Small businesses are feeling more optimistic about their businesses and industries, according to BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor™ survey of small and medium sized businesses (SMBs). Two new questions added in Wave 20 (3Q/2016) of our survey deal with SMBs' feelings regarding revenue changes in…
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…
Just 40.3% of small businesses use websites for advertising or promotion purposes, according to BIA/Kelsey's Local Commerce Monitor™ (Wave 20) survey of businesses with less than 100 employees conducted in Q3 2016. Where are the other 60%? Websites rank among the top…
Facebook and other social media channels tracked in the Local Commerce Monitor™ (LCM) Wave 20 continue to be the most popular used channels among small businesses. Small businesses' top three reasons they spend to advertise on social media are 1) ease…
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…
According to a study from Teads and eMarketer more advertisers are turning to mobile video for brand awareness. The Teads study found that advertisers liked that mobile video helped increase brand awareness and enabled them to reach more targeted audiences. The top disadvantages…
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…
Your product pitch may sound great to colleagues, partners, investors and others who speak the language of local commerce. But how well does it resonate with a real life SMBs? We posed this challenge to a handful of local startups…
A recent study from Campaign Monitor and Market Cube on small and mid-size businesses use for marketing tools found that an all-in-one marketing cloud solution is not the answer. Small and mid-size businesses use a variety of advertising and marketing tools and, according…
BIA/Kelsey Bytes are excerpts from research reports. This is the latest installment from the recently launched report, Call Commerce: A $1 Trillion Economic Engine. It picks up where last week's post left off. The report can be downloaded for free here.…
Small and large business are learning an important lession: Growing sales typically evolve out of deep audience engagement. Finding more audiences similar to the customers who already convert is easier than converting new disengaged audiences. The strategy, known as "audience…
This is the latest in BIA/Kelsey's Analyst Workshop series. It delivers analyst insights through video renditions of recent presentations. Embedded video clips contains slides with analyst voiceover. _______ Local ad revenues will hit $146.3 billion this year, growing to $172.2 billion by 2020.…
Franchisees are more likely to use, and spend for, the newest media, platforms and technology, according to BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor™ survey of small and medium sized businesses (SMBs). Franchisees were more likely to use newer mobile platforms, such as mobile websites, tap-to-pay…
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…
When it comes to online shopping, consumers are more likely to turn to their mobile devices than a computer, according to a new study. Demandware Shopping Index (Q1/2016) analyzed the shopping activities of 400 million shoppers worldwide and found that 47%…
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…
According to BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor™ survey of small and medium businesses (SMBs), 18.4% of the SMBs in the survey report using co-op advertising funds. Of these, 45.2% are franchisees or licensees of larger national companies -- most owning between one and five…
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,…
Co-op advertising programs are popular with SMBs, particularly larger SMBs, according to our Local Commerce Monitor , Wave 19 (Q3/2015). Our Plus Spenders are SMBs that spend more than $25K annually on advertising and more than a third (39.3%) of this…