Five years into its existence, Groupon is grappling with the reality that it must evolve beyond simply fire-hosing leads at local merchants and begin helping merchants manage those leads and turn more of them into long-term, profitable customers. In…
Small businesses are more interested in social today. The challenge is finding the right mix of content and advertising, do it yourself and managed service, that maximizes the opportunity for local businesses. A panel today at BIA/Kelsey's Leading in Local…
Businesses need to focus on three key strategies for optimizing their mobile presence for making the most of the rapid growth in local commercially relevant search. The ability to match the intent indicated by keywords with user location is a…
Today at BIA/Kelsey's Leading in Local: Interactive Local Media conference, leaders of local digital agencies shared some critical success factors in the challenging business of offering agency services to local business -- that combination of brand agnostic digital marketing…
Businesses today have access to far more information on the products and services they buy, a long-term trend that is having a profound impact on local sales, making its success much more dependent on science than art. Selling increasingly is…
While the volume of deals (acquisitions and capital raises) in the local media space hasn't really grown much this year, the volume of these deals exploded, according to BIA/Kelsey's deal tracking effort called Local Media Investment Watch. Deal value…
A key transitional milestone for the U.S. Yellow Pages industry -- becoming a majority digital business -- is about two years away, according to an updated BIA/Kelsey forecast released today. The forecast, which builds on the 2012-17 forecast released in…
Traditional media companies are scrambling to build "digital agencies" -- essentially in house groups that build all digital packages for SMBs, franchisees and national advertisers. The area is so hot that a two-day conference at a Chicago airport hotel last…
Building a digital agency involves a lot of heavy lifting -- making the right hires, structuring the right organization, building the capabilities to fulfill programs and measure their success. This morning at the Digital Agency Summit in Chicago, seasoned…
BIA/Kelsey has just learned that business accounting software giant Intuit has acquired the online scheduling company Full Slate. The plan apparently is to connect Full Slate's capabilities to another recent Intuit acquisition, the digital marketing services player DemandForce. Intuit acquired…
In a deal designed to fuel innovation at First Data, the payments powerhouse has acquired mobile marketing and loyalty start-up Perka for an undisclosed amount. First Data plans to let Perka continue to operate autonomously and service as an "agile…
Canada's Yellow Media has named Solocal executive Julien Billot as its new president & CEO. Longtime CEO Mark Tellier departed in August and was replaced temporarily by company chairman Robert McLellan. Billot is expected to take the helm at YPG…
Hibu will go through a leadership shake up early next year, an aftermath of the recent takeover of the company by lenders. Today we learned that Hibu Chairman Bob Wigley will leave the board, to be replace by Alfred Mockett,…
BIA/Kelsey has just published a Briefing that examines HubsSpot Sales SVP Mark Roberge's presentation at last month's Leading in Local: SMB Digital Marketing even in Austin, TX. By all accounts, the 15-minute presentation was a clinic in how a local/SMB…
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…
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…
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…
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…
