BIA/Kelsey's Matt Booth invited two exceptionally frank local advertising buyers to dish the dirt on what makes them sign the contract and what makes them ask a local media sales person to leave their office --- immediately. No words were…
Among the many headlines that emerged from SMB Digital Marketing 2012 (CRM, digital loyalty, performance marketing), one that caught the attention of most in the room was the research return that social ROI is shifting dramatically toward customer acquisition. In…
The "Making Sense of Mobile Advertising for SMBs" panel at SMB Digital Marketing 2012 was aptly named, as the mobile needs of small businesses vary widely by category and level of sophistication, among other dynamics. Dick Larkin (VP, American Marketing…
Newspapers have local brand credibility and content; agencies have media expertise; and neither of them do especially well selling SMBs on today's social-infused media options. That's the challenge being addressed by Speakeasy, a new local social service being owned in…
On last week's Q2 earnings call, local online marketing firm ReachLocal emphasized how its international expansion will fuel its growth. Plus the company offered a glimpse into its efforts to expand into smaller U.S. markets via telesales. ReachLocal has long been among the…
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…
This week, Yodle announced the integration of mobile-optimized websites, mobile ad bidding and distribution to its product suite. The mobile solution has already rolled out to more than 30,000 existing SMB customers. New customers can also expect to receive the…
The "why" of SMBs going mobile is well-established. The "how" is murkier, and served as the fulcrum of a "best practices in product development" roundtable at MLM SF, with mobile developers taking different tacks in how to onboard and optimize…
Constant Contact has made a really big bet on presence management with the acquisition today of SinglePlatform, a provider of a one-stop "write once, read everywhere" presence management network that provides parsed searching capabilities and services for 600,000 SMBs, including…
Explaining the basics of local and social marketing to clients and prospects is a tough task for companies, which might come off as patronizing. Why not give them a book? A couple of years ago, Yodle CEO Court Cunningham wrote…
With more than 1 million registered users and 87 million company profiles, Manta has established itself as a hub where small businesses can be found…and find each other. Now, having raised a fresh round of $44 million in funding from…
EXAI is a white-label solution for SMBs based in Israel with global resellers, that offers hosting, domain purchasing and website development. I caught up with CEO Gal Moran, who expressed one of the major challenges in selling website services to…
Meineke Car Care Centers, with 900 franchises, has a huge ad budget, which it has been spending on Yellow Pages, TV, coupons, SEM and the Internet. Recently, Meineke has worked to integrate local ad opportunities under one “local expert.” But…
Nearly 70 percent of consumers who watched this year's NCAA tournament did so on both a television and mobile device, according to a new study from Millennial Media and the Interactive Advertising Bureau conducted by Harris Interactive. More than 2,000…
While pay-per-call usage is growing across all local search media channels, Telmetrics reports today that mobile advertisers and SMB programs are the real drivers of a more than three-fold growth in adoption. The call measurement solutions provider is tracking 348 percent…
Manta announced today that it received a $44 million minority equity investment from Silicon Valley venture capital firm Norwest Venture Partners. The exact proportion of the holding sold to the firm is undisclosed, but its minority stake puts the valuation…
Localeze, a provider of business listings, announced a partnership today with Locationary, a local data management company, to simplify the exchange of local business listings. Localeze will use Locationary's "Saturn" cloud-based data management and exchange platform to streamline the sharing…
Tom Bates, Founder, Kudzu Wiley Cerilli, CEO, SinglePlatform Dave Galvan, President, Schedulicity Randy Parker, President, SMBApps John Vitti, Cofounder and CMO, Mobile Spinach Which SMB solutions will stand out and make a difference in 2012? Our SMB SuperForum discussed some…
Geoff Cramer, CEO of SocialMadeSimple Adam Japko, President of Digital Sherpa Mark Schmulen, General Manager of Social Media for Constant Contact Neil Kataria, President of newBrandAnalytics Catherine Tucker, Associate Professor of Marketing for MIT Sloan School of Management Social Local…
American Express executive Leslie Berland described how the company is using its unique relationship with merchants to help national brands and local small business leverage social media. Berland delivered the opening keynote address here at ILM East in Boston. "We…
