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…
If there's one group of merchants that is likely to do its own advertising and promotion, it is those with only one employee, AKA "very small businesses" (VSBs), according to Wave 18 of BIA/Kelsey's Local Commerce Monitor™ survey of small-and-medium…
Update 2/05/14: The graphic in this post has been updated to reflect recent data. "Location is the real world cookie," asserts David Staas, NinthDecimal's president, "I think we were the first ones to say that." Staas spoke to us recently…
Update 2/05/14: The graphic in this post has been updated to reflect recent data. "Location is the real world cookie," asserts David Staas, NinthDecimal's president, "I think we were the first ones to say that." Staas spoke to us recently…
Apple has taken the crown for most profitable company in history. BIA/Kelsey Sr. Dir. of Industry Strategy & Insight Abid Chaudhry reminds us that of the 20 most profitable quarters of all time, fifteen were oil companies... the remaining five…
The most popular advertising channels for SMBs in the Home and Trade Services vertical, according to BIA/Kelsey's Local Commerce Monitor™, Wave 18,survey of small-and-medium businesses, are a mix of paid and free media. Media Ad View Plus (MAV), BIA/Kelsey's forecast…
Search strategies continue to shift as more and more activity comes through the mobile front door. Google launched Enhanced Campaigns to tackle that reality, while Google Now is a play at push-based content. In a presentation last week, I went through…
One big trend we are seeing in our Local Commerce Monitor (LCM) findings is that low-spending SMBs are taking advantage of the lower price levels of digital and social media and reducing their overall ad spend. This has big implications…
We live in a multi-screen world, where an action begun on one device is often completed on another. Marketers are eager to follow a consumer all the way along this cross-device chain of actions. That's the cross-device retargeting challenge, and…
Mobile payments won't take over the universe in 2015, as the tech media would have you believe. But it will have a noticeable impact on our favorite new topic: On demand local services (ODLS), a la Uber. That's where mobile…
A sea change in home repair habits is occurring, as consumer segments begin to shift from Do It Yourself to Do it For Me models where people are seeking professionals to do everything from changing light bulbs to building decks.…
