BIA/Kelsey recently rolled out the first in a series of reports offering very specific cuts of data from our Local Commerce Monitor research. LCM is BIA/Kelsey’s long-running study of how U.S. small business advertisers are evolving their use of media to acquire and retain customers.

The first of these “Spotlight” reports focuses on small business advertisers that are franchisees or licensee of national businesses. The LCM data shows that franchise businesses differ from the broader LCM sample in a number of meaningful ways:

* Franchise business are more aggressive that SMBs overall in their media spending plans for the coming year, including for digital/online media.

* Franchise businesses invest more in their digital presence that SMBs overall, and have a diversified online footprint, spanning online, mobile and social.

* Franchisees are highly engaged with their customers, with large majorities tracking leads and managing their online reputations.

* And franchise businesses are far more likely to use general or digital specialist agencies than SMBs overall.

Future LCM spotlight reports will address the use of loyalty programs, media usage (including insight into new product adoption), customer engagement, sales channels and self-serve, and mobile, among others.

BIA/Kelsey will be conducting the 17th Wave of LCM this summer, in time to inform the messaging at BIA/Kelsey’s Leading in Local: SMB Digital Marketing, coming up Sept. 11-13 in Austin, Texas.