Last week at SMB Digital Marketing, we held a wide reaching forum on the main mobile topics and areas of innovation that touch SMBs. This included Google's kickoff presentation on Enhanced Campaigns, Dex Media on packaging and selling mobile to…
Thanks very much to all the members of the BIA/Kelsey community who came to the Leading in Local: SMB Digital Marketing conference last week in Austin. We had quite a large crowd of about 500 people, and did some really…
CTOs are having the most interesting conversations at legacy media companies - or at least, that would be the conclusion of a stimulating dialog that took place last week at Leading in Local: SMB Digital Marketing between BIA/Kelsey's Charles Laughlin,…
Last week at SMB Digital Marketing, Russ Laraway, Senior Director, SMB at Twitter added to the marketplace chorus espousing the notion that Content Marketing is king. Many of Twitter's moves in this area are well known, as content marketing is…
One of the new local contenders is an old name: GoDaddy. The Phoenix-based company, which is anchored in registry services (and Super Bowl ads), has been working to leverage its SMB customer base with a series of moves, including the…
Microsoft's Raj Kapoor mapped Bing's evolving local search strategy at the SMB Digital Marketing Conference, an approach that begins with mobile, infuses social and is geared toward "consumer task completion." Kapoor first noted the ubiquity of digital channels in the…
To wrap up the content-packed SMB Digital Marketing conference, a panel of heavy hitters zeroed in on the show's pervasive theme of content marketing. Perry Evans, CEO, Closely Adam Japko, CEO, Digital Sherpa (NCI) Randy Parker, CEO, PagePart; Founder, Constant…
The strong growth and future prospects for online video for SMBs were discussed by three notable panelists involved in this area at SMB Digital Marketing. Led by moderator, Rick Ducey, Managing Director at BIA/Kelsey, these panelists covered the extraordinary growth…
Today at SMB Digital Marketing, Jeff Fagel, the new CMO of G/O Digital, Gannett's renamed local digital arm, offered a very Amazon-centric view of the local online ecosystem. Gannett has 82 daily newspapers and is the fourth-largest owner of TV…
First Data's Senior VP Dom Morea provided a set of important insights into the next generation of marketing services to small and medium businesses (SMBs) at BIA/Kelsey's 2013 SMB Digital Marketing conference, saying these may be more about "commerce" than…
Three finalists in the SMB Future Stars Local Liftoff Award Competition each gave 6-minute presentation on their start-up business then faced tough questions from two season entrepreneur judges, Shark Tank style. Now it's up to the voters. The Judges…
This afternoon at SMB Digital Marketing, Simon Greenman, CEO, Home Advisor Europe, talked about how he is shaping a key European home services vertical, and also reflected a bit on an industry he has a long association with -- the…
This morning at SMB Digital Marketing moderator Jed Williams interviewed four companies in the middle of understanding how to deliver content market solutions to small businesses. One of the biggest challenges was balancing the scale of marketing automation with the…
The topic of sales transformation is a key issue for the media segment, and BIA/Kelsey brought to the stage four key media companies who have taken a more measured and systematic approach to focusing their sales teams on the new…
Amidst all the talk at the second day of SMB Digital Marketing, challenges faced by small businesses and hard recommendations on the best practices for lead generation was offered by Chris Mancini, CMO of Reply.com. Citing the need for easier…
This morning at SMB Digital Marketing, BIA/Kelsey Chief Economist Mark Fratrik and VP of Business Development Steve Passwaiter walked through a view of the U.S. local media marketplace, and offered a sample of BIA/Kelsey's Media Ad View Plus, a…
Connect With Women LEADING IN LOCAL Last night in Austin was the first ever Women only session at a BIA/Kelsey Conference. This was the inauguration of a new focus on women in technology that will be part of conferences going…
Amidst all the talk at SMB Digital about marketing solutions for SMBs, we also had a chance to hear from several leading edge SMBs themselves. Several Yelp customers agreed to talk at the conference on Day 1, where they were…
Top insights into franchise marketing were provided today at SMB Digital Marketing, courtesy of Hunter Rose, owner of three Ben & Jerry's Scoop Stores, and longtime local executive and consultant Robyn Rose. Hunter Rose, a former Gartner analyst, is also…
A central theme emerged this morning at SMB Digital Marketing. It began in the Focus on Profits session, where former BIA/Kelsey analyst and current Yellowbot CEO Matt Booth declared, "In ten years, this conference will be all about software and…
