SMB marketing continues to be offered by a wide range of companies. In the SaaS age, this has exploded as players from Salesforce to Canva offer low-friction tools to SMBs to run their businesses and acquire new customers. This has made SMB SaaS more competitive than ever. But one of the original provider of SMB marketing was the telco.
The companies that bring SMBs their internet and phone services have bundled in online presence and promotional tools for a one-stop-shop appeal. Going back even further, incumbent Yellow Pages publishers were often owned by telcos.
To identify and contextualize how telcos and SMBs work together today, vcita fielded a survey to find out more. They asked 250 SMB owners about their relationships with their telco. Do they use them for just telephony services (broadband, cell service, etc.), or for a broader bundle of marketing tools?
“This survey highlights a growing trend of SMBs expecting their telco provider to offer more than just core services like internet,” vcita Chief BD Officer Amir Blich told Localogy. “They’re looking for telcos to offer business productivity services and they have the appropriate budgets allocated.”
Shift the Narrative
Getting right into the data, one key takeaway was that 90 percent of SMBs spend part of their telco budget on productivity tools such as CRM and various flavors of fintech. This interestingly shifts the narrative above in that the telco opportunity goes well beyond marketing services.
In other words, it’s not just about acquiring customers but keeping and serving them. When asked about services expected from telcos, 49 percent said reporting and analytics tools, 46 percent said business tools (CRM, scheduling, etc.), and 38 percent said financial apps (invoicing, accounting, payroll, etc.).
These data also notably align with the findings of Localogy’s own SMB survey. According to the State of SMB (MCM) survey, SMBs are increasingly keen on operational SaaS tools such as fintech (73 percent) Payroll & HR (61 percent), CRM (58 percent), and communications (54 percent).
Another parallel between vcita’s survey and MCM is the one-stop-shop angle. One thing Telcos have going for them is an easy upsell for SMB Saas, given that they’re already a trusted tech/services provider. 58 percent of SMBs tell us that they aspire to work with one software vendor for all their SaaS needs.
More Color
Those are the highlights, but we’ll also leave you with the infographic below for more color. Meanwhile, one main takeaway is that telcos have been relegated to some degree from their once powerful position to provide SMBs with both telephony and marketing services. There’s an opportunity to revive the latter.
“For telcos to remain competitive and show true value to their SMB customers, they need to keep their finger on the pulse of SMBs’ needs and continuously diversify their offerings,” said Blich. “Adapting to these changing demands not only strengthens relationships with SMB customers but also positions telcos as indispensable partners in their growth and success.”
