edge of social media – although there are some exceptions, and it is something that is changing very rapidly right now.
The challenge is connecting with how they run their business, without telling them how to run it! They know how too more than any marketeer does… We’ll come back to this one I’l sure!