SMBs "less like a two-ton gorilla and more like a thousand four-pound monkeys, difficult to chase down and almost impossible to corral."

Thanks to Rick Telberg for Tweeting this. It's a bit of a wake up call for service providers like accounting firms - this is where your SMB business is going, and if you want to reach small business, you had better be there too.

SMBs Poised to Triple Site Spend

America's 14.6 million small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) were responsible for more than $6.7 billion in locally generated, locally targeted interactive advertising in 2008.

That's more than half the US total, according to a recently released report from Borrell Associates, which predicts these numbers will grow significantly as activities continue to shift online, MarketingCharts reports.


Highlights
While many of the smallest businesses have traditionally invested in Yellow Pages or on direct mail ads or on coupons, they are now investing 11% of their advertising dollars online, up from less than 4% three years ago.

Many SMBs consider money spent on their own websites to be "advertising," though in actuality that spending is a technology, design and telecommunications expense.

This investment in technology-supported marketing includes search engine optimization and customer databases

SMB share of the local interactive marketing budget will rise from 8% in 2008 to 18% in 2013

Only 42.1% of survey respondents say that display advertising performs strongly for their company, compared with 56.8% who say search performs strongly, and 80.4% who say email performs strongly.

It may be more difficult than it first appears for local media companies to wring predictable, increased investment from them because they are "less like a two-ton gorilla and more like a thousand four-pound monkeys, difficult to chase down and almost impossible to corral."