If your target audience is the SMB, take note of two powerhouses, Microsoft and Google. Both are doing their best to woo the SMBs into joining the party on their Cloud. And the fight has not been pretty.

Microsoft is going full throttle, in an effort to boost attention for the ‘Cloud,’ including launching a website just for the SMB club, and offering turn-key solutions that supply the SMB with all the tools they need to get moving and start growing.

Google, too, is fighting for attention with the SMBs.  They list the ‘Top 10 advantages’ on their Apps for Business site. Google Cloud Print, in beta, allows printing from “any Google Cloud Print enabled web, desktop or mobile app.” Talk about E A S Y.

Both businesses are paving the way for smaller manufacturers and vendors to gain the attention of SMBs.

Toledo, Ohio -- Top SMB Market in the U.S.

However, not everyone can market as deep and as wide as Google or Microsoft, so the marketing efforts of smaller organizations need to be fine-tuned and targeted to a specific audience. Using demographics, firmographics and vertical saturation by geography, the process becomes more precise about the ‘where’ in finding the ‘who.’

SMBs make up approximately 38 percent of all businesses in the U.S.

Using GIS, we determined the Top 15 SMB markets (those with the highest percentage of SMBs per total number of businesses). Ohio Valley dominates this segment, with most of the markets having a central U.S. presence. In Toledo, nearly half of all of the approximately 24,000 businesses fall within the SMB category.

Top 15 SMB Large/Medium Markets:

1. Toledo, OH – 45% of all business fall in the SMB space (5-100 employees)
2. Indianapolis, IN – 44%
3. Akron, OH  – 43%
4. Cleveland, OH – 43%
5. Dayton, OH – 43%
6. Columbus, OH – 43%
7. Baton Rouge, LA – 43%
8. Salt Lake City, UT – 43%
9. Louisville, KY – 43%
10. Cincinnati, OH – 43%
11. Milwaukee, WI – 43%
12. Tucson, AZ – 42%
13. Minneapolis, MN – 42%
14. Des Moines, IA – 42%
15. Omaha, NE – 42%

Geography can play a vital role in attacking the SMB space. And with the race to the Cloud shining a light on SMBs, it makes ‘business sense’ to go after these 15 markets first.

Onward and upward!