SME Marketing Strategy: Do SMEs Really Need to Be Everywhere?
Neil Patel did a great video recently about the way search is changing.
His argument, in simple terms, is that search hasn’t disappeared, it has multiplied.
People still use Google, of course, but they’re also searching on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn and Reddit. Increasingly, they’re asking ChatGPT, Gemini and other AI platforms to recommend businesses, products and services.
And that creates an interesting question for any SME marketing strategy: do smaller businesses really need to be everywhere?
I agree with the principle, but there’s one fairly large problem if you’re an SME.
It’s all very well telling businesses they need to be visible everywhere when you have a sizeable marketing team. What happens when you have one or two people doing your marketing, or when marketing is one of the 47 things somebody in the business is responsible for?
You can’t realistically be creating brilliant content for LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and Reddit, optimising your website for Google and then worrying about whether ChatGPT can find you.
You’ve also got a business to run.
So, rather than trying to be everywhere, I think SMEs need to be much more selective.
1. Find out where your customers actually look
Before you add another platform to your marketing plan, ask a much more useful question:
Where do our customers actually research businesses like ours?
If you’re selling cybersecurity services to manufacturing companies, your buyers might use:
Google
LinkedIn
ChatGPT
Industry publications
Recommendations and reviews
Your website
TikTok might contribute absolutely nothing to the buying decision.
If you’re selling skincare to people in their twenties, the picture could be completely different.
A good SME marketing strategy isn’t about being everywhere your business could appear. It’s about understanding the handful of places that actually influence your customers and making sure you show up well there.
2. Start with the questions customers ask
One of the easiest ways to decide what content to create is to stop sitting in marketing meetings asking:
“What should we post this week?”
Instead, speak to sales and write down the questions customers repeatedly ask before buying from you.
What are they worried about?
What do they compare?
What stops them making a decision?
What do they misunderstand about your product or service?
Come up with your top 10 questions and start answering them properly.
Those questions are useful because they’re also the things people are likely to type into Google or ask an AI platform.
Instead of guessing what content people might want, you’re creating content around things you already know potential customers care about.
3. Create once, then use it properly
This is where I agree strongly with Patel.
An SME shouldn't be creating completely different content for every platform.
Imagine you’re an accountant and customers keep asking whether they should buy an electric vehicle through their company.
Get one of your accountants to answer that question properly.
That one conversation could become:
An article for your website
A five-minute YouTube video
A LinkedIn post
Two or three short videos
An FAQ on your website
A section in your newsletter
Several social posts
You haven't come up with seven different ideas.
You’ve taken one useful piece of expertise and made it work harder.
For a small marketing team, that distinction matters. A good SME marketing strategy should make your expertise work harder rather than constantly demanding more content.
4. Don't confuse more content with better marketing
AI has made producing content ridiculously easy.
You could ask ChatGPT to produce 30 blogs tomorrow and have your website full of them by lunchtime.
But what would be the point?
If those articles simply repeat information already available on thousands of other websites, why would Google rank them, why would an AI platform cite them and, most importantly, why would a potential customer bother reading them?
For SMEs, I think the opportunity is actually to go in the opposite direction.
Produce less, but make it better.
Use:
Your experience
Customer questions
Real examples
Case studies
Original research or data
Opinions from people inside your business
Lessons you've learned from doing the work
AI can help you turn that knowledge into content, but the valuable bit should still come from your business.
That’s what gives people — and increasingly search and AI platforms — something useful to find.
5. Pay attention to what other people say about you
This is one of the most interesting changes AI search brings.
You can write on your website that you're the best company in your industry.
But what happens when somebody asks ChatGPT:
“Who are the best companies for X in the UK?”
Suddenly, what exists about your business elsewhere becomes much more interesting.
Think about:
Customer reviews
PR coverage
Industry mentions
Awards
Directories
Partnerships
Customer case studies
Other credible websites mentioning your business
SEO, PR, social media, brand and reputation are increasingly overlapping.
For SMEs, that's potentially good news because you don't necessarily need another completely separate AI strategy.
You need to build a credible digital footprint around your business.
So what should an SME marketing strategy actually look like?
If I had one or two people responsible for marketing, I’d keep it remarkably simple:
Identify the 10 questions customers ask before buying.
Choose the three or four places they actually use to research businesses like yours.
Answer one important customer question properly every week or fortnight.
Turn that answer into several formats rather than constantly inventing new content.
Build credibility outside your own channels through reviews, PR, awards, partne
Clare Patterson is founder of Reason Why, helping SME leaders build marketing that actually works.
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