Core small businesses, those who spend less than $25,000 annually on advertising and promotion, had an average advertising budget of $5,504 in 2016, according to our Local Commerce Monitor™ survey of small businesses (Q3/2016). LCM dives into their spending, looking at how they allocate…
This week Snapchat announced it was rolling out a new feature on its platform called World Lenses. World Lenses is basically a filter, but live Augmented Reality (AR). With World Lenses, anyone with a smartphone camera can add 3D elements to any…
According to an IAB report, 26 percent of desktop users and 15 percent of mobile consumers use blockers to remove ads from publishers' websites. eMarketer expects three in 10 internet users will be using blockers by the end of 2018.…
Instagram reports more than 1 million monthly advertisers with, according to the company, most being small businesses. According to a recent article on Forbes.com, Instagram's focus on DIY advertising tools for small businesses has paid off. Instagram also reported that…
Snapchat is one of the most popular apps for consumers (particularly millennials), according to a new comScore report , but how popular is it with small businesses? Snapchat, a recent addition to our Local Commerce Monitor™ survey of small businesses (Q3/2016), isn't among the…
Channel overload, training and list management are among the top local marketing challenges for franchisees according to the results of our Local Commerce Monitor™ survey of small businesses. Franchisees are a key segment of our survey because they are advanced…
GotU, recently on stage at our ENGAGE conference talking about the shift from traditional digital models to results-oriented models, has just won a Gold Stevie® Award. The win recognized their customer-centric local Facebook advertising technology in the New Marketing Solution category. What is driving…
45.5% of small businesses use at least one type of mobile advertising, according to Wave 20 of our Local Commerce Monitor™ survey of small businesses (Q3/2016). Among the mobile advertising channels, text messaging was the most popular with small businesses and the second…
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…
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…
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…
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…