What is the hardest stage of growth for SMBs? After examining census and business data for the past decade, BIA/Kelsey has identified the “troubled teens” transition from blossoming small companies (one to nine employees) to medium-sized firms (20 to 49 employees) as the critical stage where tool complexity and pricing, as well as local business models, are misaligned with the needs of growing companies.

Take a moment now to get the free download of our new Sponsored White Paper, Optimizing Local Marketing: SMB Marketing Needs “Do-It-With-Me” Models.” Produced courtesy of Vendasta, which asked BIA/Kelsey to explore the opportunities for aggregated marketing services in local SMB markets, the paper examines the pressing need for consultative marketing services that blend easy-to-use digital presence management tools with hands-on marketing expertise for companies that are too large to continue to market on an ad hoc basis and too small to hire and retain full-time marketers while paying for expensive enterprise tools that are often overkill, and over-priced, relative to the SMB’s needs.”

Specifically, it’s the “troubled teens,” when a company is between 10 and 19 employees, that represent the greatest opportunity for local marketing services players to step into a startling gap in success. Even as smaller and larger firms continue to grow, albeit with very high failure rates among the smallest businesses, it is the teen companies that fail at a rate more than an order of magnitude greater than other businesses of any size.

The U.S. Census has been tracking business birth and death rates on a five-year cycle. During the last cycle, between 2010 and 2011, SMBs of between 10 and 19 employees failed 14 times more often than the next largest group (20 t0 49 employees) and accounted for the only net loss of jobs among all businesses of any size in the United States.

Vendasta talked about its DIWM approach at BIA/Kelsey Interactive Local Media Conference in December and also dug into the idea with Michael Boland during a video interview last fall. We’ve been increasingly struck by the emerging complexity of small business, which we believe is evolving into a “Local On-Demand Economy” (LODE). This takes the aggregation of demand further than Uber, blending new forms of local services with novel employment or contractor arrangements with service providers.

Tools to participate in the LODE economy will need to bridge the gap between limited human, technical and financial resources within growing SMBs and the requirements for digital presence management at a price that supports increasing growth. Too often, teen firms take on high upfront costs to integrate enterprise tools into their workflows, failing to get results because ongoing coaching is needed to build a robust marketing experience. The DIWM model provides expertise and explanations along with technology, helping business to grow organically, building their presence instead of exhausting their budgets upfront and leaving entrepreneurs on their own to use enterprise software designed for teams of marketers when the SMB has only begun to embrace marketing as a practice.

This misalignment in tool complexity, price and service model is a market opportunity for companies such as Vendasta, which provides a digital presence dashboard through resellers, including the Miami Herald, that deliver marketing advice along with the Vedasta’s 10X platform.

Yet we also see Google, Facebook and LODE exemplar Uber, to be expanding into these markets, across many locally delivered services. There is a race on to crack the local logistical and marketing challenges of on-demand goods and service.

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We’ll be discussing DIWM in depth at BIA/Kelsey’s National Conference, March 24-27 in Dallas.

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BIA/Kelsey continues to engage market leaders in its coverage areas in order to collaborate on research reports. There’s one currently in the works, about optimizing SMB Marketing Efficacy, sponsored by Vendasta and written by our new associate Mitch Ratcliffe.

To preview the paper’s subject matter, we’ve included a teaser below. Stay tuned for the full release sometime next month. Meanwhile, an extended version of the below summary is available in physical form, if you’re at our Leading in Local conference. Stop by the Vendasta booth for a copy.

Measuring SMB Marketing Efficacy: Logistics and Storytelling Will Reshape Local Business Metrics

SMBs are the new frontier for digital services. They will require a new reseller/marketing services layer in local media to spread digital marketing practices to millions of individual stores and business people. For many digital marketers, small business is suspended in time between the Main Street barbershop familiar from The Andy Griffith Show, where folks stopped in and talked even if they didn’t get a haircut, and the high-speed increasingly personalized digital services based on advanced logistics that characterize major global brands. If he were on TV today, Floyd the barber would be studying his web engagement metrics in addition to providing a friendly haircut.

Digital services for local business are about to catch up with global brand marketing and, as with every business that has crossed the digital divide before, measurement of tool performance and tactics will be critical to success. Measuring web promotions; Providing transactional and support services for complex products and services; Facilitating loyalty and customer engagement programs, all these daily digital chores are poised to become business as usual. The losers in the local goods and services race will wander off-course without solid metrics, spending too much to get poor results as others focus their limited marketing budgets with greater precision. The big story in the enterprise over the past decade, the rise of metrics-driven experimentation and marketing, is about to repeat itself at the grassroots on Main Street.

Technical and economic drivers are already reshaping the local media economy. BIA/Kelsey Local Commerce Monitor reports that SMB plus spenders, business that spends at least $25,000 annually on advertising and promotion, 35.2 percent of ad spending will be allocated to digital in 2015, up from 24.5 percent in 2011. 57.7% of these plus spenders pay an average of $7,238 a year to maintain an online presence. More SMBs are also paying for marketing help to tie together their online messaging across Twitter, Facebook, mobile sites, Google and their own websites, as 40.9% of surveyed small businesses reported hiring agencies and staffing to manage their presence, the “Do It With Me” approach.

Our analysis suggests the “Do It With Me” (DIWM) model, collaboration between an SMB and one or more vendors to build complementary messages, which benefit the individual client business and create network effects, such as qualified participants in shared loyalty programs, cross-promotional campaigns and integrated transactional systems that flag cross-selling opportunities for SMBs, is the most viable approach. This phenomenon is visible in the specialization of digital sales teams in iYP markets, the agreement by YP.com to represent Yelp promotions to its customers, and the emergence of vendors that “sell digital arms,” marketing tools and services, in a consultative relationship with the customer, among others. We expect to see Google and Facebook partnering more extensively in this area in coming months.

“A lot of channel partners sell digital only five percent to 10 percent of the time, which is a sin” said Jeff Tomlin, Senior Vice President of Vendasta, a Saskatoon, Saskatchewan-based marketing tools vendor that has adopted the DIWM model. Instead of investing in direct sales, Vendasta seeks value-added resellers who can provide on-site services to complement its own reputation monitoring, presence management, social and mobile marketing optimization services, which are presented in a dashboard for the SMB customer. Agencies that bundle Vendasta services share access to their customers’ dashboards and can take on creative and production tasks on behalf of the SMB.

Recall Floyd’s barbershop. There was no “marketing strategy.” There were two chairs, a phone (where an operator waited to connect the call), some magazines and, perhaps, a television for the customers to watch the World Series in some later years of its fictional life. Floyd did not have to compete with other barbers through media. Compared with the communications wave rolling through the economy today, Floyd’s approach to customer engagement grows more fictional and quaint every passing year.

 

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Content marketing has been around a while among SMBs in analog form — after all direct mail, product catalogs and brochures are all about using rich content to promote a business and drive sales. The growth of the Internet, and in particular social media, as a marketing channel, has elevated content marketing to greater importance. This has led to a new paradigm for how SMBs build their brands and reputations, and how they get discovered by potential customers.

BIA/Kelsey Senior Director of Industry Strategy and Insight Abid Chaudhry has written our next Leading in Local Insight Paper, “Content Marketing: the New SMB Paradigm.” In the paper, Chaudhry outlines the case for content marketing — it derives from changing consumer purchase behavior. He also describes the new ecosystems that has emerged to create and distribute original SMB content.

The following is a brief excerpt from the upcoming Insight Paper:

Managing content online has become a critical component for SMBs — the value conveyed from a robust content program reaches beyond exposure to apply value to discovery, customer engagement, and performance across all digital channels. Increasingly, content marketing tactics like social media posts or blog entries can prompt engagement with potential customers, creating new opportunities for SMBs with a minimal amount of effort.

As engagement and usage of the Internet and mobile web continues to increase, consumer taste and expectations have also evolved. Consumers are increasingly becoming accustomed to rich, targeted and contextual advertising and marketing experiences. While brand and agency advertisers have been able to respond to this new paradigm quickly, SMBs are finding that a lack of fresh content and relevancy can cost them.

Increasingly SMBs are applying greater value to lead sources derived from content marketing based sources, and this trend is likely to continue as the gap between traditional and digital advertising acceptance narrows.

Watch the Local Media Watch blog for more excepts from “Content Marketing: The New SMB Paradigm” leading up to its publication in mid-April.

Also, check out this clip from a recent BIA/Kelsey Analyst Roundtable, where Chaudhry talks about the big ideas driving SMB content marketing.

Request a briefing for more information on BIA/Kelsey research and insight.

The post A Look Ahead at “Content Marketing — The New SMB Paradigm” appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Content marketing has been around a while among SMBs in analog form — after all direct mail, product catalogs and brochures are all about using rich content to promote a business and drive sales. The growth of the Internet, and in particular social media, as a marketing channel, has elevated content marketing to greater importance. This has led to a new paradigm for how SMBs build their brands and reputations, and how they get discovered by potential customers.

BIA/Kelsey Senior Director of Industry Strategy and Insight Abid Chaudhry has written our next Leading in Local Insight Paper, “Content Marketing: the New SMB Paradigm.” In the paper, Chaudhry outlines the case for content marketing — it derives from changing consumer purchase behavior. He also describes the new ecosystems that has emerged to create and distribute original SMB content.

The following is a brief excerpt from the upcoming Insight Paper:

Managing content online has become a critical component for SMBs — the value conveyed from a robust content program reaches beyond exposure to apply value to discovery, customer engagement, and performance across all digital channels. Increasingly, content marketing tactics like social media posts or blog entries can prompt engagement with potential customers, creating new opportunities for SMBs with a minimal amount of effort.

As engagement and usage of the Internet and mobile web continues to increase, consumer taste and expectations have also evolved. Consumers are increasingly becoming accustomed to rich, targeted and contextual advertising and marketing experiences. While brand and agency advertisers have been able to respond to this new paradigm quickly, SMBs are finding that a lack of fresh content and relevancy can cost them.

Increasingly SMBs are applying greater value to lead sources derived from content marketing based sources, and this trend is likely to continue as the gap between traditional and digital advertising acceptance narrows.

Watch the Local Media Watch blog for more excepts from “Content Marketing: The New SMB Paradigm” leading up to its publication in mid-April.

Also, check out this clip from a recent BIA/Kelsey Analyst Roundtable, where Chaudhry talks about the big ideas driving SMB content marketing.

Request a briefing for more information on BIA/Kelsey research and insight.

The post A Look Ahead at "Content Marketing — The New SMB Paradigm" appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Significant news in the online presence/reputation management space came across the wire at BIA/Kelsey’s Leading in Local conference last week in Boston, as VendAsta announced $8.25 million in Series B funding to accelerate the company’s holistic identity/reputation/social management solution.

In just over two years, it has established a deep network of local publishers (Cox Media Group, Gannett, GateHouse Media, Hearst) and solutions providers (Web.com) that reach more than 100,000 SMBs in aggregate. VendAsta launched with a core focus on reviews/reputation monitoring, but has since expanded into social monitoring, engagement and lead generation. While maintaining a strong foothold with SMBs, it has also moved upstream into reputation management for brands.

BIA/Kelsey forecasts e-mail & reputation/presence management to grow into a $2.5 billion market in the U.S. by 2016. Enterprise will increasingly contribute to that spend as investment is made to combat digital brand fragmentation and localize advertising and marketing.

At the SMB level, with consumers flocking to new channels and operators now using 8-10 different media for advertising and promotion to reach them, a reputation solution is a central component of a digital offering for anyone in the SMB services business. With its latest round of funding backing up its recent product expansions, VendAsta is well-positioned as a critical player in the race to create the integrated dashboard.

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ZipLocal, the independent U.S. directory publisher with more than 300 print directories, is bolstering its digital suite through the integration of VendAsta’s StepRep reputation management tool.

VendAsta’s white-label product will be available to ZipLocal’s 110,000 advertising businesses, and soon thereafter, will be opened up across the ImmersiFind local search platform that 15 other North American directory publishers participate in.

Through StepRep, ZipLocal’s SMBs (and the sales reps handling these accounts) will be able to monitor their online visibility, track comments across social networks and reviews sites, and then engage with customers directly on these platforms. With the continual fragmentation of the Web, a reputation management tool that provides a real-time analytics dashboard encompassing these diffuse platforms is becoming an essential service to local businesses.

As such, noise in the ERPM marketplace is quickly rising. Marchex, Yext Rep, YellowBot, ReachLocal, MerchantCircle and many others offer the service as part of their suite. VendAsta recently made efforts to differentiate its product by partnering with Telmetrics to integrate call-tracking intelligence into StepRep, which begins to connect online presence with offline lead generation.

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If getting customers to pick up the phone is the first priority for SMBs, the second is vetting caller traffic to distill quality leads from noise … and to understand the drivers behind each activity. “Bridging the online-offline gap” is emerging as a critical component of SMB reputation management. VendAsta is now incorporating call tracking intelligence from Telmetrics into its white-label reputation management platform that publishers can offer to their local clients.

In addition to monitoring customer reviews across social networks and online review sites, VendAsta’s Step Rep will now offer a layer of speech-to-text call tracking through Telmetrics’ Voice Trends that will enable deeper understanding of  customer sentiment through keywords spoken and call duration, location, demographics and time.

VendAsta’s ultimate goal in this integration is to paint a comprehensive picture of consumer interactions with SMBs. This connects online presence to offline lead generation in a more holistic reputation management solution. It also allows businesses to build off of phone conversations to push into social media and deal-a-day offers through a deeper understanding of met and unmet customer demands.

BIA/Kelsey forecasts that local advertising spend on ERPM will reach $3.5 billion in revenues by 2014, and several major brands — Marchex, MerchantCircle, ReachLocal (through SMB Live), Yext (Yext Rep), Yellowbot and others — are lining up to compete for these SMB dollars. 

Telmetrics President Bill Dinan told BIA/Kelsey that VendAsta’s move into call tracking represents an important step in the company’s “drive to distinguish” in this crowded sector. “The wave of the future in local search is that you have to specialize in somthing.”

StepRep is one of many white-label products that VendAsta offers for publishers to rebrand for their local merchants. The Saskatchewan-based software provider offers a daily deal white label called Daily Deals 3S that has been picked up by both DirectWest in Saskatchewan (MySaskDeals) and Winnipeg publisher EX Finder (EZ Deal). Its suite also includes a social recommendation engine to validate consumer reviews through users’ personal networks.

The post Telmetrics Rings In Call Tracking for VendAsta's Rep Management appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

If getting customers to pick up the phone is the first priority for SMBs, the second is vetting caller traffic to distill quality leads from noise … and to understand the drivers behind each activity. “Bridging the online-offline gap” is emerging as a critical component of SMB reputation management. VendAsta is now incorporating call tracking intelligence from Telmetrics into its white-label reputation management platform that publishers can offer to their local clients.

In addition to monitoring customer reviews across social networks and online review sites, VendAsta’s Step Rep will now offer a layer of speech-to-text call tracking through Telmetrics’ Voice Trends that will enable deeper understanding of  customer sentiment through keywords spoken and call duration, location, demographics and time.

VendAsta’s ultimate goal in this integration is to paint a comprehensive picture of consumer interactions with SMBs. This connects online presence to offline lead generation in a more holistic reputation management solution. It also allows businesses to build off of phone conversations to push into social media and deal-a-day offers through a deeper understanding of met and unmet customer demands.

BIA/Kelsey forecasts that local advertising spend on ERPM will reach $3.5 billion in revenues by 2014, and several major brands — Marchex, MerchantCircle, ReachLocal (through SMB Live), Yext (Yext Rep), Yellowbot and others — are lining up to compete for these SMB dollars. 

Telmetrics President Bill Dinan told BIA/Kelsey that VendAsta’s move into call tracking represents an important step in the company’s “drive to distinguish” in this crowded sector. “The wave of the future in local search is that you have to specialize in somthing.”

StepRep is one of many white-label products that VendAsta offers for publishers to rebrand for their local merchants. The Saskatchewan-based software provider offers a daily deal white label called Daily Deals 3S that has been picked up by both DirectWest in Saskatchewan (MySaskDeals) and Winnipeg publisher EX Finder (EZ Deal). Its suite also includes a social recommendation engine to validate consumer reviews through users’ personal networks.

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The conference will kick off on Tuesday, Sept. 14, with a keynote address from Yext CEO Howard Lerman. Yext launched Yext Rep in May and announced a co-branded deal to offer its solution toSuperMedia advertisers in June. Lerman will likely discuss Yext Rep as well as his overall vision for how leads are driven to SMBs in the near future.

Mid-afternoon Tuesday, we’ll have a panel dedicated to the topic of reputation management with representatives from three leading reputation management players on hand: Moon Valley Software, Solfo/YellowBot.com and VendAsta. They’ll enter a discussion with BIA/Kelsey moderator Matt Booth, who will pepper them with questions about how they convince media players (i.e., directory publishers) that they need to provide their SMB advertisers with a tool to monitor, respond to and/or update their presence, reviews and performance online.

Brendan King of VendAsta will talk about its StepRep product, which has been around since 2008 and features some cool social graph tools. Emad Fanous will talk about YellowBot’s success with its Weblocal.ca rollout that occurred in March. One of the newer kids on the block is Moon Valley Software’s MyRepMan product that officially debuted in May. Pete Ryan will be on stage to talk about how MyRepMan, which MoonValley co-markets with partner Acxiom, adds functionality such as a scoring tool and syndication model (on top of basic monitoring of reviews, blogs, listings data and the like) to help track SMBs’ progress online.

These very short presentations will lead to a discussion where the tough questions about reputation management will be put to the panelists. If you’re looking for a better understanding of what rep management is, and whether it’s a genuine opportunity for companies selling marketing services to SMBs, make sure you make this 3:45 p.m. panel on Tuesday, Sept. 14.

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