Purchasing Habits of Small Businesses

[tweetmeme]Back in July, I wrote about a survey on the purchasing habits of small businesses being run by the marketing company Ivy Worldwide.

A total of more than 1,000 small business owners responded to the survey. The study found a number of interesting findings, which I outlined in my post “Secrets to Selling to Small Business Buyers” over at LearningfromBigBoys.com . If you are selling a technology product to small business owners, below are important factors to consider:

When considering buying a technology product, small business owners largely start with search (49%). Hence, it is important that your business shows up in search for the keywords that they are likely to use.
SMBs lean heavily on word-of-mouth referral such as third-party reviews (35%) or blogs and forums (34%)
SMBs act like value-conscious consumers when buying technology: Price (33%) and third-party referral (25%) strongly influence decisions; in addition, a significant quantity (18%) focus on potential dual-utility for both business and personal use
Traditional media, Twitter and Facebook not a factor in purchases: SMBs use traditional media (9%) and Twitter/Facebook (5%) minimally when making buying decisions
70% tend to purchase online
Large companies miss the mark when marketing to SMBs: 75% feel they’re not effectively marketed to by the companies that target them
Most SMB purchasers do not have a specific technology brand in mind when seeking information

As for the survey giveaways, the winners of the prizes are as follows:

Grand prize: One Lenovo A70z all-in-one PC