One of the new local contenders is an old name: GoDaddy. The Phoenix-based company, which is anchored in registry services (and Super Bowl ads), has been working to leverage its SMB customer base with a series of moves, including the…
To wrap up the content-packed SMB Digital Marketing conference, a panel of heavy hitters zeroed in on the show's pervasive theme of content marketing. Perry Evans, CEO, Closely Adam Japko, CEO, Digital Sherpa (NCI) Randy Parker, CEO, PagePart; Founder, Constant…
The strong growth and future prospects for online video for SMBs were discussed by three notable panelists involved in this area at SMB Digital Marketing. Led by moderator, Rick Ducey, Managing Director at BIA/Kelsey, these panelists covered the extraordinary growth…
First Data's Senior VP Dom Morea provided a set of important insights into the next generation of marketing services to small and medium businesses (SMBs) at BIA/Kelsey's 2013 SMB Digital Marketing conference, saying these may be more about "commerce" than…
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…
Amidst all the talk at SMB Digital about marketing solutions for SMBs, we also had a chance to hear from several leading edge SMBs themselves. Several Yelp customers agreed to talk at the conference on Day 1, where they were…
Top insights into franchise marketing were provided today at SMB Digital Marketing, courtesy of Hunter Rose, owner of three Ben & Jerry's Scoop Stores, and longtime local executive and consultant Robyn Rose. Hunter Rose, a former Gartner analyst, is also…
We've always had "marketing" as a unique silo for SMBs. Now, a number of companies are looking at a bigger, more integrated picture that includes marketing and operations. It is Quikbook meet Amex meet Groupon. The idea is once you…
Deluxe Corp. took a significant step in developing its interactive marketing services for SMBs capability with its recent $27 million acquisition of Vertical Response, an email and social media marketing provider. Deluxe's origins are in providing business checking services. The…
Can coupons be reimagined to spur more consumer engagement? That’s what DataSphere is working on. The Seattle-based company sells and hosts marketing solutions to more than 20,000 SMBs under local TV and newspaper brands owned by Gannett, Belo, Raycom, Meredith…
Traditional media's rush into digital marketing services as an incremental revenue source is in full swing, with Hearst LocalEdge, GateHouse Media's Propel, Digital First's AdTaxi and GannettLocal among those taking aggressive stakes in the opportunity. Now smaller publishers are seeking…
Cloud-fed Tablets are powerful, game changing tools for SMB payment processing, marketing and promotion. That's the view of Clover Co-President Leonard Speiser, who was speaking this week at The Street Fight Summit West conference in San Francisco. Clover is a…
The scheduling space is heating up, with a number of key vendors competing for SMB business, companies such as Groupon and Merchant Circle acquiring and integrating scheduling companies into core activities, and new companies such as MyTime attempting to aggregate…
Increased investment, a bullseye on customer acquisition, yet unconvincing results. These are the core themes emerging from Manta's recently-released Q1 SMB Wellness Index, a survey of small business owners focused on social media. They are the very themes called out…
BIA/Kelsey recently rolled out the first in a series of reports offering very specific cuts of data from our Local Commerce Monitor research. LCM is BIA/Kelsey's long-running study of how U.S. small business advertisers are evolving their use of media…
Is appointment scheduling poised to be a new anchor for service promotions? That vision --"look for an appointment, get a deal or upsell " -- has been articulated by a number of scheduling vendors, such as Agendize, FullSlate and Schedulicity.…
Tuesday at BIA/Kelsey's Leading in Local Conference, HubSpot CEO Brian Halligan emphasized that the local marketing game has changed - dramatically, secularly. Traditional "push" marketing techniques (usually requiring large budgets) no longer resonate with many consumers. Rather, small/medium businesses must…
We’re looking forward to seeing everyone in Boston Mon-Wed. for our next conference gathering entitled "Leading in Local-The National Impact." The title of this event represents a bit of a change for us. BIA/Kelsey has always focused attention on the…
Red Beacon founder Ethan Anderson has unveiled his latest project, MyTime, a "scheduling supermarket" that sets dynamic pricing for unfilled appointments. Online scheduling intrigues us as a gateway towards promotions and transactions, but it remains underutilized by SMBs and the…
During the third and final day of our ILM West Conference, Facebook director of global SMB markets Dan Levy introduced a full slate of new data. In addition to hard numbers, the standard Facebook messaging came through: Its Pages (and…
