Digital Marketing Match-up: SMB vs. Fortune 500

There's no one path to success. But if you want to work with the latest digital marketing technologies and strategies, there are a couple of choices that can stack the odds in your favor:

1. Stay small(er), or
2. Work with digital companies

That's my message to digital marketers, especially those of you who are still early in this leg of your career. My own journey has provided a chance to work with a selection of company sizes, from sole proprietors, to mid-size enterprises, to Fortune 500.

(Professional disclaimer: These are going to be broad generalizations that simply cannot encompass every unique business opportunity. So trust your instincts, folks!)

From big to small (and throughout), you're probably going to face certain fights:

• On the bigger end, you're going to be fighting legacy.
• On the smaller end, you'll be fighting for budget.

And in the middle, you have both fights! The question is: Which type of fight do you want to pick?

The Big Fight Against Legacy

Change is tough, even at a small scale. Really tough.

At larger, older organizations, you're more likely to find an ongoing legacy of traditional sales and marketing processes, driven from the highest levels of company leadership. It's what they know. It's what they're good at. It's what got them where they are now.

They've spent thousands - millions - on siloed legacy technology systems that don't support the types of integrated, data-driven campaigns and programs you need to succeed in the digital space.

Their sales lifeline is still fed by legacy. And the same legacy programs which crowned the department's top dogs, may appear to be threatened by a digital usurper. Or they don't think digital will work here. Or they just don't care about digital.

If you think they'll lightly let you come in and re-shuffle the deck, you're in for a beating. And marketing shouldn't be fighting with sales. They should be moving together towards the same business goals.

These challenges aren't insurmountable, but they require a heavy-hitter, with the most-silver of tongues and a title to match - or the support of a higher-up willing to go to bat.

The Small Fight for Budget

With small businesses, your main bout will be for budget. Especially with startups, the business themselves are engaged in a financial struggle for sustainability.

And I'm not just talking about digital marketing budget. Unlike a larger organization, where you might be making a case to reallocate budget from traditional media, with a smaller business, it's likely you're going to be arguing for a straight-up marketing budget, overall!

Here, your challenge may be to change mindsets - from one of thinking of marketing as an expense to be minimized, to a model of return on investment which can be optimized.

It doesn't help that there is still a long-outdated mindset that digital = less expensive. So part of your fight for budget will be helping broker the gap between how much digital is expected to cost - and how much it actually costs.

Of course, the advantage here is that you're less likely to have that (much harder, in my opinion) fight against legacy structures at larger organizations. Most likely, you'll be working with - or perhaps building - new systems and forming new processes, hopefully in cooperation with sales. And that's an exciting prospect!

The Sweet Spot

In terms of size, you might try looking somewhere in the middle, perhaps on the smaller end. This business will likely be well enough established that your fight for digital marketing budget isn't a fight to establish marketing. And you're less likely to have a deeply-ingrained legacy marketing and sales culture.

But really, the middle isn't that sweet spot I'm referring to. So what is?

The Digital Company

I mean, yeah, it's probably obvious by name alone. Digital marketing thrives at digital companies, because it's a vital part of their business operations. You're more likely to find a passion for the trailblazing technologies, people and processes that can lead to digital success.

Aside from the obvious signal of e-commerce activity, how can you identify a digital company - or perhaps a company primed for digital transformation? Here are some suggestions:

1. They offer a digital product - else, a product or service that makes sense to sell online. Digital in B2B has come a long way, but B2C probably still holds an advantage in this respect.
2. They have and use a CRM, especially one which provides integration opportunities. (Be wary of organizations which have, but don't use their CRM. Or worse, whose CRM implementation failed.)
3. Their leadership are digital proponents. This can be tricky to determine, but one tell-tale I've found: They're personally active on social media - and I don't mean the company or brand page. The higher up, the better. My former boss, Neil Salt and current bosses, Joanne Moretti and Christine McDermott, actively post about business and technology - regularly!

Love the One You're With

Digital aside, maybe you're already working with a great organization, with a great product and people. If they treat you well, I'd encourage you to stick with them, even if they don't fall into that sweet spot!

Choose your battles and become an agent of digital transformation. And if you're looking for some inspirational reading on the subject, I'd personally recommend Digital Adaption by Paul Boag.

I wish you the best!

[About that Stormtrooper image: I spend way too much time looking for hero images for articles. And during such a marathon search, I stumbled onto an amazing photo set of these Stormtroopers by Kristina Alexanderson. I love the lighting quality and field of focus of some in the series; how she was able to breathe life into and tell a unique stories with these iconic figures. At risk of losing several hours of your day, check out her Flickr album.]