As engagement migrates to mobile, users' front door is predominantly apps instead of the search-centric web. This was the topic of a recent BIA/Kelsey report, as well as a conference session we recently held (video below). The trend has led to…
After all the talk about mobile device capacity, a small share of it is actually utilized. Lots of "signals" emanate from our smartphones, and a growing set of chips and sensors capture and process all that data. It's everything from…
GoDaddy has transformed itself over the past few years. Part of that transformation -- besides image -- was to go from a consumer internet powerhouse, to also being known for its SMB tools. We got to ask GoDaddy about the…
After all of the attention paid to eCommerce over the past decade, it only accounts for seven percent of U.S. retail spending (see our recent breakdown). Beyond retail, if you look at just services, close to 100 percent of the…
An old saying goes, the best place to hide a body is page 2 of Google results. There's a big drop off in clicks "below the fold" of page 1, and an even greater drop-off on page 2. And the…
We've been talking a lot lately about the "Local Commerce Universe." But what is that exactly? To kick off last month's BIA/Kelsey SMB, Abid Chaudhry and I introduced the topic for the first time. (full session video below). In short,…
What are the best ways to tackle the perennial local challenges of fragmentation and churn? YP is a company with lots to say on this topic, and it holds important lessons for innovating and restructuring in disruptive times, as we covered…
Last week at BIA/Kelsey SMB, we introduced a new construct that will define BIA/Kelsey coverage in the coming weeks, months and years: The Local Commerce Universe (LCU). Because we were so caught up in the conference and its action-packed program,…
Women attendees at BIA/Kelsey's SMB conference jumpstarted their networking at a session just for them on Monday night. Women Leading in Local, a special discussion and cocktail party for women only, has become a staple at BIA/Kelsey conferences. Over cocktails, attendees heard from…
Starting from a review of 3,200 companies, BIA/Kelsey has organized a new view of 575 companies providing local marketing services across 30 business categories. The Local Commerce Universe (LCU) presents the myriad startups and local media companies providing SMB marketing and operational…
The Local Commerce Universe is expanding. What does this mean? "It's a new way to look at the integration of all the elements of the local commerce ecosystem," says BIA/Kelsey analyst Abid Chaudhry. "This includes traditional media, social, mobile and…
Acquiring very small businesses at a low cost of acquisition and then locking them into a suite of services that they rely on to run their businesses (thus driving higher lifetime value) is a huge opportunity that is also incredibly difficult to…
It's well known by now that mobile has overtaken desktop as the primary mode for online searches. Home services has a tendency to lag broader online trends and this is no exception. However consumers are expected to soon use mobile for…
Any company that sells to small businesses knows that demographics can be a stronger indicator of preference than vertical category. We recently met with the leadership team at Home Advisor to ask about the trends they are adapting to in the SMB…
Do SMBs really want a one stop shop solution for all of their digital marketing needs? This question is becoming more important as the stack of services being offered to SMBs grows broader and more complex. It's becoming too much for…
Video is a big component of how small businesses market themselves. And it appears that SMBs are beginning to take advantage of the full range of opportunities that video offers, not just to promote their brand but to educate consumers…
One of the great challenges in selling digital services to SMBs is that relatively few SMBs go shopping for these products. These products need to be sold by outbound sales channels. Making these channels more efficient is a big opportunity…
It's always useful to ask actual small-business owners what they really need to run their businesses, what their objections are to the various digital marketing solutions being pitched to them and what messages resonate with them. We did just…
Building a business that involves acquiring thousands of small merchants as customers and then driving mass quantities of quality leads to those merchants is one of the toughest challenges in the local space. HomeAdvisor is one of a relatively few companies out there that…
The energy in the SMB space is moving away from the narrow notion of selling advertising products for lead generation to provisioning a much wider range of marketing services. These solutions are focused not just on acquiring customers, but also…