Retaining and delighting existing customers is a massive opportunity for SMBs…and increasingly they know it. However, taking full advantage of that opportunity by utilizing digital loyalty programs remains a challenge.

BIA/Kelsey and Manta will present a free webinar Thursday at 2:00 EDT that unpacks the opportunities and challenges facing SMBs as they seek to optimize existing customer relationships. Research from a joint report – “Achieving Big Customer Loyalty in a Small Business World” – will be revealed on why and how small business owners are shifting their time, effort and budget away from customer acquisition to customer retention. Further research will frame the key challenges that SMBs face in deploying successful loyalty initiatives.

Then, tips and best practices for effectively jumpstarting and managing a digital loyalty platform will be shared.

For anyone serving and selling to SMBs, it should be a compelling forum to learn about their shifting habits and needs, and how your business can think about contributing to their customer retention objectives. Register for the free webinar here.

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Retaining and delighting existing customers is a massive opportunity for SMBs…and increasingly they know it. However, taking full advantage of that opportunity by utilizing digital loyalty programs remains a challenge.

BIA/Kelsey and Manta will present a free webinar Thursday at 2:00 EDT that unpacks the opportunities and challenges facing SMBs as they seek to optimize existing customer relationships. Research from a joint report – “Achieving Big Customer Loyalty in a Small Business World” – will be revealed on why and how small business owners are shifting their time, effort and budget away from customer acquisition to customer retention. Further research will frame the key challenges that SMBs face in deploying successful loyalty initiatives.

Then, tips and best practices for effectively jumpstarting and managing a digital loyalty platform will be shared.

For anyone serving and selling to SMBs, it should be a compelling forum to learn about their shifting habits and needs, and how your business can think about contributing to their customer retention objectives. Register for the free webinar here.

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Recent Sponsored Research from BIA/Kelsey and Manta, based on a survey of members of Manta’s online directory community, uncovered a notable trend: more than ever, SMBs are turning their attention and efforts to customer retention, prioritizing it above even acquisition. BIA/Kelsey and Manta will discuss this paradigm shift and its implications for SMBs in a free webinar on Thursday, May 15. Follow this link to register.

It’s a sensible shift, as acquiring customers is typically much more costly than retainer existing ones. Plus, a five percent increase in customer retention can lead to a 25-100 percent rise in profits (source: “The Loyalty Effect”).

Still, SMBs historically have devoted more time, energy and out-of-pocket resources to acquisition. Until now. In the survey, 61 percent of SMBs reported that more than half of their revenue comes from repeat customers, and only 14 percent spend the majority of their annual marketing budget on acquisition.

Change is afoot, starting with the recognition that existing customers are fruitful ones. However, marketing to and engaging with them effectively remains a trouble spot, particularly on digital platforms. Survey findings show that only 34 percent of SMB owners maintain any loyalty program at all, and of those who do, the majority are offline, thus failing to take advantage of the efficiencies and insights that digital platforms provide.

How can SMBs take better advantage of digital platforms to connect with their best customers? Join the webinar on May 15, where BIA/Kelsey and Manta will share tips and best practices to jumpstart the SMB loyalty movement.

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Traditionally, SMBs have invested the majority of their time, energy and budget in acquiring new customers. However, a recently-released report from BIA/Kelsey and Manta, based on findings from nearly 1,000 members of Manta’s online directory community, indicates a clear shift in focus to engagement and retention.

According to the report, “Achieving Big Customer Loyalty in a Small Business World,” (follow the link for free download), 61 percent of the SMBs surveyed report that more than half of their revenue comes from repeat customers, rather than new business. Meanwhile, a repeat customer spends 67 percent more than a new customer. As a result, only 14 percent of SMB owners now spend the majority of their annual marketing budget on acquisition.

This marks a dramatic change from just two years ago, when BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor survey highlighted that SMBs heavily prioritized customer acquisition over retention.

However, effective SMB retention efforts – notably loyalty programs and customer relationship management (CRM) systems – remain spotty. Only 34 percent of SMB owners have any loyalty program at all, and of those who do, the majority are offline, thus failing to take advantage of the efficiencies and insights that digital platforms provide.

BIA/Kelsey and Manta will present findings from the report and discuss best practices for SMBs in a free webinar on Tuesday, May 15. Please follow this link to register.

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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 in BIA/Kelsey’s LCM 16 SMB research. SMBs continue to pour more time and energy into social media activity; they do so to capture new business; their ROI is spotty.

A few highlights from the Wellness Index:

– Nearly 50 percent of SMBs have increased time spent in social media. Only seven percent scaled back. That said, three-quarters of SMBs dedicate fewer than five people to managing social media activities. 53 percent deploy just one.

– SMBs’  investment in social media has two clear (and related) objectives: customer acquisition (36 percent)  and lead generation (19 percent).

– Even with increased investment and clearly-stated goals (albeit perhaps not necessarily the right ones?), SMBs social ROI assessments remain murky, with 61 percent giving the thumbs-down. And Facebook is the hardest to maintain, even as the largest and most widely-used network.

The upshot? SMBs need a clearer path to understanding, engagement and success…perhaps more than ever. As they invest more while still coming up short on ROI, we’re left to ask the “social media insanity” question: are business owners doing the same things they’ve always done, perhaps in greater proportion, while expecting different results?

Something’s gotta give, and change. That’s precisely where Manta sees its role moving forward – not merely as a discovery engine or content forum for small businesses, but as CEO Pam Springer put it, a full-fledged “social hub.” This entails helping SMBs create a following by suggesting who to connect with and how to engage, syndicating content throughout Manta’s network and across the full social spectrum, and building a “feedback loop for them around all social activity” that can produce clearer ROI attribution.

Of the many possible causes of poor social media ROI, Springer spotlighted the attribution problem. No, SMBs don’t create content very easily – and that must come first – but when they do, “how does that impact a customer? Connecting the dots around lead generation is fuzzy.”

Expect Manta to take a more active role in the full spectrum of SMB social activity moving forward, including deep data mining to suggest engagement strategies, syndicated publishing and a more robust content experience within its network to foster social discovery and ROI.

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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 fact, BIA/Kelsey’s LCM 16 survey highlights suggest that 42 percent of SMBs now turn to Facebook for acquisition first, retention and brand lift later.

This is big news in a domain where metrics have been mushy, business goals even mushier, and “experimentation” the word du jour for years. Not anymore. Social media energy (nearly half of SMBs have a Facebook Page) has evolved into social media expectation – deliver new customers.

Manta CEO Pamela Springer amplified this theme during her presentation at the conference. The SMB-focused network surveyed its members and found that more than half of small businesses are now spending more than 50 percent of their business networking time in online channels. There’s an opportunity cost for the time spent online and in social channels, and for small merchants, the result they expect to see in return is new customer traffic. In the Manta survey, 35 percent responded that their top benefit from online networking is “being found by new customers.” Another 14 percent voted up the “ability to engage with new prospects online.”

Of course, seeking new customers from social media does not a strategy make. There are still execution challenges aplenty, as the LCM data and Manta survey underscore. Even with the rising ubiquity of Facebook as a business channel, Manta found that 30 percent of SMBs “have a presence but don’t find it valuable.” Here, churn is inevitable, and the potential to upsell the business into a more robust digital portfolio is limited.

The upshot of all this data: more than ever, social conversations with SMBs must center around ROI, and that begins with customer acquisition. Whether it’s exclusive deals and offers, lead-generating content (and content distribution), contests and promotions, or social ad campaigns, the message is clear – move the customer down the funnel.

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Though BIA/Kelsey’s LCM 15 survey suggests that SMBs are still sluggish to adopt mobile websites (fewer than 10 percent) or other forms of mobile marketing, we believe mobile momentum will finally accelerate as business owners’ personal comfort with the device grows. Manta’s Q2 SMB Wellness Index, which reveals that proprietors use their mobile phones frequently for a variety of business purposes, reinforces this thinking.

Results from Manta’s SMB panel indicate that 75 percent of those surveyed use a mobile device for business daily, with 51 percent doing so multiple times throughout the day (21 percent answered “at least once an hour”). 25 percent access business apps.

As for “why,” the prevailing choice (54 percent) was to check e-mails/texts on mobile. This continued attachment to e-mail explains why many digital marketing platforms incorporate e-mail alerts and allow business owners to log into platforms and respond to problems (a negative review, for example) directly through e-mail.

Additionally, while LCM 15 suggests yet again that phone calls and store visits are the most valued leads, Manta’s research highlights that once a customer is acquired or a partner established, ongoing communication is more likely to occur online. 39 percent of SMBs use online channels as the primary way to communicate with customers (versus 31 percent by phone and 26 percent in person), while 44 percent of SMBs prefer online for vendor/partner engagement (followed closely by the phone at 40 percent).

This bodes well for business-oriented social networks such as Manta (which offers a full Connections suite to enable partner engagement) and LinkedIn. It also hints that SMBs are finally becoming more aware of the continuous engagement required to retain business and support customers online.

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In a recent conversation with BIA/Kelsey, Manta CEO Pamela Springer shared her vision for how Manta’s growth initiatives can further empower the SMB online marketplace.

Fundamentally, Manta sees itself as a platform, not just a portal. Growth will spawn from platform infrastructure — “the ability to do things at scale” based on deep data acquisition that can spur “relationship acquisition.” The network continually enables more business content within listings — Twitter feeds (with embedded “follow me” button) can now be integrated — to enrich its data trove.

An example of platform mentality in action in under way with the “Manta Recommend” feature that was rolled out as part of the company’s Social Connections suite. Businesses can solicit and receive recommendations on their profile pages (there are already more than 40,000), then repackage these testimonials (not ratings) as widgets for placement on websites.

Business content can also be shared across various social networks, with a goal of allowing others to comment on it and then follow it into Manta. Springer calls this a business’ own personal “news river” on and through Manta.

Leveraging its deep data assets, Manta is eyeing a self-service ads platform that could command high CPMs. “You can take a snippet of content that you’ve already created and turn it into an ad.” This is consistent with other emerging native concepts such as Facebook’s Sponsored Stories, which aim for frictionless ad experiences that emanate from organic content.

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Since its launch, Manta has been clear about its place in the fragmenting social media ecosystem. Whereas most networks are person-centric (i.e., Facebook for consumers; LinkedIn for job seekers) and many cater to brand advertisers (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn), CEO Pamela Springer reinforced the company’s vision to us: “the largest community for promoting and connecting SMBs.”

True to its word, Manta has unveiled a host of new SMB features through its Social Connections suite that expands on the SEO-rich profile content and Connect SMB forum that it’s known for. Many of the social behaviors and functions that are endemic to personal networks will now be available to local businesses to grow their relationships, vet partners and stay abreast of industry developments.

Expanded member profiles enable business owners to “connect to” other companies, as well as other businesses they’ve worked at, schools and universities they attended and community organizations they belong to. The benefit for SMBs is a deeper view into how they’re connected to fellow Manta members. Connections trigger activity notifications from businesses in their network. Members can also “follow” businesses for up-to-date information.

A second product — Manta Recommendations — enables SMBs to recommend fellow businesses using their member profiles. Recommendations appear on the business profile. Beyond content placement, however, Manta offers distribution and reach through a “Recommendation Widget” that the business can use to stitch the endorsements directly into a website or blog.

The underlying motivation for all this new functionality was driven home by a recent Manta survey of SMB owners that revealed that 55 percent of business owners point to referrals as “giving them the biggest boost in business.” This distanced all other options — including networking at events and social media networking on Facebook and LinkedIn — by a wide margin. Here, Manta is adding well-known social actions to enhance the digital referral network that SMBs already rely on.

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