When respondents who said they weren't using marketing automation were asked why not, a quarter cited a lack of familiarity with marketing automation software, while others just didn't know where to begin.

First, Here’s What Won’t Work For You:
SEO is a no-go. Yes, it’s important. But no, it won’t help you in the early going. Advertising, too, won’t help you. Yes, it works. Amazingly well if you do it right. Which you won’t. Because you don’t have enough capital.

1. Align Yourself with Others
2. Now Emphasize Those Early Wins
3. Simple, Conversion-Based Design

Websites and social media are the marketing channels that small businesses use most. Other channels, including advertising, are not as popular. See the findings of this SMB marketing research.

Below are our five picks based on combined scores and some additional, small-business-specific, metrics:

• Teamgate
• HubSpot
• Less Annoying CRM
• amoCRM
• Pipedrive

Find the best CRM Software for your organization. Compare top CRM Software tools with customer reviews, pricing and free demos.

Over half of small-business owners will dedicate more dollars to the marketing channel

Compared to CRM vendors tackling the enterprise space, these vendors typically offer more streamlined - and sometimes simpler - capabilities. We saw some similar - and some strikingly different trends in this market segment. Midmarket customer demand:

• Great user experiences that are affordable. 
• Single platform. 
• Cloud CRM. 
• Prescriptive advice over raw analytics. 
• Vertical editions. 
• Packaged front- and back-office integration.

GetResponse 
BrandMentions
SEMRush
ClearVoice
Followerwonk
Hiplay
Camtasia
Answer The Public
Narrow
ezGIF’s

Taking a deeper look at the lead qualification data and comparing survey responses from companies under $50 million to companies in the next higher revenue band ($51 million to $250 million), we see that companies under $50 million are 124 percent less likely to add personnel that are specialists in lead qualification and nurturing. However, they are 10 percent more likely to enhance internal processes around lead management and service-level agreements (SLAs) and 72 percent more likely to enhance lead qualification skills. Couple those data points with the fact that companies under $50 million are 75 percent more likely to outsource lead qualification than companies between $51 million and $250 million and the story becomes clear.

What story is the data telling us? Companies that are under $50 million absolutely realize the importance of lead qualification and nurturing, but are not quite ready/willing/able to hire specialists to support and enhance the required processes. Adopting lead qualification then becomes only one part of an emerging company employee’s job responsibility. Considering the willingness to invest in outsourcing lead qualification, one could surmise that emerging company decisionmakers have prior experience at larger companies where lead qualification was impactful to the business. Outsourcing lead qualification requires modifications to internal processes, which is why companies under $50 million will invest time in formalizing the lead handoff processes. There is also a willingness to invest in enhancing skills necessary to manage the external lead qualification providers. 

Based on polling by marketing automation platform Salesfusion, more than two-thirds of B2B marketers in the US with less than $100 million in revenues were investing in marketing automation to enhance their ability to nurture leads. That made lead nurture the No. 1 reason for these B2B SMBs to spend on marketing automation technology.

The need for better quality leads is a greater challenge than the need for more leads, according to a Salesfusion survey [download page] of nearly 700 B2B marketers from companies with less than $100 million in annual revenues. The results align with previous research from Demand Gen Report