Transparency, education, and data: Those are the three keys to selling local advertising and reducing churn, according to ReachLocal CEO Sharon Rowlands during her SMB Digital Marketing Keynote.

Reducing churn in turn is an underrated way to grow revenue, as opposed to the more trodden path of chasing new business. There’s nothing wrong with the latter, but it can receive a level of focus that is disproportionate with it’s importance…especially if it takes focus away from retention.

“If you can move the attrition rate by just one percent, it can have a high impact for business,” she said, adding that average churn rates in local media are 50 percent to 90 percent. “That is absolutely mind boggling.”

The first step in fixing this is to identify the problem:

— Bad sales experiences: Setting up the wrong customer expectations and bad alignment between sales and fulfillment.

— Selling the wrong product: Bad alignment between core competency and what’s being sold (bad attempts at bundling)

— Poor customer service: Talking down to SMBs, or overusing advertising jargon

Her advice to work against these factors:

— Educate the client base: Teach a man to fish, but you can’t put a tool into an SMB’s hand once. It needs repetition and training to embed into their daily work flow. “In advertising, this training isn’t our core competency, but it can be vital,” said Rowlands.

— Data science to drive transparency: Data about what is working for a given advertiser in order to empower local sales reps about what will drive (and of course, retain) business.

— Transparency in a common language: Translate the data outputs from the previous point, but it should be standardized ways of talking about a value proposition that is plain language that SMBs understand

“When we can’t communicate real ROI, we use things like clicks, contacts and leads,” said Rowlands. “Many small businesses don’t understand that. It’s an opportunity for us and an industry to step up.”

The post At Leading in Local: Talk Like a Human, Not a Marketing Exec appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

ReachLocal today announced the appointment of longtime B2B and information services leader Sharon Rowlands as CEO, replacing interim CEO David Carlick, who remains chairman; and founding CEO Zorik Gordon, who left in December 2013 and is pursuing his vision for ClubLocal, a consumer-facing home service that has been spun off by ReachLocal. Groupon is among the lead funders of ClubLocal.

Rowlands, a 20+ year industry veteran is an English native currently based in New York. She is on the board of Constant Contact and previously served in many leadership capacities, including as CEO of Penton Media, the B2B publishing and events giant; and as President of Thomson Financial and The Financial Times.

In a conversation with BIA/Kelsey last week, Rowlands noted that she was drawn to ReachLocal’s efforts to provide SMB digital marketing services because the publicly-owned company has achieved “scale and a global footprint.” The SMB market has tremendous potential but “it is going through significant change,” said Rowlands. “SMBs must be overwhelmed with all the options facing them. I really think there is an opportunity to partner with SMBs and solve their problems in a more coherent way.”

One of the keys to Reach’s growth — and keeping its current base of 23,900 customers from churning — is to segment the market correctly, adds Rowland. “There is a lot of difference between someone signing up with one or two employees and someone with 30. The one-size-fits-all-approach is not the right approach,” she said.

The company is also seeking to develop more sticky tools for its customers, including ReachEdge, a comprehensive marketing solution that begins a $399 a month and now has over 1,000 SMB customers; and ReachSEO, a new search package. ReachEdge is also useful for attracting new customers — 65 percent of those signing up were not a prior customer of ReachLocal.

Saleswise, Reach has historically been focused on premise sales. But the company will now embrace “the whole breadth of go to market approaches, including telemarketing, partnership and ‘handholding,'” Rowlands said. “There is not one segmentation lens.”

The company is also moving beyond its emphasis on search solutions, which currently makes up 85 percent of revenue. While traditional search remain a strong anchor, discovery tools must make room for social media, which are increasingly important, Rowlands noted.

Sharon Rowlands, CEO, ReachLocal

The post BIA/Kelsey’s Discussion with New ReachLocal CEO Sharon Rowlands appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

ReachLocal today announced the appointment of longtime B2B and information services leader Sharon Rowlands as CEO, replacing interim CEO David Carlick, who remains chairman; and founding CEO Zorik Gordon, who left in December 2013 and is pursuing his vision for ClubLocal, a consumer-facing home service that has been spun off by ReachLocal. Groupon is among the lead funders of ClubLocal.

Rowlands, a 20+ year industry veteran is an English native currently based in New York. She is on the board of Constant Contact and previously served in many leadership capacities, including as CEO of Penton Media, the B2B publishing and events giant; and as President of Thomson Financial and The Financial Times.

In a conversation with BIA/Kelsey last week, Rowlands noted that she was drawn to ReachLocal?s efforts to provide SMB digital marketing services because the publicly-owned company has achieved “scale and a global footprint.” The SMB market has tremendous potential but “it is going through significant change,” said Rowlands. “SMBs must be overwhelmed with all the options facing them. I really think there is an opportunity to partner with SMBs and solve their problems in a more coherent way.”

One of the keys to Reach’s growth — and keeping its current base of 23,900 customers from churning — is to segment the market correctly, adds Rowland. “There is a lot of difference between someone signing up with one or two employees and someone with 30. The one-size-fits-all-approach is not the right approach,” she said.

The company is also seeking to develop more sticky tools for its customers, including ReachEdge, a comprehensive marketing solution that begins a $399 a month and now has over 1,000 SMB customers; and ReachSEO, a new search package. ReachEdge is also useful for attracting new customers — 65 percent of those signing up were not a prior customer of ReachLocal.

Saleswise, Reach has historically been focused on premise sales. But the company will now embrace “the whole breadth of go to market approaches, including telemarketing, partnership and ‘handholding,'” Rowlands said. “There is not one segmentation lens.”

The company is also moving beyond its emphasis on search solutions, which currently makes up 85 percent of revenue. While traditional search remain a strong anchor, discovery tools must make room for social media, which are increasingly important, Rowlands noted.

Sharon Rowlands, CEO, ReachLocal

The post BIA/Kelsey's Discussion with New ReachLocal CEO Sharon Rowlands appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.