Interestingly, traditional local media has a disproportionate share of 2015 spending (87.2 percent). Yet, the online/digital local will grow substantially in the next few years, reaching 20 percent by 2019. This online/digital will be with pure plays, as well as the traditional media that have expanded their services and see the opportunities with this group of advertisers. These health care providers will be extremely interested in greater integration of digital marketing services.

More information on this vertical advertising spending is now available in the recently released report, Insights in Local Advertising – Health Care Vertical, which examines traditional and digital spending trends, profiles the market ad share by media, and details the advertising trends of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

To read the executive summary of this report, just click on “Insights in Local Advertising – Health Care Vertical.“

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We’re reporting the Local Commerce Monitor (LCM) results by these slices at the request of our clients. (We also report out the LCM results by many other slices, including “super verticals,” lifecycle stage, spending level, etc.)

The average total spend for advertising and promotions annually among SMBs with 10-99 employees is $53,440. This spending level places this segment of SMBs closer to Plus Spenders and franchise SMBs than to segments of smaller SMBs like the Core Spenders.

The top advertising/marketing priority for SMBs with 10-99 employees for the next 12 months is SEM/SEO. This is consistent with other size brackets, and not surprising considering the steadily increasing importance, and ever-changing rules, of SEO.

Broadly speaking, SMBs in this size range often find themselves straddling the worlds of digital and traditional media. Their media mix puts more weight on classic media, including direct mail, print and Internet Yellow Pages, newspapers and magazines. They’re also loyal to the sales channels attached to these media, even for the purchase of online ads. For example, Print or Internet Yellow Pages is the second most used channel for purchasing online ads, used by 27.5% of respondents.

Service model preference leans strongly towards the “Do it with me” model, preferred by 52.8% of respondents, which is a sharp distinction to the smaller SMBs, which favor the “Do it myself” model.

Customer loyalty programs are popular with these SMBs, with 43.1 percent already having a customer loyalty program, and another 26.8 percent saying they plan to add one in the next 12 months — for a total of 69.9 percent.

Clients of the BIA/Kelsey Advisory Services can find the full report here.

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YP is “not your grandmother’s Yellow Pages company” and is poised for real growth as the second largest mobile search ad company in the U.S. behind Google, said YP CMO Allison Checchi during a keynote address at Leading in Local: Interactive Local Media at San Francisco Airport.

Checchi noted that the company pulled in more than $1 billion in digital revenue last year (about a third of which comes from mobile), and that its network of mobile and online publishers helped deliver 40 billion annual impressions. “We are at Version 3.0 or 4.0 right now in the way we are serving consumers,” she said, noting that YP is moving quickly to add transactional capabilities and other new business models.

YP’s next steps will leverage the company’s real effectiveness for commerce. Internal data shows that YP searchers spend 20 percent more than other Web searchers, she said.

The post At ILM 2014: YP’s Checchi Champions New Growth, Mobile Revenue appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

YP is “not your grandmother’s Yellow Pages company” and is poised for real growth as the second largest mobile search ad company in the U.S. behind Google, said YP CMO Allison Checchi during a keynote address at Leading in Local: Interactive Local Media at San Francisco Airport.

Checchi noted that the company pulled in more than $1 billion in digital revenue last year (about a third of which comes from mobile), and that its network of mobile and online publishers helped deliver 40 billion annual impressions. “We are at Version 3.0 or 4.0 right now in the way we are serving consumers,” she said, noting that YP is moving quickly to add transactional capabilities and other new business models.

YP’s next steps will leverage the company’s real effectiveness for commerce. Internal data shows that YP searchers spend 20 percent more than other Web searchers, she said.

The post At ILM 2014: YP's Checchi Champions New Growth, Mobile Revenue appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

YP has named David Lebow to the newly created position of Chief Revenue Officer, reporting to CEO David Krantz. Lebow was previously executive vice president, digital markets. This promotion puts Lebow in charge of YP’s enormous 4,000 person sales organization.

Lebow joined YP in January 2013. His career has spanned some of the biggest brands in digital and broadcast media, including AOL, Clear Channel, Internet Broadcasting and Group Commerce.

Back in May, Lebow was a featured speaker at BIA/Kelsey’s “Leading in Local: The National Impact” event in Atlanta.

The post YP Names Lebow CRO appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

The wall between national and local marketing is falling with tech-empowered consumers able to find their information wherever they want it, noted YP‘s EVP & GM of Digital Markets David Lebow during a keynote at Leading in Local: The National Impact in Atlanta. “Traditional media companies are the only ones keeping up that wall.”

YP is very much a company in transition, like Gannett, Hearst and others, noted Lebow, a longtime media and online leader with recent stints at AOL and Internet Broadcasting. Like the others, YP’s real and clichéd task is “to grow the growing side of the business in excess of the declining side of the business. It never changes.”

“The question is: how can we be the Google of local search?” asks Lebow. “In order to do that, we need to innovate at the pace of the market.”

There is no question that YP should be pursuing local search. “We don’t want to be in directory. One is a $2.7 billion segment growing at 3 percent, while the other is a $29.8 billion segment growing at 7 percent,” said Lebow. But it is critical to attack the market in a broad way. YP shouldn’t be a content play within a vertical, like a Zillow or a WebMD, he said.

A core focus of the local search effort needs to be in SMB presence management. “Businesses really need to be found,” Lebow said. And that’s where the convergence of national local comes in. “The SMB says it needs leads and loyalty. National says it needs measurement, analytics and reporting. The needs of national and local businesses” are coming into one.”

The post At Leading in Local: The National Impact: YP's David Lebow: No More 'National Local Wall' appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

The wall between national and local marketing is falling with tech-empowered consumers able to find their information wherever they want it, noted YP‘s EVP & GM of Digital Markets David Lebow during a keynote at Leading in Local: The National Impact in Atlanta. “Traditional media companies are the only ones keeping up that wall.”

YP is very much a company in transition, like Gannett, Hearst and others, noted Lebow, a longtime media and online leader with recent stints at AOL and Internet Broadcasting. Like the others, YP’s real and clichéd task is “to grow the growing side of the business in excess of the declining side of the business. It never changes.”

“The question is: how can we be the Google of local search?” asks Lebow. “In order to do that, we need to innovate at the pace of the market.”

There is no question that YP should be pursuing local search. “We don’t want to be in directory. One is a $2.7 billion segment growing at 3 percent, while the other is a $29.8 billion segment growing at 7 percent,” said Lebow. But it is critical to attack the market in a broad way. YP shouldn’t be a content play within a vertical, like a Zillow or a WebMD, he said.

A core focus of the local search effort needs to be in SMB presence management. “Businesses really need to be found,” Lebow said. And that’s where the convergence of national local comes in. “The SMB says it needs leads and loyalty. National says it needs measurement, analytics and reporting. The needs of national and local businesses” are coming into one.”

The post At Leading in Local: The National Impact: YP’s David Lebow: No More ‘National Local Wall’ appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

A few years ago, Merchant Circle pushed the boundaries of SMB marketing,– getting claimed profiles from over one million SMBs with just minimal staff but the latest in social marketing (and telemarketing) techniques. The site has continued to develop after it was acquired by Reply!, Inc. in 2011 — it continues to gain new profiles — but it may have the perception of fading as a top local play.

Reply! is now relaunching Merchant Circle with an eye towards making it “the best directory site on the Web.” The relaunch focuses on leveraging the 1.6 million member merchants with speedy searches, and more of an emphasis on user experience — especially, Reviews and Expert Answers, and the mobile experience. In general, merchant profiles will become more of a “showcase” rather than a flat listing experience.

The site is a major improvement, with a slick, updated design. We especially like the globe-like local maps highlighting reviewed businesses.

The consumer-facing design launches this week. An updated dashboard with self-managed Merchant Circle profiles including blogs, images and Q&A — will be launched at the end of January. A dedicated mobile app will come later in 2014.

With the relaunch, “the merchant’s persona is front and center,” CMO Chris Mancini told BIA/Kelsey. “This relaunch will continue pushing that mission forward. Our research shows that SMB’s need simple solutions for their online marketing and we are dedicated to providing that without breaking their bank account or their timeclock.”

The post Merchant Circle ‘Relaunches’ As Directory-Centric Site appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

2012 General Services Ad Spending by Media

But 2012 is the last year that Print Yellow Pages is expected to be on top in the General Services vertical. BIA/Kelsey expects Direct Mail to surpass Print Yellow Pages in this vertical in 2013. By 2017, Print Yellow Pages’ share of the General Services advertising pie is expected to fall to 11%, with Internet Yellow Pages’ share growing to 12%. BIA/Kelsey projects General Services’ advertising revenue on Internet Yellow Pages to surpass their Print Yellow Pages counterpart by 2017. Direct Mail will continue to be the dominant medium in the General Services vertical, with nearly 26% of the advertising revenue.

Health is the next biggest vertical for Print Yellow Pages advertising with 17% share. As advertising revenues for Print Yellow Pages decline, general services and health will remain the top two verticals for the medium.
By 2017, total Print Yellow Pages advertising revenue will have declined from nearly $5.5 billion in 2012 to $2.2 billion, a five year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of negative 16.5%. All of Print Yellow Pages’ verticals are expected to have double digit declines between 2012 and 2017, with the biggest dollar loss coming from General Services.

Internet Yellow Pages, on the other hand, is expected to increase from less than $2.2 billion in 2012 to $3.3 billion in 2017, a five year CAGR of 9.0%, making Internet Yellow Pages the third fastest growing medium out of twelve, according to BIA/Kelsey’s Media Ad View Plus.

More information on Media Ad View Plus is available here.

The post Print Yellow Pages Losing General Services Vertical to Direct Mail appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Our inaugural SMB Digital Marketing event keeps building and building. We’re being welcomed to Chicago for the Sept. 17-19 event by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and have already announced key speakers, including Dex One CEO Alfred Mockett, Constant Contact CEO Gail Goodman and Demandforce CMO Patrick Barry.

Now, with early discounts ending today, we’re announcing a number of new speakers. On the keynote front, we’ve added ReachLocal President Nathan Hanks. Reach, of course, is one of the largest independent sales organizations in the local industry. As industry watchers, we are always watching them for SMB insights and innovations.

We’re also adding a number of industry leaders, and some great innovators. Belly CEO Logan LaHive has gotten a lot of attention in Forbes and other places for his efforts to provide an “act two” to the deals and promotions space via loyalty for SMBs. Belly is being backed by Groupon co-founder Eric Lekofsky and Andreessen Horowitz among others. We’ll be keenly interested in what he has to say alongside other loyalty leaders, including Cartera SVP Marc Caltabiano.

Another great add to the program is Repair.com GM Chris Spanos. Repair.com, backed by insurance giant NEW, is building a platform for service leads that also includes ServiceBench.com. Spanos joins an all-star panel that includes Angie’s List Ecommerce head David Kerr and Deluxe Corp VP and GM, SMBs Gordon Henry (Deluxe = America’s biggest check printers, Orange Soda and MerchEngines).

Mobile is going to be a big topic here too. Speaking on a mobile session is App Express CEO Mary Beth Brendza (formerly with User Friendly Media) and SMB Commando Dick Larkin, who will share his insights into text-based marketing from his day job as VP, American Marketing and Publishing.

Finally, we’re excited to add Yelp’s SMB outreach leader Darnell Holloway, who will share some of the insights that Yelp has learned along the way into what makes SMBs tick – and not. Holloway will complement two full panels of SMBs that we’ll bring in to talk about what they really find useful in digital marketing.

Keynoters:
Alfred Mockett, CEO, Dex One
Gail Goodman, CEO, Constant Contact
Patrick Barry, CMO, Demandforce/Intuit
Nathan Hanks, President, ReachLocal

Featured Speakers:
Mary Beth Brendza, CEO, App Express
Ron Burr, CRO, CallFire
Marc Caltabiano, SVP, Cartera
Stephen Gibbons, VP, Dex One
Gordon Henry, VP, GM/SMBs, Deluxe Corp.
Darnell Holloway, Leader, SMB Outreach, Yelp
David Kerr, GM, eCommerce, Angie’s List
Logan LaHive, CEO, Belly
Dick Larkin, American Marketing & Publishing
John Pletz, Sr. Reporter, Crain’s Chicago Business
Shawn Riegsecker, CEO, Centro
Chris Spanos, GM, Repair.com
Pam Springer, CEO, Manta.com

We’ll be announcing more great speakers in coming weeks (hint: one of them starts with a ‘G’, ends with an ‘E’). But early discounts end today. Why not sign up here and save?

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