The internet is flooded with how-to's and "hacks" -- quick, cheap ways to get things done. For new small businesses with limited resources, it's essential to quickly get customers through the purchase funnel to survive. CenturyLink's recent infographic, "How to Launch a…
SMBs are a diverse group, ranging from one person operations with almost no advertising budget to those with 99 employees and tens of thousands of dollars to spend on advertising. In our ongoing Local Commerce Monitor survey, when we look at…
I've always said that the next big horizon's in local will be retail inventory data. We've seen lots of development in this area from players like Retailigence, which obtain reliable data from throughout the retail supply chain. One challenge has always been…
Small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that use mobile* media are adopting new marketing and advertising technology more than the average SMBs according to BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor (LCM), Wave 19. Some prime examples include: In store beacons 10% of Mobile SMBs…
SMBs that use mobile* for advertising and promotion (Mobile SMBs) outspend those that don't, according to a new report from Local Commerce Monitor, Wave 19, BIA/Kelsey’s survey of small and medium sized businesses. We looked at the average annual spend by…
SMBs that use mobile* for advertising and promotion (Mobile SMBs) spent 42.5% of their advertising budget on digital media in the past 12 months and plan to spend 44.8% on digital in the next 12 months, according to BIA/Kelsey's Local…
Recently AdWeek, along with Orchestrate, released an infographic that declared 2015 the year of video. According to the infographic (see below), 46 percent of viewers take action after watching a video, 96 percent of them click links after watching video…
SMBs who advertise on TV/Cable have a unique profile. In our current Local Commerce Monitor survey of SMBs (Q3/2015), we find that not only are Cable/TV SMBs larger in size (average of 31 full time employees), the average TV/Cable SMB is in…
So what products and services are small and medium businesses most interested in adding to their marketing activities for 2016? In our current Local Commerce Monitor survey of SMBs (Q3/2015), we asked SMBs about their future marketing and advertising plans in the coming year.…
SMBs use various factors to determine ad spend - profitability being key to how much they spend. With so many choices, the next deciding factor is based on how well the advertising meets the exposure to customers and level of engagement…
SMBs rate comments and reviews on Facebook as the most concern to them. In our current Local Commerce Monitor survey of small and medium businesses (Q3/2015), nearly six out of ten SMBs surveyed (58.7%) reported that they monitor customer comments.…
What's behind Google's latest move to "stream" apps within search results? What's the future of local search for SMBs? And what do SMBs look for in ad tech? These are a few topics we tackled this week, aggregated into the…
As small businesses increase digital marketing spend, agencies that target them with marketing automation can gain a competitive edge. This was the focus of today's BIA/Kelsey webcast (and companion white paper) co-hosted by Vendasta. But more important than the "why?" of marketing…
More and more SMBs are using technology to compete against much larger competitors. What's important to SMBs when choosing new advertising and marketing technologies? According to BIA/Kelsey's Local Commerce Monitor, Wave 19 survey of small and medium businesses (SMBs), when…
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…
As small businesses increase digital marketing spend, agencies that target them using marketing automation will have a competitive advantage. This will be the focus of an upcoming BIA/Kelsey webinar, co-hosted by Vendasta. But more important than the "why?" of marketing automation is…
Deliver on Promises It's not surprising that the top characteristic SMBs said they want from their local sales person is that they deliver on what they promise. While sales is not fulfillment, when setting expectations with SMBs there should be a…
SMBs used an average 6.7 different media for advertising and promotion, according to BIA/Kelsey's Local Commerce Monitor,™ Wave 19 survey of small and medium businesses. And although usage of Facebook, websites, and email reigned supreme among SMBs, four of the top 10…
Today's impatient, demanding, empowered and mobile-first consumer has an attention span that rivals that of a goldfish and expectations that would make any diva blush. Today's consumer wants its information fast and mobile optimized, and has developed very high standards for service…
The average annual advertising spend by Core* SMBs has been eroding slightly over the past few years. BIA/Kelsey's attributes the drop to two main causes: increased use of digital media and increased use of social media. At the same time, the…