For each of the last four years we have welcomed more new members than the year previous, at numbers we hadn’t seen in recent history. 2017 was, once again, our biggest year yet, with 66 new members spanning the local ecosystem. (View new members from: 2016, 2015, 2014) We remain focused on representing the interests…
A little noticed “addendum” to the IAB’s Internet Revenue Half Year Report, released last month, argued that ad spending among national advertisers is flat to anemic and that big internet ad platforms and exchanges will need to recruit more SMBs in order to drive future growth. The short addendum, which relies entirely on third party…
Email has long been seen as the most effective digital marketing tactic by many marketers. While some believe it still is, a new study argues there’s less of a consensus today. According to a survey of 271 marketing influencers, 18% said social media was the most effective digital marketing channel. Following that was content marketing…
One of the questions that intrigues me most these days is: how will machine learning and artificial intelligence impact small business marketing? That’s the subject of a panel I’m moderating at next week’s Cloud Adoption Summit, featuring iPromote, Facebook and Google. Will it primarily benefit marketing services providers who work with SMBs? Or will we…
Other than online display advertising and paid search, local marketers are largely still focusing co-op efforts on legacy media. A recent LSA survey of local marketers found that five of the top six most commonly used channels used for co-op represent legacy media: newspapers (1), yellow pages (3), out-of-home/billboards (4), radio (5) and direct mail…
Last year a survey from Capital One found that 61% of SMBs were utilizing social media for their business while only 56% had a company website. Furthermore, the survey found 32% said increasing advertising and marketing efforts would best improve business, with only 14% saying the same about creating a website. SMBs’ social media pages…
According to a new study, 68% of consumers left a review for a local business when asked; 74% of survey respondents said they were asked to leave a review. This suggests businesses that simply ask for reviews are more likely to get them than those that don’t. Overall, 97% of consumers said they had looked…
The ways potential clients find local businesses are changing dramatically. However, the marketing funnel for SMBs should remain the same. Google’s Consumer Barometer offers insights into how local consumers use the internet and how they interact with digital assets of SMBs. Using this data, marketers can help local businesses create content and campaigns for each…
At the Place Conference last month, Walter Geer, VP and creative director at Verve, said that data is like marketing fuel and the creative is the vehicle that the fuel goes in. In other words, marketers may have access to data and customer insights that aid in targeting and reach, but it is the creative…
According to SMB polling by Alignable, Amazon once again has the highest net promoter score (NPS) of any of the 100+ brands it measures, for the fifth quarter in a row. Alignable groups Amazon into the “office supplies and services” category where it competes with FedEx, OfficeDepot, Staples, Vistaprint and others. However the e-commerce giant carried…
