Digital marketing forms a pivotal part of business strategies in B2B organisations. It’s critical for the ongoing growth of brand awareness, generating leads and building pipeline.
But as the owner of a SME (small medium enterprise), it may be hard to know where to start, what is truly critical and what is just fluff. What specific components of digital marketing will give you a meaningful return?
The guide examines the current state of B2B SMEs when it comes to digital marketing and breaks down each channel in terms of criticality and cost.
We’ll also look at the price of not investing in these channels on SMEs and how these needs change depending on the exact size of the SME in question.
Chapters
- SME definition and size categories
- B2B SMEs are falling behind
- What are the basic components of digital marketing B2B SMEs need?
- How do these needs change depending on the size of the SME?
Digital Marketing Strategy Director's Cheat Sheets
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What do I mean by “SME”?
Firstly, it’s important to qualify what type of business this guide applies to.
According to the European Commission, an SME is any business with less than 250 employees or a turnover of less than €50 million.
These businesses are broken down into three size categories.
Micro
Number of employees: < 10
Turnover: ≤ € 2 million
OR
Balance sheet total: ≤ € 2 million
Small
Number of employees: < 50
Turnover: ≤ € 10 million
OR
Balance sheet total: ≤ € 10 million
Medium
Number of employees: < 250
Turnover: ≤ € 50 million
OR
Balance sheet total: ≤ € 47 million
B2B SMEs have fallen behind
When it comes to the current state of digital marketing adoption, the picture is pretty bleak for B2B SMEs. A fairly damning article that appeared in Industrial Marketing Management in 2022 described the attitude in small B2B firms as somewhat of an “Old Boys Club”.
Although nowadays this may be a bit of an exaggeration, it’s certainly true that B2B SMEs are often outpaced by their B2C counterparts when it comes to leveraging the advantages digital marketing has to offer.
The IMM article cited several factors causing this disparity, including limited resources, a lack of success with previous digital efforts and a lack of support for digital marketing roles.
The good news for any small B2B companies willing to embrace digital as part of their business strategy is that they will be one step ahead of their competitors, whilst those who refuse to change will lose out.
But they need to act fast, as interest in digital marketing for small businesses is on the rise as this sector catches up.
What are the basic components of digital marketing SMEs need?
Digital marketing now goes beyond building a mailing list of subscribers and reaching them via email. SMEs will want to consider the below to ensure their marketing efforts are robust enough to stay ahead of the competition.
Strategy
Critical for: Reaching your business objectives, identifying and monitoring ROI
Cost of not investing: Lack of direction, poorly researched “hit and hope” marketing campaigns, wasted budget
How much does it cost: From scratch a digital marketing strategy might set you back £10k+, but usually this process include an extensive discovery, audit and research phase.
A robust digital marketing strategy is particularly critical for SMEs because these kinds of businesses are reaching the stage where structure and planning become critical to future business success. It’s possible to get away with an extremely agile and fluid approach to marketing in the very early stages of a business, but further down the line it will results in chaos and stifle growth.
Your strategy is more than a plan of the marketing actions your company is going to execute in the next year. A robust strategy is built of the back of several things:
- Your organisation’s past marketing activity, and the results of this
- Your competitors and where they sit in terms of brand share of voice
- An audit of your website, as well as your end-to-end pipeline
- Keyword research, that is, understanding how your audience search for services like yours and use search to solve their pain points
- An examination of the process post-conversion, with plans for nurturing and pushing prospect further down the pipeline.
Above: An extremely simplified version of the different elements that might make up a B2B digital marketing strategy for a SME. Taken from the Digital Marketing Strategy Director's cheat sheets.
Companies that under-invest in marketing strategy (or don’t invest at all) find themselves with several problems further down the line:
- Lack of direction for online activity
- Budget being drained by ineffective campaigns
- Hiring errors - marketers lacking the structure to drive results
- Ignorance about targeting and channels that fit their niche
- Gaps in knowledge regarding target audience behaviour online
- Campaigns not driving quality leads
- Disorganised or no tracking, making reporting, analysis and improvement impossible
- Feeling “left behind” as competitors benefit from online activity and presence.
You can see more details on the phases of building a strategy here.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Critical for: Being discovered by your target audience, brand trust and authority
Cost of not investing: Lack of inbound leads, longer sales cycles, lack of confidence in your brand
How much does it cost: SMEs in the UK might typically spend between £500 - £2000 per month on basic SEO packages (source)
SEO is simply the act of improving the content on your website (think product pages, blog posts etc) so that they rank more favourably in search engines (like Google) when your target audiences are searching for answers to their problems. In 2024, this also includes video content you might promote via Youtube, social media or even forums (via Google’s newer “perspectives” tabs).
Building this online brand visibility is particularly critical for B2B SMEs because it is often an area they have neglected previously. As the business grows, they find themselves competing with bigger players who have a more established online presence, which gives them more opportunities to present themselves as reputable and generate leads.
What might progress in this area look like?
- Keyword research: Understanding how your target audience are searching and behaving online.
- Content strategy: Using your findings from the above, building a pipeline of content ideas to get you in front of your audience.
- Technical SEO: Ensuring your website performs well and is easily crawled by the Google overlords.
- On-page SEO: Best practices for formatting, writing and linking on your content.
- Competitor analysis: Understanding where your competitors sit, what they are doing well and where there are gaps you can capitalise on.
You can find out more about SEO here.
Digital Advertising
Critical for: Generating brand awareness and leads quickly, plugging gaps in brand visibility
Cost of not investing: Slow momentum, not achieve business goals short term
How much does it cost: Small businesses typically spend between £1,000 and £10,000 per month on Google Ads, with an average of around £6,800 (source). On LinkedIn Ads, this can be between £1500 to £4000 per month (source).
Digital advertising is exactly what it says on the tin. You specify an audience based on a variety of targeting elements (what they’ve searched for before, demographics, matching profile to your existing customers) and reach them through ads, which can take a variety of formats.
Your audience will start seeing your ads as soon as your campaign is running with a payment method linked. This is great as it means instant exposure and (if setup is done correctly) website visitors and leads. But obviously that only lasts until you switch off the campaign or run out of money.
Paid advertising online can be a great springboard for small B2B businesses trying to reach their target audience quickly. Unlike in search engines, people seeing your brand is not dependent on site authority or a beautiful website. In fact, most advertising platforms now have native lead generation forms, so prospects do not even need to leave LinkedIn/Meta/Google to convert on your campaign.
💡BONUS CONTENT: How much are LinkedIn Ads and do they work?
Get a full break down the key LinkedIn Ads offerings for B2B companies, what kind of content performs best on the platform and how much you can expect to pay. Read now.
Social Media
Critical for: Brand visibility, audience engagement, relationship building
Cost of not investing: Low brand recall, weaker trust with prospects, missed networking opportunities
How much does it cost: Organic social media is free (aside from time and resources). Outsourced social media management for SMEs typically costs £500 - £5000 per month, depending on platforms and frequency of posting (source).
Social media is a powerful tool for B2B SMEs to stay top of mind with their audience. Unlike digital ads, which stop working the moment you pause spend, an active social presence creates long-term brand equity - helping you nurture leads, showcase expertise, and drive organic traffic.
LinkedIn remains the go-to platform for B2B businesses, but depending on your industry and where your audience hang out online, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, and even TikTok (for educational content) can be valuable. The key is consistency - not just in posting, but in engaging with your network, commenting on industry discussions, and positioning your brand as a trusted voice.
Content Marketing (Blogs, Whitepapers & Original Data Reports)
Critical for: Establishing thought leadership, improving SEO, generating high-intent leads
Cost of not investing: Missed organic traffic opportunities, lower brand credibility, reliance on paid acquisition
How much does it cost: In my experience a really high quality blog post by a writer/journalist in your niche could cost up to £1000 for a 2,000 word article, this is roughly supported by other benchmarks I’ve found online (source).
High-quality content is a long-term asset for B2B SMEs, helping them attract and nurture leads by addressing industry challenges and sharing valuable insights. Blog posts improve SEO rankings, whitepapers position your brand as an authority, and original data reports create media and backlink opportunities.
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Also - did you know that 80% of the B2B buying journey is self-serve? (source)
That means your prospect has to some extent already made up their mind by the time they actually speak to a sales rep.
A good content strategy will focus on addressing pain points at the early stages of the sales cycle, not just on keywords showing clear commercial intent.
SMEs should think about what keeps their audience up at night and write content that addresses that.
This positions you as a trustworthy authority in the mind of your target so when the time comes you are already at an advantage.
The fact your prospect trusts your brand will shorten your sales cycle and well-researched, data-driven content sets you apart from competitors who rely on generic messaging.
How do these needs change depending on the size of the SME?
It goes without saying that how B2B SMEs' marketing needs might change as they scale up heavily depends on your niche, audience habits and analysis of previous marketing efforts.
Below is simply an example to illustrate how marketing might evolve as a company grows and acquires more resources, whether through winning big clients or funding.
Micro (<10 employees)
Depending on the budget at your disposal, you may want to focus on ensuring your main assets (website, socials etc) are up to scratch.
If budget is very limited, prioritise getting your targeting right by learning all about your audience.
What do they really care about? What elements in their jobs are giving them a headache? Where do they spend time online?
Speak to sales, existing clients, prospects and gather as much information as you can.
Then use this data to zero-in only on ideas for content that really address their pain points and do these pieces extremely well.
Likewise with advertising, figure out what “hero” lead magnet is going to resonate most with your targets and absolutely smash it.
Keep advertising basic. Use the information on job titles, seniority, companies, industries etc to create a really narrow audience on ad platforms like LinkedIn for acquiring new data. Then use retargeting to create more touchpoints with people who show real interest.
Don’t forget to leverage email marketing and your sales team to nurture prospects and educate them on your brand.
Small (<50 employees)
At this size there’s usually a bit more budget available, and you probably have run a few campaigns.
An audit of your website, marketing campaigns and follow-up system will help expose holes in your processes that are causing prospects to fall through the cracks.
You probably want to start looking at digital marketing more holistically and put together a strategy that will give you direction and structure.
For SEO and content, you ideally would need to start scaling up to address more competitive commercial search terms (think “best xyz software for enterprises”), as well as continuing your educational and trust-building efforts.
On the advertising front, you may have enough budget to consider running a campaign through a B2B publisher in your niche. This can get you in front of prospects on a new channel, including ones you haven't been able to reach through your other efforts. Make sure the insight from your audience research supports your decision on which publisher to go with.
At this stage, you may consider hiring your first in-house digital marketer or seeking the services of an agency. Just make sure you do it sensibly.
Medium (<250 employees)
By now you should have some decent data on customer acquisition, churn and sales cycle length. What factors underpin your customers with the best lifetime value so far?
If you have a lot (500+) existing clients and notice patterns in their demographics, you could consider using more sophisticated targeting for advertising, such as creating a lookalike audience from your existing customer list.
You should be regularly auditing your marketing campaigns, including ones from 12 months+ ago. What happened to those leads? Which campaigns produced the most loyal customers?
At this size, SMEs are in serious need of a proper digital marketing strategy. A CMO in house is absolutely critical, and they will probably need an agency, junior hire(s) or marketing consultant to support them.
Anything you can automate (lead nurturing via email, lead scoring etc) you absolutely should.
Take a look at your analytics tools and the way your campaigns are tracked and labelled. Do you have proper naming conventions in place so things can easily be filtered for reporting? Data hygiene needs to be decent or you will not be able to evaluate campaigns properly and decide where to allocate budget the following year.
Businesses at the top end of this category might require a small marketing team, with a specialist for each discipline (SEO, paid, social media, email).
Conclusion
Like I said, the above just tries to highlight the impact of growth.
Bringing a digital marketing consultant in at the “small” stage can help make the scale up journey a lot smoother. They can give you direction based on an audit of your business, put good data practices into place early and use their experience to ensure budget wastage is minimal.
If you’re a B2B SME looking for someone like this, you can book a free consultancy with me here!
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