Yankee Group gets it right (mostly) about SMB online marketing

You may have noticed the recent release from Yankee Group regarding SMB online marketing. The release suggests that SMBs are “accelerating adoption of e-commerce and online marketing.”  Overall I agree with the findings of the report.  It’s a natural next step for SMBs who’ve created a web presence to begin promoting that presence.  However one thing jumped out at me that didn’t seem quite right; senior analyst Sanjeev Aggarwal believes “the area of online and search marketing has become too complicated for SMBs to tackle on their own.”  Though it is tempting to boast that what we do is rocket science, it really isn’t that complicated. Also, many SMBs don’t have a big enough budget to justify working with an outsider.  With a couple hours of research, they could easily start a Google ads campaign and most would see immediate benefit.  Of course at larger budgets, most SMBs should work with an outsider.