Grieben vs Small Business

I was recently reading a post on MarketingProfs about marketing analytics(See here). The focus was on using the right analytical tool, not all tools are created equal, and while quantitative analysis is the most concrete and measurable, it’s not always the best choice because it doesn’t allow for the same intuitive observations primary qualitative research allows. Now I am a marketer whose position is based on funnel reporting and CRM support so reporting is my lifeblood making what I’m about to say feels controversial, what if you don’t care about analysis.

When looking at marketing from an operations perspective, the best tool is the one that is most efficient and trackable, but when you look at the from the end user/consumer the best tool doesn’t matter as long as expectations are met or exceeded. One of the great things about the web is its ability to level the playing field for small businesses. Entrepreneurs can take advantage of so many digital solutions that can incorporate rich media and functionality into their online web presence that a prospect would never know you were a one man shop unless they showed up at your physical address. Small organizations need to realize this and leverage it rather than feel overwhelmed by their lack of resources.

The power that lies in marketing tools like Eloqua and Salesforce.com are in its ability to track the sales process so you can build buyer profiles to help predict who is most likely to become a customer. Startups often don’t have the time to collect, analyze and produce reports that are so vital in the corporate world, they are to busy getting things done. Templates, automated responses and robust tracking/reporting that are only valuable if you handle the volume to drive sample sizes big enough to make the results meaningful and use it to become more efficient and save time. If you are a small org, say 50 employees or less, chances are the volume you are handling is low enough that a couple people can manually manage all that traffic, and too low for any reporting you tried to give you any meaningful insight.

What most small operators don’t realize is that their mammoth competition is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to look small. Online, visitors expect fast response to requests and real time conversation and billion dollar orgs invest in these tools so they can meet the need to reply. They are fighting to look like 1 person replying to 1 email something entrepreneurs are doing simply by being small.  As long as your site is perceived as delivering the content in the same way, you are no worse off. Your users don’t care if their name is in an activity report or not as long as their white-paper is delivered.

When you take the need for all that granularity out of it, your available low cost solutions explode. Marketing activities drive revenue, the need for reporting exists only to convince unbelievers of its value. Let the corporations with employees like me worry about reporting on results, you already know your activities are vital so stop making excuses and get to work.