It seems as though almost everyone has been talking about “big data” and analytics lately, and how the use of it can improve efficiency across all sorts off business processes. Much of the conversation has been focused on the benefits for large corporations and enterprises – largely due to the high cost of implementing big data/analytics workflows across entire organizations. However, despite the high costs, SMB service providers have been able to find ways to harness the power of Big Data and analytics to provide similar efficiency benefits to smaller organizations.

In BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor (LCM) survey, “Small Business Plus Spenders” with annual marketing budgets of $75k or more – such as car dealers. medical centers and other larger local advertisers — are all over big data. Plus Spenders are found to be data hounds, showing a strong desire and use for information on media performance, analytics, and customer comments in social media.

SMB Plus Spenders rated analytics as their second highest (at 61 percent) future priority for marketing and advertising. Plus Spenders are keen on incorporating analytics into their marketing mix.

Our LCM data finds that 48 percent of SMB Plus Spenders use their own organic data to analyze the effectiveness of their ad campaigns versus 29 percent who use vendor or third party data. Furthermore, 82 percent of Plus Spenders track the sources of their business leads either frequently or occasionally. This high reading is consistent with the overall priority assigned to Analytics by Plus Spenders.

Our LCM 17 data indicates, plus spender SMBs are keen on monitoring their advertising performance through analytics. Many small companies want to improve their marketing by pinpointing the best sales prospects through social media and other media channels. SMBs can harness data to analyze what customers are saying online to engage in more impactful dialogues with prospective or existing customers because that big data allows them to understand their campaign’s effectiveness.