Like George Costanza, Deseret Digital Media (DDM) likes to separate its worlds. This is a longstanding debate among media companies about whether or not new digital products and divisions (and correspondingly, ad sales teams) should be independent of the legacy…
We continue to gear up for our National Conference, taking place next month in Dallas. It will be here before we know it. As we put together the program, many themes are emerging. One theme is the importance of national…
We continue to gear up for our National Conference, taking place next month in Dallas. It will be here before we know it. As we put together the program, many themes are emerging. One theme is the importance of national…
What is the hardest stage of growth for SMBs? After examining census and business data for the past decade, BIA/Kelsey has identified the "troubled teens" transition from blossoming small companies (one to nine employees) to medium-sized firms (20 to…
Franchises are a distinctive and vibrant SMB segment. By almost every metric, franchises act differently from the overall SMB population. Franchises tend to "live large" -- they do things in a big way, starting with ad spending. At an average…
At BIA/Kelsey's National Brands, Local Marketing conference March 25-27 in Dallas, we'll be hearing a lot of discussion around where spending is going for national marketers. Based on a survey just released by Duke University's Prof. Christine Moorman the news is…
The call is the new click, as we keep saying. Phone calls to businesses have ratcheted up in the age of the smartphone -- a device that bolts a search engine to a phone. We project this to grow to…
The Local On-Demand Economy seems to be taking over tech headlines, not to mention VC dollars. We've been covering this "Uberfication of Local" for the past couple years and more formally in the past few months. We've been calling it…
Craigslist has outlasted its challengers, and remains the platform to beat for classifieds, or "things to sell" marketplaces. eBay, similarly, remains a leader for the sale of goods - although most are not geographically oriented. Amazon is also active in…
While the top media used for advertising and promotion by new SMBs are a mix of digital and social channels, social media is also a tool for these new SMBs to connect and communicate with customers. Facebook Page, LinkedIn and…
While the top media used for advertising and promotion by new SMBs are a mix of digital and social channels, social media is also a tool for these new SMBs to connect and communicate with customers. Facebook Page, LinkedIn and…
Vistaprint's Webs.com unit acquired back in 2011 continues to innovate its services platform for SMBs who know they need promotional solutions but need quick and easy workflows. This week Vistaprint announced with its Social Postcards service that…
On Demand Local Services -- a.k.a the uberfication of everything -- continue to expand into new local service verticals. We're seeing everything from lawyers to weed delivery (you might need those two together). This is the topic of a…
Yelp is acquiring Eat24, the online delivery and pickup service that competes with GrubHub, Delivery.com and other national and regional players for order-taking, food search and discovery. The service is being acquired for the equivalent of $134 million ($75 million…
As a group, SMBs with 2-9 employees have a distinctive profile that in many respects lies between the profiles of VSBs (Very Small Businesses - those with only one employee) and medium-size and larger-size SMBs. In some ways, SMBs in…
Last week, we did a successful webcast with Marchex on the topic of search and pay-per-call. This week, we continue the theme of call monetization in a webcast with Five9. They will host the event on Wednesday and I will…
Radio stations looking for a new source of digital revenue and new ways to deepen local listener engagement may be interested to learn more about a technology now in development. Sheridan Broadcasting Corporation's general counsel and radio division president Ron…
Today Marchex launched an analytics tool to better capture what it quantifies as a $4 billion opportunity for call-based mobile advertising. Call Analytics for Search is the newest addition to its mobile ad measurement product suite, and it targets…
The holy grail of search -- and some say the web's next phase -- is natural language search. It was Siri's unfulfilled promise, Cortana's ongoing goal, and Google Now's (sort of) proposition. At its heart is a data science challenge,…
The program for BIA/Kelsey National is building quickly, with many great new speakers, as well as a slew of conference "extras." Taking place March 25-27 in Dallas, BIA/Kelsey National breaks new ground in the local ecosystem, exploring key trends and…
