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…
Following the release of our free white paper, Every Location Counts — SEO in Local Brand Engagement, BIA/Kelsey will host a one-hour webinar this Wednesday at 11 AM Pacific to discuss our findings with George Freitag, Local Search Evangelist at…
Sales team composition is changing across all industries as information technology concentrates decision-making data in the hands of sales managers. Consequently, there are far more sales managers than at any time in history while the number of supporting roles, such…
"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…
Millennials prefer to be coached, not managed... according to Kimberli Lewis of Global Business Therapy. We often focus on the challenges women face in the workforce as opposed to how women can use their strengths to be more effective and get…
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…
Are beacons dead, as Euclid asserts? What does Amazon's latest move mean for local? and what will pay-per-call add to Goodzer's SMB marketing suite? These were a few topics on this week's BIA/Kelsey LIVE, including guest, Goodzer's Lori Faunce. Produced by Mitch Ratcliffe…
It's been a while since we've caught up with MapQuest. The original online mapping and navigation tool is still going strong and is going deeper into local and enterprise utilities. That's been advanced most recently with its acquisition of Social…
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…
BIA/Kelsey is in the process of producing a white paper that drills down on the mobile portion* of its U.S. Local Advertising Forecast. The report will be published in January 2017, and we are currently in post-production stages. To provide a…
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)…
"Industry consolidation has mitigated local market analysis and study," BIA/Kelsey's executive-in-residence Maribeth Papuga argued in yesterday's webinar "New Localism: Why Local Markets Are Best Positioned for Growth." Papuga, a 25-year media, marketing and advertising veteran, was most recently EVP of local…
What do Snapchat's IPO and partnership with Foursquare mean? What will xAd do with WeatherBug, and what role will chatbots play in local commerce? These were a few topics on this week's BIA/Kelsey LIVE. Produced by Mitch Ratcliffe and featuring a rotating…
Voice has been catapulted in the smartphone era. The telephone is 140-years old but has only been recently reinvented, as it’s bolted to an always-handy search and discovery device. This is the foundation of call commerce, the science of driving,…
Tracking people and things, from products to assets necessary to customizing, delivering and supporting great local customer experience will become a critical competence for SMBs and the enterprise over the next five years. Without an underlying logistics system, supply-chain management…
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…
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,…
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…
Voice has been catapulted in the smartphone era. The telephone is 140-years old but has only been recently reinvented, as it’s bolted to an always-handy search and discovery device. This is the foundation of call commerce, the science of driving,…