Although I believe my product is useful for basically any kind of organization, I want to define a more specific audience so that I can focus my marketing and product efforts (even if I have to make changes or broaden later). The SMB segment looks like a reasonable choice, I think there's a real need for my product there, and I know how small and medium companies work, so I'm on a familiar ground.
My question is: is the SMB segment more difficult to capture then, let's say, a specific industry?
The other two answers stated the essential problem with using "SMB" as a niche.
SMB means all companies up to a certain size or level of employees and/or yearly revenue. There's nothing that you can say in terms of product benefits or positioning that will apply to all SMBs. All you're saying when you say "SMB" is that your customer profile is up to $10 million a year revenue and/or 50 employees or users (for instance.)
Your problem (as I see it) is that you are being excessively general in your conception of your business. A provider can and probably will float around forever and do poorly by trying to be all things to everyone.
Here's your answer:
I recommend that you select a particular industry - yes, to answer your question, an industry will be easier to operate in than "all business under X revenue and Y employees".
Pick what you believe you know or can master. Tech people tend to assume that all non tech business is boring and not worth understanding.
Guess what - industries are where users are - "users" are not out there in an amorphous blob, following social media to find overly generalized providers.
Think about business types for which your software can create actual value. Think about what is actually bought and sold in the real world economy. Select a non tech business area, such as "accountants" or "loan servicing" or "car repair". These are just examples.
If you can't do this, then do not expect owners or managers in "SMB businesses" to do so, either.
Don't define this in terms of social media or "users". Don't select "people I can connect to on FB." Pick a real-world economic area. Get away from the tech/geek thinking. Yes, it will seem backward, low tech and not aligned with your solution. That's too bad... that's where potential users are. And that's the entire point - users that are not being served with a solution will seem low - tech or hard to reach.
You then develop cases of use in that area of business for your software. You can profile the needs of business operators in that niche.
You may then wish to prospect for specific business operators in that industry who may be willing to adopt your solution on a beta site basis, as a way to help you develop that knowledge of a line of business. I mean picking up the phone and talking to the owner.
Initially they will not come to you on their own through social media. Why? They're too busy running their businesses.
Once you have this experience with one or two beta sites, then you can use that information in your marketing because you know how that type of business can benefit from your product.
Until you focus on a particular industry, none of this can happen for you. An important part of marketing and sales is the process of getting very, very specific about who you are serving and how you propose to serve them.
That's basically how SEO works - how you get found on the internet in the first place - it is capitalizing on an industry specific and "need specific" type of query. An accountant needs a certain support service or a car repair place needs a particular type of part, so they look it up online.
