The Thrive SMB Pulse Monitor™ is the flagship syndicated program from Thrive Analytics — delivering unmatched visibility into the trends shaping the U.S. small business market.
Built on our proprietary SMB GrowthPaths™ segmentation model and powered by annual research with over 9,500 small businesses across 11 key industry sectors, the Pulse Monitor provides a comprehensive, data-driven understanding of how small businesses are evolving in today’s fast-changing digital economy.
The program tracks business outlooks, marketing investments, digital adoption, and technology readiness — enabling clients to align go-to-market strategies, prioritize growth segments, and stay ahead of market shifts.
Tracks small business sentiment on overall business health, revenue trends, hiring plans, growth expectations, and key challenges.
Why it matters: Helps identify market optimism or caution across SMB segments and industries.
Analyzes current marketing practices, channel usage, media spending patterns, campaign priorities, and perceptions of marketing ROI.
Why it matters: Reveals where SMBs are investing their marketing dollars, which channels are growing, and what drives their marketing decisions.
Assesses SMBs’ ownership and use of websites, online selling capabilities, mobile optimization, and integration of online payment solutions.
Why it matters: Tracks SMB digital maturity and identifies opportunities for technology and service providers.
Examines social platform usage, paid vs organic social strategies, customer engagement approaches, and adoption of social commerce features.
Why it matters: Shows how SMBs engage customers online and how their social media strategies are evolving.
Measures the adoption of marketing technology, CRM systems, cloud tools, AI-powered solutions, and other business technologies.
Why it matters: Tracks technology readiness and digital transformation across SMB segments — critical for SaaS and tech vendors.
Provides a benchmarked score of SMB digital maturity across marketing, e-commerce, technology, payments, and social commerce dimensions.
Why it matters: Helps clients prioritize segments by digital readiness and target marketing more effectively.
Identifies key business priorities, unmet needs, barriers to adopting new technologies, and current pain points across SMB segments.
Why it matters: Offers insights into what SMBs are willing to invest in — informing marketing messaging and product positioning.
Tracks changes in key SMB behaviors and attitudes over time — including marketing investments, technology adoption, and digital readiness.
Why it matters: Allows clients to spot emerging trends and understand how SMBs are evolving in response to market forces.
The Thrive SMB Pulse Monitor™ has been providing insights to executives, senior leaders, and marketers for over ten years.
SMBs surveyed annually.
Align offerings with unmet SMB needs and build data-driven plans to drive market success. Leverage segmentation and trend data to refine product positioning, messaging, and sales forecasts — ensuring your GTM strategies are built on what small businesses actually want and need.
Identify and prioritize the segments most likely to deliver positive ROI. Use our proprietary SMB GrowthPaths™ segmentation and industry benchmarks to focus marketing and sales on the highest-potential SMB segments — where digital adoption and investment intent are strongest.
Monitor evolving SMB behaviors to anticipate change and adapt faster. Track year-over-year trends in business sentiment, marketing spend, technology adoption, and AI readiness — giving your team the foresight to stay competitive and seize emerging opportunities.
Subscribers to the Thrive SMB Pulse Monitor™ receive a full suite of deliverables designed to support strategic planning, market segmentation, and campaign execution.
The Thrive SMB Pulse Monitor™ is designed for companies that sell to, serve, or support small businesses and need actionable insight into their sentiment, behaviors, and readiness. It’s a critical tool for organizations looking to prioritize high-growth SMB segments, validate go-to-market strategies, and align offerings with real-world small business needs.
