Not only are SMBs in the Professional Services vertical heavy users of Social Media for advertising and promotion, they are highly engaged on social media, according to LCM. 3/4 reported that they track “likes” in social media, while 57.4% monitor customer comments online.

There is a big opportunity with this group to offer CRM solutions because Professional Services SMBs stay connected with their customers but only 20% say they use a CRM system. 88.0% have maintained a customer list for a year or more, while an additional 6.4% have maintained a customer list for less than a year.

The full report can be viewed and downloaded by clients of BIA/Kelsey here. This report is one of a series of drill-down reports on the findings from Wave 18 of BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor? survey. In the coming weeks we will be looking at SMBs by additional vertical categories. Our Home and Trade Services SMB report is already available. To learn more about our LCM survey of small and medium-sized businesses, click here.

Click here to purchase the Professional Services SMBs — LCM Wave 18. To purchase any of our other Local Commerce Monitor drill-down reports, check out our new BIA/Kelsey Shop.

*Professional Services vertical includes consulting, legal, architecture, and computer software. Financial Services SMBs are not included, but will be profiled in their own vertical report.

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According to BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor, Wave 18?, 72.2% of the SMBs (small- to medium-sized businesses) surveyed* use Social Media to promote their business. Of the different social media used for advertising and promotion that BIA/Kelsey tracks in the LCM survey, Facebook Page ranked the highest, followed by LinkedIn and Twitter. Facebook ads were close behind in fourth place. Instagram and Pinterest, which didn’t make the chart below, are achieving traction — each has close to a 10% reach.

Social media can provide SMBs with an immediate and interactive connection with their customers. So how do SMBs perceive the return on their investment for time spent in advertising or promoting themselves on social media? In our survey we asked several questions on the satisfaction of the various advertising and marketing choices made. It should be noted that only SMBs who reported using a particular media were asked for their ROI assessment of that media.

While only 15.2% of SMBs surveyed reported using Facebook ads to advertise and promote their business, they gave it the highest combined ROI of Excellent (10-19x spend) and Extraordinary (more than 20x spend) of the social media in the survey, at 37.3%. Instagram and Other Social, which 8.1% and 5.4% of SMBs surveyed, respectively, reported using for advertising and promotion, tied for the next highest combined ROI at 30.6%, followed closely by Twitter ads at 30.5%. Instagram and Twitter ads both had more respondents rating them Extraordinary than Other Social. LinkedIn, which was second among SMB users, was ranked lowest of the social media, with combined perceived ROI (Excellent and Extraordinary) of 18.6%.

SMBs in our survey on average spent 21.4%, or $7,638, of their annual advertising and promotion budget on Social Media players, such as Facebook and Twitter.

Local Commerce Monitor? (LCM) is BIA/Kelsey’s ongoing survey of the advertising behaviors of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). To learn more about our LCM survey, click here.

*From the Full Sample.

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Earlier this month we examined SMBs that prefer a “Do it Yourself” model, but that’s only half the story. SMBs that told us they prefer a “Do It With Me” or “Do It For Me” model for their advertising and marketing services are larger (nearly two times the size of DIYers), more urban and spend more annually on advertising, as the infographic above shows. The majority are actively growing and expanding their businesses and the second largest sub group report that they are “maintaining share.” According to Stacey Sedbrook, our Vice President of Strategic Sales Consulting, there are no true DIWM/DIY models in the marketplace; to a large degree they are marketing terms to describe the amount of time, budget or sophistication of the SMB. Companies that go to market with DIY/DIWM products and services are in a win-win situation, as it allows them to meet business needs based on time, budget and/or sophistication of the client. Managed advertising services both traditional and digital are explored including commentary by Stacey Sedbrook, on the principles and best practices for implementing DIWM or DIFM models.

The full report can be viewed and downloaded by clients of BIA/Kelsey here. This report is one of a series of drill-down reports on the findings from Wave 18 of BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor™ survey. Our LCM reports look at where particular SMBs (broken out by size, vertical, etc.) spend the most, as well as the top channels for marketing and advertising. Additionally it provides analysis on the best product and service offers for these highly coveted groups of SMBs. In the coming weeks we will be looking at SMBs by vertical category. To learn more about our LCM survey, click here.

Click here to purchase the SMBs That Prefer “Do It With Me” (DIWM) or “Do It For Me” (DIFM) — LCM Wave 18. To purchase any of our other Local Commerce Monitor drill-down reports, check out our new BIA/Kelsey Shop.

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One the first day of the BIA/Kelsey NATIONAL conference, the women attendees wrapped up their day at BIA/Kelsey’s special networking session “Women Leading in Local.” Our speakers for this session were Tina Paparone and Angela Giovine, founders of Happenings Media. Angela and Tina shared their story and discussed techniques for successfully striking authentic chords within communities and keys to their revenue success — marketing solutions beyond the banner including sophisticated native advertising techniques.

BIA/Kelsey’s Celine Matthiessen with speakers Angela Giovine and Tina Paparone

Here are Tina and Angela’s four rules to live and work by:

1. FOLLOW YOUR PASSION: They say that a man (or of course woman) that follows their passion never work a day in their life. Bucks Happening actually didn’t start as a business; the website was simply a hobby, while we worked to build a different business. However, soon after launching, as readers were discovering the website, we received a call from a local print magazine who wanted to write a story on us. As we sat at the coffee shop trying to steer the conversation towards our “REAL” business, it became clear that 1) There was a real need for Bucks Happening and 2) We better start making money on it or stop spending so much time working on it! We quickly went to work on developing a business strategy.

It was at one of our first meetings with an advertiser that we had a moment of clarity. We were meeting with a local coffee roaster and cafe owner who was frustrated that he didn’t understand how to get his message to the community nor did he have the time to figure it out. As I listened to his story, I knew, “We can help.” We didn’t sit there and say “let’s be innovators in native advertising.” We simply said, what the best way to tell locals about this amazing coffee. And that included storytelling.

2. BOOTSTRAP: We both entered into entrepreneurship with our eyes wide open. As the famous start-up incubator Tech Stars likes to boast, it’s essential for the early-stage entrepreneur to remain “cheap to keep alive.” While it may not sound as sexy to start a business without millions of dollars of financing, doing things our own way, on our own dime, at our own pace allowed us to discover a path to success. Now we have a scalable model without having the collateral damage that a heavily funded company may experience. Moreso, we can take our bootstapping mentality and apply it to expand effectively.

3. IT’S OKAY TO BE AN OUTSIDER: We did not come from the media world. We are not journalist. But being outsiders allowed us to think outside the box. Our content, advertising, and business model were designed to fulfill a need without any preconceived notions of the way things had to be done. Especially in a time when the media world is shifting so dramatically, our ability to identify a problem and approach it with a fresh perspective is one of our biggest assets.

4. FOLLOW THEIR PASSION. Yes, our passion for what we do is crucial, but it isn’t just our own passion that drives growth; It’s harnessing the passion of others. This is a philosophy that we incorporate into almost everything we do — the articles we write, the campaigns we design, and the publishers that we support.

One great example of this is the creation of The Happening List, our annual People’s Choice voting competition, which is one of our most successful initiatives to date. We allow readers to vote for their favorite local people, places, businesses, and events. Through careful design and planning, this contest helps generated hundreds of thousands of email subscribers, massive branding awareness, and thousands of advertising leads.

BIA/Kelsey organized a special networking session during our LEADING IN LOCAL conference in the Fall of 2013. The initial meeting was such a success that the Women Leading in Local session has become a permanent installment at all of our conferences.

BIA/Kelsey’s MacKenzie Lovings at the Women Leading in Local networking session

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The most popular channels used for advertising by established businesses are a mix of social, digital and traditional: Facebook page, website, email marketing, LinkedIn and direct mail. Even their future plans for advertising shows a mix of digital and traditional. Search, email and print advertising are the top three future channels.

Established SMBs had an average annual spend of $23,331 on advertising and promotion, compared to $17,360 for newly established SMBs. 55.5% of established SMBs plan to maintain their currently level of spending in 2015, while 31% plan to increase their spending.

Established SMBs are heavy users of social with 70% of established business respondents said they track “likes” on social media. 61% monitor customer comments about their business. 71% of them use a free or do-it-yourself service to do so.

Clients of the BIA/Kelsey Advisory Services can find the full established SMBs spotlight report here. This report is one of a series of drill-down reports on the findings from Wave 18 of BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor™ survey of small-and-medium businesses. Our LCM reports look at where particular SMBs (broken out by size, vertical, etc.) spend the most, as well as the top channels for marketing and advertising. Additionally it provides analysis on the best product and service offers for these highly coveted groups of SMBs. In the coming weeks and months we will be looking at SMBs who prefer the DIY online advertising models, those that prefer DIWM or DIFM models, and SMBs by vertical. To learn more about our LCM survey, click here.

2015 Spend Intentions for Established SMBs

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According to the survey, more than half of these VSBs chose to “do it myself” when purchasing online advertising, while only 24 percent chose any kind of paid assistance with “do it with me” or “do it for me” options. Still VSBs do remain open to managed services. LCM Wave 18 reveals that VSBs who use a third party (12.5 percent) pay an average $661 a year on maintaining and operating their online properties.

Economic necessity is one key reason behind the do-it-yourself nature of VSBs. More than 68 percent of the VSB respondents in our survey reported annual revenue of less than $100,000. While their average annual advertising budget is $4,252, four out of the five most popular channels used for advertising (Facebook pages, LinkedIn, websites and email marketing) are offered free or have low cost options.

Other business services that VSBs report they “DIY” include tracking sources of leads and monitoring customer comments. Opportunities exist with this group for low cost solutions (DIY or managed) for communicating with their customers and managing their leads/customer lists. Email marketing and online satisfaction surveys ranked high among advertising services they were considering using in 2015.

The VSB report released today is just the first peek into our LCM data by number of employees at SMBs. In the coming weeks we will be looking at mid-sized SMBs with under 10 employees, and even larger SMBs with between 10-99 employees.

Clients of the BIA/Kelsey Advisory Services can find the full Very Small Businesses spotlight report here. To learn more about our LCM survey, click here.

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Home and Trade Services SMBs report their most popular channels to use are from traditional media: newspapers, print yellow pages and direct mail. Digital is also part of the Top 5 most used with Facebook pages and a website rounding it out. Given the vertical’s heavy reliance on traditional media, there’s an opportunity for traditional media players to bundle digital media to their offerings.

Home and Trade Services is the only vertical industry in our study with print yellow pages among the Top 5 media used for advertising and promotion, and was only in the Top 10 of one other vertical — Professional Services. Print yellow pages also had the highest return on investment (ROI) of the top three traditional media — with nearly 28% saying that their ROI on print yellow pages was either excellent (10-19x) or extraordinary (over 20x) spend.

SMBs in the Home and Trade Vertical had an average annual advertising spend of $12,573 in Wave 18 (Q3/2014), down from $19,238 in the previous wave (Q3/2013). Home and Trade Service SMBs overall will not increase their ad budget in 2015. Nearly 61% of the SMBs in the Home and Trade Services vertical reported that they would maintain their ad spend over the next 12 months and 20.8% say they will increase. While SMBs in the Home and Trade Services utilize traditional media, their budget allocation for digital is increasing. On average, SMBs in the Home and Trade Services vertical allocated 24.7% of their advertising budget to digital in the last 12 months. Over the next 12 months, they report plans to increase it to 27.7%.

Local media players, especially in the traditional channels, have an opportunity to continue to serve their Home and Trade Services SMBs through traditional channels as well as grabbing more of their ad dollars by offering digital products.

Clients of the BIA/Kelsey Advisory Services can find the full Home and Trade Services vertical report here. Interested in finding out more about our LCM survey? Click here.

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The “click to call” button would allow mobile users to call advertisers directly from a Twitter ad with just a click of a button. Right now Twitter is beta testing the “click to call” button with select brands and no timeline has been given when it will be widely available. Twitter likely hopes the “click to call” will appeal to local SMB advertisers. Local SMB advertisers, such as restaurants, could tweet an ad to followers and include a “click to call” button so consumers can quickly and easily follow up with the SMB.

But how do SMB that use Twitter and other social media for advertising and promotion feel about calls as a leads source? BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor™ survey, Wave 17 asked SMBs to provide a quality assessment of various lead sources, including calls. As you can see in the chart below, calls are a popular source of leads. The 66.4% full sample of SMBs ranked calls as a good or excellent source of leads. This 66.4% is actually the lead source that SMBs value most, ranked number one ahead of online forms (58.2%) and in-person (54.1%).

According to Local Commerce Monitor, Wave 17, 24.3% of SMBs surveyed use Twitter for advertising and promotion. When you dig deeper into the data and look at just those SMBs who reported using Twitter for advertising or promotion, the percentage rating calls as good or excellent drops slightly to 65.9%. For Twitter using SMBs, calls weren’t actually the number one source of leads. Calls came in second behind in-person, which was rated good or excellent by 76.1% of Twitter using SMBs surveyed.

Those SMBs who use a Facebook Page or Facebook ads for advertising or promotion, on the other hand, ranked calls slightly higher than the full sample, with 68.6% and 68.2% respectively rating calls as good or excellent. For SMBs who use a Facebook Page for advertising or promotion, calls were the number one ranked source of leads. But for those using Facebook ads, calls fell to third, behind online form (72.7%), in-person (69.4%), tying with email (68.2%).

My colleague Mike Boland is hosting a free webcast with call monetization provider Ifbyphone entitled “Surviving the Tsunami of Mobile Call Monetization” today at 2:30 PM.

Click here if you’re interested in more information about BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor survey.

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