Confessions Of Patch Salesperson: "It's Been A Disaster"

I used to be in your camp, actually, and I've come around based on a number of things I've learned recently. The real problem is not that SMB's shouldn't be buying brand advertising, the real problem is that they shouldn't be buying brand advertising the way large businesses do. Shoehorning them into the same sales strategy/pipeline won't work at all.

As a matter of fact, they already buy and see value in brand advertising. Local businesses that sponsor local sports teams are simply building brand awareness. They'll pay money to slap their logo on any number of things without expecting some measurable conversion, and they still see value there.

Social media makes this even more interesting. All these small brands are creating engaging content and looking for ways to get it in front of people. Rather than worrying about converting to sales, many of them are attempting to do things like pick up Twitter followers and encourage content sharing. It's very much a brand based activity.