A comparative review of the areas of state support in a number of countries will highlight similar methods of state support for SMEs:

- information support (Germany, USA, Russia, France);

- the opportunity for employees of state research institutes to participate in commercial activities for implementation of scientific developments (France, Great Britain);

- tax incentives (Great Britain, Germany, Russia, France);

- direct financing of innovative enterprises (Germany, Great Britain, France);

- development of technology parks and business incubators (Russia, Germany);

- specially created bodies regulating the innovation climate in the country (Great Britain, Russia, France);

- support of venture innovative enterprises (Germany);

- support for activities of intermediaries between business and research institutions (USA, UK) [Palamarchuk S. V., 2015].

Separately, the development program of the Italian Artificial Intelligence Foundation (Fondo per Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain e IoT) should be noted. In Italy, a wide consultation process conducted by the Italian government with the participation of a group of 30 experts selected from various public and private organizations helped to identify problems, needs for key technology and marketing areas specific to Italy. These identified factors determine the development of a national strategy with a focus on artificial intelligence, blockchain and the Internet of things.

The experience of foreign countries and its implementation are of great importance for Russia, since the listed measures to support innovation activities are not fully implemented in Russia, which slows down the innovative development of both SMEs and the country as a whole.

Russia is significantly inferior to many countries not only in the share of innovations used, but also in terms of such specific indicators as the share of the SME sector in the economy, the share of employees, the number of SMEs, and the share of turnover in the small and medium-sized enterprise sector. The main types of innovative activity in the sector of small and medium-sized enterprises are the improvement of an existing product or service, the expansion of the geography of sales, and the improvement of the sales support process.

An analysis of the impact of innovative marketing technologies on the development and competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises  showed that the low number of small and medium-sized enterprises engaged in innovative development and implementation of marketing technologies is associated with a huge number of barriers: instability of Russian legislation, high taxes, corruption, actions/pressure from authorities, lack of financial resources, high start-up costs for organizing a business, difficulty in gaining access to infrastructure, saturation of sales markets, uneven development of regions, a pandemic and the impossibility of introducing technologies to all areas of SMEs.

Most of the latest marketing technologies are used by large companies, since small and medium-sized enterprises usually do not have enough funds to maintain and conduct continuous innovative marketing.

In today's online shopping environment, there is a good opportunity for SMEs to compete with larger companies to gain competitive advantage by introducing smart technologies (artificial intelligence). Artificial intelligence can be used to support and enhance traditional business practices, including social media management, conversational marketing, and remarketing.

Newspaper advertising used to be commonplace, now digital advertising and artificial intelligence are playing a critical role in business marketing tactics. Providing more authentic content, using chatbots and voice search, increasing the use of social media marketing, and creating engaging user experiences are some of the key trends in 2021.

Taking into account the financial and market opportunities of SMEs, it is advisable to single out innovative marketing technologies that allow increasing the market share and income of enterprises:

1. Stimulation of an individual approach to clients. The personalization of offers is becoming more important every day, given the growing role of the "online" business space. Increased focus on data analytics and its use to ascertain consumer intent will have a positive impact on SME businesses. A focus on multi-channel marketing strategy and data collection to improve user experience and business results should be the dominant focus for all SMEs.

2. Focus on "customer retention". Despite the positive data on the activity of SMEs in Russia during the pandemic period, some enterprises have not yet recovered from COVID, the period of business closure due to restrictive measures showed that it is better to focus on mobile marketing (personalized push notifications on smartphones and promotions) to retain customers for loyalty – bonus cards and coupons).

3. Promotion through social networks. Today, almost all brands and online stores have their own page on social networks. Also, for a more successful business, SMEs need to shoot popular videos and be "in trend" (in particular, using an application like TikTok, launched in August 2020). Such platforms allow marketers to more naturally weave brand content into user feeds.

4. Online shopping and "virtual reality". Today, consumers "live on the Internet", more and more make online purchases, which confirms the boom of social commerce, when user participation in social networks is directly converted into sales. For small and medium-sized enterprises, the key is to develop a clear strategy to attract buyers on social networks. At the same time, SMEs should think about augmented reality marketing, which helped the target market feel like the owner of the product without even seeing it in person: an augmented reality catalog or a virtual fitting.

Conclusion

In general, solving the problems of development and implementation of innovative marketing technologies in small and medium-sized enterprises  in Russia play a special role in the modern economy because they contribute to stimulating economic growth, the development of international specialization and industries in connection with increasing global competition, improving the quality of life of the population and the importance of Russia on the world stage.