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…
Pinterest is not the only place consumers go for inspiration and planning -- in fact adding print to digital helps consumer recall."Print ads (in magazines) can be read more leisurely, and be more evocative; they can encourage readers to fantasize, to put themselves…
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…
Proposed Tax Code Changes Could Cost Family-Owned Businesses Dearly By Lauren Butler On August 2, the IRS issued proposed regulations regarding Section 2704 of the Internal Revenue Code. This could reduce or disallow the discounts on non-controlling interests in many…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Recently Pinterest introduced several new e-commerce features that it hopes will encourage its 100 million monthly users to buy items through its website. "These features are a big step in helping Pinterest become more of a shopping hub," said company founder and CEO Ben Silbermann. Buyable…
SMBs that use video* for advertising and promotion (Video SMBs) have more aggressive advertising spending plans than those that don't use video, according to BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor™ survey of small and medium businesses (SMBs). The average annual ad spend for Core** video…