'The Impact of Big Data on SMB Marketing': Briefing Excerpt

The “Big Data” revolution has hit every strata of the economy, providing insights into users and customers for everything from B2B materials to entertainment and travel.

But what’s the impact of Big Data on marketing to small businesses? The use of Big Data is very important, and highly applicable to SMBs, suggests Radius VP of Marketing Darren Waddell. If properly applied, it lends itself to market segmentation and more focused leads — something that is critical for sales and marketing organizations as they contend with an unwieldy list of leads.

It is part of a move towards automation, which since the Industrial Revolution, “has been the only way that companies survive,” says Waddell, whose company is working with SMB solution leaders such as Amex, The Home Depot and Gannett. Without such segmentation, economic realities force companies to engage in untargeted “spammy” outbound marketing.

“From a lead generation point of view, this is a massive shift,” adds Waddell. “As an industry, we need to get away from lead gen data providers from the likes of Dun & Bradstreet — which are leads without intelligence — and move towards a thoughtful, differentiated approach to SMB marketing.”

Excerpted from a new Brief for BIA/Kelsey clients: “Building a Better SMB Marketing Machine: Inside the Development of Radius.” Waddell is a featured Big Data speaker at Leading in Local: The National Impact, along with VSplash advisor Neal Polachek and Dstillery VP Lauren Moores.