If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ll notice that several of our recent research reports are covering SMBs of specific size brackets. We started with a report on SMBs with a single employee, then covered SMBs with 2-9 employees, and just now we published a report on SMBs with 10-99 employees.

We’re reporting the Local Commerce Monitor (LCM) results by these slices at the request of our clients. (We also report out the LCM results by many other slices, including “super verticals,” lifecycle stage, spending level, etc.)

The average total spend for advertising and promotions annually among SMBs with 10-99 employees is $53,440. This spending level places this segment of SMBs closer to Plus Spenders and franchise SMBs than to segments of smaller SMBs like the Core Spenders.

The top advertising/marketing priority for SMBs with 10-99 employees for the next 12 months is SEM/SEO. This is consistent with other size brackets, and not surprising considering the steadily increasing importance, and ever-changing rules, of SEO.

Broadly speaking, SMBs in this size range often find themselves straddling the worlds of digital and traditional media. Their media mix puts more weight on classic media, including direct mail, print and Internet Yellow Pages, newspapers and magazines. They’re also loyal to the sales channels attached to these media, even for the purchase of online ads. For example, Print or Internet Yellow Pages is the second most used channel for purchasing online ads, used by 27.5% of respondents.

Service model preference leans strongly towards the “Do it with me” model, preferred by 52.8% of respondents, which is a sharp distinction to the smaller SMBs, which favor the “Do it myself” model.

Customer loyalty programs are popular with these SMBs, with 43.1 percent already having a customer loyalty program, and another 26.8 percent saying they plan to add one in the next 12 months — for a total of 69.9 percent.

Clients of the BIA/Kelsey Advisory Services can find the full report here.