The higher spending SMBs, which we call Plus Spenders*, use an average of 20.8 different media channels for advertising and promotion, according to Wave 20 (Q3/2016) of our Local Commerce Monitor™ survey of small and medium businesses. But while the number of…
Email marketing is a low cost and target rich way for small businesses to market and communicate with current and potential customers without breaking their small advertising budgets. According to our Local Commerce Monitor™ survey of small businesses, email marketing is one of…
Accenture released a report that declared loyalty points are dead for consumers and there are new factors at play influencing consumers' choices for loyalty. The Accenture Strategy report, ‘Seeing Beyond the Loyalty Illusion: It’s Time You Invest More Wisely’, captures…
Community sponsored marketing like sports teams, civic groups, school and cultural event sponsorships is a great way for small business to show their local community support. With small businesses using multiple channels for marketing, community sponsorships can be a cost effective…
Gartner Inc. this week released a very bullish report on the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT), the class of computational networked devices that are automating and animating consumer lives through voice assistance and personal tracking devices, such as…
The rise in mobile viewing of television and video is also impacting how small businesses advertise. Small businesses use video not on one but on multiple channels. Websites are the most popular place for videos. In fact, 1 in 4…
When it comes to social media usage by small and medium businesses (SMBs), Facebook is still King, with 45.0% of SMBs saying they use a Facebook page for advertising and promotion, according to Wave 20 of our Local Commerce Monitor™ survey of…
Nearly one in four small and medium-sized businesses offer a loyalty program according to Wave 20 of our Local Commerce Monitor™ survey of small businesses (Q3/2016). The top industries that use loyalty are other personal services, retail, construction/contracting, and computers or software.…
Small businesses are increasingly using Instagram for advertising and promotion, according to Wave 20 of our Local Commerce Monitor™ survey of small businesses (Q3/2016). While a Facebook page is still the most popular social media used by small businesses, their increased use of Instagram year-over-year,…
Direct Mail* remains the most used traditional media, according to Wave 20 of our Local Commerce Monitor™ survey of small businesses (Q3/2016), with 41.0% of small businesses using it for advertising or promotion. Direct mail has been the top #1 traditional…
HighQ a provider of cloud services just released an infographic calling 2017 the year of video marketing. Where is the bulk of video marketing happening in 2017? Social media and mobile are big players (Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter) and according to the…
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)…
American Express is in its sixth year of supporting small businesses and the local economy with Small Business Saturday. The National Federation of Independent Businesses and American Express released the fourth-annual Small Business Saturday Consumer Insights Survey. In it they…
According to data from Wave 20 (Q3/2016) of BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor™ annual survey of small and medium businesses (SMBs), about 15% of the 1,000 SMBs surveyed reported using funds from a co-op program, down slightly from 18% in Wave 19 (Q3/2015). 25% of…