Digital advertising continues to grow and provide many options for advertisers and the average number of media used by small and medium businesses is increasing. Traditional media channels (which includes direct mail, broadcast, radio, outdoors, direct to home, yellow pages,…
Franchisees use an average of 20 different advertising channels to reach customers, according to Wave 20 of our Local Commerce Monitor™ survey of small businesses (Q3/2016). "It’s more important than ever to be where the customer is, whether in print, online…
The question of "when it comes to content which is better, long form or short form?" came up during a case study panel at BIA/Kelsey’s NEXT conference. Our panel attendees, who are leaders from major local marketing companies, had a lot…
"Content is not King, it's the Emperor" said Constant Contact's Heather Jackson during a case study panel at BIA/Kelsey's NEXT conference on Tuesday. According to Heather, the biggest hurdle small businesses have is trying to come up with content. Constant…
80% of small and medium businesses will use at least one social media channel for advertising and promotion in 2017. That was one of the takeaways from the opening session of BIA/Kelsey's NEXT conference in Boston when analysts from BIA/Kelsey gave their predictions…
In the spirit of the holidays and gift lists, BIA/Kelsey offers up our 2nd annual Holiday Wish List for SMBs. So what products and services are small and medium businesses most interested in adding to their marketing activities in 2017? In Wave 20 of…
For the third consecutive year, social media is the top marketing channel used by small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), according to BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor™, Wave 20 (LCM20). Among 1,000 SMBs surveyed, 77.6 percent (up from 73.2 last year)…
Soleo, the Victor, N.Y.-based developer of search and call monetization services for local business, introduced a new version of its developer application programming interface (API) today at Street Fight Local. The new API supports voice search, complex text searches and…
Small businesses use multiple channels for advertising and promotion, both paid and free. In our most recent Wave 20 of the Local Commerce Monitor™ (3Q/2016) small businesses that use broadcast in their mix of advertising have big advertising budgets that…
Hibu Inc. has refocused its business on digital SMB and brand marketing. The Yellowbook company announced it's joining the Facebook Marketing Partner program to deliver bundled advertising targeting and reporting for small businesses in the United States. The company, now…
Fall is usually ushered in by shorter days and lots of pumpkin spice lattes. At BIA/Kelsey fall is the time we release data from our annual survey of small businesses, The Local Commerce Monitor™ now in Wave 20. BIA/Kelsey's Local Commerce…
Mobile coupon usage by consumers is on the rise and is proving to drive consumers to buy more and try new technologies, according to eMarketer. eMarketer reports that by the end of 2016 104 million adults in the U.S. will be…
A new study from the Alternative Board looks at the challenges faced by small businesses on social media. Over half of small businesses in the US have a Facebook page and the challenge for small businesses is not social presence…
Snapchat is my new favorite dark horse in the world of location-based marketing. We've covered its local implications a few times on the page and on the stage, which most recently advanced with Geofilters. Following its white paper on the…
There is a tremendous opportunity for marketing automation sellers to engage SMBs with search engine optimization (SEO) combined with social marketing solutions. SEM/SEO services topped the list of future marketing priorities for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs)* that spend on average of $75,000…
Denny’s has suffered from a "good problem to have": too much familiarity among consumers. Many know the brand but hadn’t ordered a Grand Slam Breakfast in years. And many millennials aren't engaged at all. This was a challenge that Yext tackled…
Now more than ever, there's a tremendous opportunity for marketing automation sellers to engage SMBs with search engine optimization combined with social marketing. SMBs that want to connect with customers online are utilizing search-optimized web presence linked across multiple channels,…
Recently Pinterest introduced several new e-commerce features that it hopes will encourage its 100 million monthly users to buy items through its website. "These features are a big step in helping Pinterest become more of a shopping hub," said company founder and CEO Ben Silbermann. Buyable…
It appears that reality is meeting the hype around conversational commerce. As we've covered, massively popular social messaging apps like Facebook messenger are evolving from peer-to-peer use to commerce. Though I'm bullish on that concept, one question has been context:…
June is graduation month and in the spirit of graduation month in our Local Commerce Monitor™ Wave 19 data, there are some interesting segments of SMBs who are ahead of the curve on their use social or mobile channels than the…
