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Facebook SMB Resellers Make Argument for Their Platforms

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Are SMBs going to turn to middlemen to handle their Facebook advertising? As four million SMB advertisers know, Facebook advertising is accessible, low commitment and inexpensive. It is fairly ideal for promoting local awareness and events.

Facebook also delivers an audience that’s much less fragmented than search engines. From a vendor’s point of view, it tends to be much more profitable.

It’s also an increasingly well-rounded platform. Many SMBs are already working with Facebook’s SMB lead ads, local awareness ads and Website click ads. New features coming up include coupons/offers; brand awareness with embedded video; carousels with multiple ad options; and boosted posts.

What are the pros of working with Facebook? Its targeting is especially strong. So-called “lookalike audiences” can greatly boost an SMBs reach. SMBs can also use Facebook to close the loop on people who visit their site, or if they can provide snippets of lead information to Facebook (names, phone numbers or emails). Facebook’s strong reach leads to a match rate of 50-70 percent.

And the potential cons? All these offerings require a learning curve and practice. And given that the success of campaigns often depends on 2x or more frequency…the logistics of building on successful campaigns aren’t always easy to accomplish.

Facebook also isn’t the perfect solution for every need. It isn’t yet a real marketplace or directory where people go just before they buy something .“People don’t go to Facebook to make decisions,” noted AdEspresso’s Armando Bondi. “They go to Facebook to avoid making decisions.”

At Borrell’s LOAC West last week in San Francisco, a group of tech vendors – including AdEspresso, as well as GotU, Acquisio, Tiger Pistol and CitizenNet — discussed the challenges of maximizing an SMB’s presence on Facebook, and the programs that they have developed as middlemen for local media and directory players.

Many of the companies that provide marketing for SMBs are already utilizing some of these platforms. GotU, for instance, is already providing its Facebook platform to 18 Yellow Pages companies and related SMB resellers – mostly in Europe. With the support of these kinds of vendors and the local ecosystem, Facebook is likely to take an even stronger role with local/smb marketing.


Olivier Vincent on SMB Marketing, 2016-17: ‘More than Google and Facebook’

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Selling marketing services to SMBs is never going to be easy, and Google and Facebook get more than their fair share of business. But the SMB market remains a potential gold mine for platform providers and resellers. To gauge the current environment, we caught up recently with a longtime expert in SMB sales: LocalSphere founder and CEO Olivier Vincent, who previously took on Yellow Pages giant YPG all over Canada with Canpages, before selling to YPG in 2010.

Founded in 2013, LocalSphere updated the SMB marketing model, providing SMBs with content and search services and ecommerce aids such as gift cards. The company gained 500+ SMBs in its hometown of Vancouver, each typically paying $400 or $500 a month.

Last week, the company announced it would merge with Vancouver’s RTown, with Vincent kicking himself upstairs to the merged company’s board. RTown CEO and “Mayor” Luke Aulin will keep the CEO spot. The company has raised an additional $500,000 to jump-start its activities.

Post-deal, we talked with Vincent about what he’s seeing for SMBs. Vancouver fosters a reputation of being “Silicon Valley North,” but Vincent makes clear that even in Vancouver, SMB digital marketing still has some way to go.

The premise remains simple, he says. “Everybody loves local (businesses), but online, you can’t find them. You mostly see big (national names). So as a business person, you know there has to be a huge opportunity to get it right.” But even though there are many marketing players making noise, the solutions aren’t perfect and they are expensive. For the tech provider, it remains difficult to get through “the last mile” to get to the paying SMB,” says Vincent. Moreover, SMBs are besieged by calls, and many aren’t eager to pick up the phone or open their door, either. “Many of them have been burned.

Vincent says he feels one key to success is to provide a variety of products that can be tailored for different results or verticals– RTown + LocalSphere provide 30. But most of those are for upsell. If his salespeople can get in the door, they want to keep things simple and initially push 2-3 products.

“The first 30 seconds are the most difficult” because they have to grab an SMB’s attention,” says Vincent. “They’ll get vertigo if you talk about 30 products.”

Another key to success: temper expectations. Many SMBs expect their investment in marketing to turn around their business. But it takes time. SEO campaigns in themselves take at least a few months to have an impact.

Vincent also notes that only “half” of customers closely track their digital efforts via analytic dashboards etc. But providing analytics aren’t necessarily a wasted effort if customers don’t use them. Many find it reassuring that they are available.

A third and final key to SMB marketing success: make it bigger than just reselling Google, and/or Facebook. Google’s great, says Vincent, but SMBs might get a stronger ROI with a better website, and publishing regular content that keeps them top of mind for their customers.”

It is also important to push “the interaction layer” with customers, such as loyalty programs, eCommerce and gift cards. “Even a carpet cleaner may benefit by offering digital cards on their website,” says Vincent.

6 ‘Local’ Truisms (+ Previews of Borrell LOAC, LSA Shows)

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We’ve probably looked at local from every side: social, brands/location, data/analytics, mobile, search, marketplaces and community. Through it all, some truisms have developed about local:

1. Facebook should be part of every solution. And Google generally is.

2. Vertical beats horizontal for better search and content

3. Location-specific search drives the most transactions, especially for brands

4. Video has been reborn and is key to SMB search. BIA/Kelsey says that more than 1/4 of SMBs will have video this year

5. Small businesses like one-stop sales solutions

6. Local advertisers are branching out, but many remain loyal to traditional media

I’m looking to catch up with industry trends and the various local communities at two upcoming conferences: Local Search Association’s Local:2020 event in San Diego Feb. 27-March 1, where a strong program of industry leaders will gather at the Loews Resort on Coronado and take a search/directory point of view; and Borrell’s Local Online Advertising Conference at The Grand Hyatt in New York March 4-6, which covers the bases, but from a vantage point coming out of local media sales (you will see hundreds of local media leaders there – it is the industry’s biggest gathering).

Either way, a lot of digital dollars are being pumped into the industry now. Borrell estimates that we’ll see $80.7 Billion from local digital in 2017. Per Borrell’s research, targeted banners make up 60% of the digital revenue; untargeted banners represent 9%; paid search represents 14%; and video represents 4%.

I exchanged some email with Gordon Borrell about what his vision for this year’s summit (full disclosure: Gordon and I put together Borrell in 2002-2005). He’s especially psyched about the major collaboration with Facebook. There’ll be four sessions on working with Facebook — there is bound to be very useful info.

Gordon is also excited about the boom in video. Video is “heading skyward,” he notes. Tremor Video VP Lauren Wiener — IAB’s current chair — is keynoting The top leadership of several mega-verticals will be speaking at the event, too. The gold star list includes Realtor.com CEO Ryan O’Hara, TrueCar CEO (and former AutoTrader head) Chip Perry and Home Advisor President Craig Smith. I always learn a lot about what is really happening from Perry and Smith, and am eager for a look at O’Hara’s report card and vision for Realtor.com, which has really taken off this year under NewsCorp.

I’m looking forward to both events, and frankly, travelling to two great cities and former hometowns: San Diego and New York. (Gordon also has agreed to give a $200 discount for Local Onliner readers: Use code “LO 200”).

LocalOnliner’s 2017 Recap and 2018 Predictions

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Quiet progress was made in local commerce in 2017. This year: 1. Amazon brought the focus back to Brick & Mortar. Its purchase of Whole Foods and rollout of experimental Amazon Stores drove a broader “omni-channel” trend, as larger retailers delivered on fully integrated web. mobile and in-store services. WalMart and Target, for instance, are … Continue reading LocalOnliner’s 2017 Recap and 2018 Predictions

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Q&A with Gordon Borrell: ‘We’re at Midstream’ in Media’s Digital Transition

Top 7 Quotes from LSA18 : The State of SMB Tech Marketing

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1.Location Search is increasingly essential for SMB Storefronts. SMB Antique Store Owner: "Two years ago, we were searched by 5% (of customers); now it is 45%.” 2.Product Integration is nice, but should ultimately be about driving revenues. Kerry Baldwin,VP, advertising performance, Web.com: “At the end of the day, you are kind of thinking about your … Continue reading Top 7 Quotes from LSA18 : The State of SMB Tech Marketing

The ‘Best’ Entry Point for SMB Tech Marketing? Broadly Bets on Reviews


Facebook Approaches Banks for a New Generation of ‘Transaction Marketing’

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A Pinterest image of a related Facebook project

Facebook’s reach out to banks and credit card companies for customer bank balance, transaction data and fraud alerts, per today’s Wall Street Journal, signals a second, more cautious run at “transaction marketing.”

The WSJ article details an effort by Facebook to support Messenger via customer data, making it feel safer to use the messaging service to buy goods and browse retail catalogs. The article suggests that several of the contacted banks and credit card companies have been leery to help out, given their own desire to ensure customer privacy. But they also continue to have a strategic objective, possibly waning, to “own” customers for ecommerce efforts.

Indeed, several institutions may be tempted to test it out –if only to keep up with PayPal, Square and others that can introduce similar capabilities.

For Facebook, it is a limited revival of earlier transaction marketing and payment initiatives. In 2014, the company – along with Google, Amazon, Apple and Samsung – was poised to provide more aggressive services that would possibly make them central players in transactions via targeted ad and promotion serving, mobile pay and messaging.

For these players, it didn’t seem a big reach. Facebook, for one, has been taking payments and converting currencies for millions of SMB advertisers. As Facebook noted in 2014, it was already facilitating one million transactions a day. It also was experimenting with “Buy Buttons” with some SMBs.

While Facebook rules out using such data for targeting ads, other pieces of the vision continue to evolve. Facebook and others have also been encouraging consumers to add credit card data. They have also collected reams of user behavior info.

The Facebook play for transaction marketing runs adjacent to a related move two weeks ago to use payment information and mobile pay capabilities to support dining promotions via GrubHub’s $390 Million acquisition of LevelUp.

(Review) The Gen Z Frequency: How Brands Tune in & Build Credibility

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Kids aren’t media consumers, they are “knowledge managers,” constantly evaluating content and data, and discarding what doesn’t help them build their personal brand. How can brands adjust to the new reality?

That‘s the challenge posed by youth marketing experts Gregg Witt and Derek Baird in The Gen Z Frequency: How Brands Tune In & Build Credibility.

“Identity, trust, relevance, possibility and experience” are the five foundational truths of youth marketing, note the authors. Brands need to engage via activities, interests, brand and content affinities, opinions and situational context.

Social media is the best avenue for all this: it’s where kids go to communicate and express themselves. But don’t focus on Facebook. The new breed of multichannel “fandoms,” for instance, use assorted media (websites, video, podcasts, newsletters, IM) to lets kids follow a passion such as a musician, movie or trend.

A lot of a brand’s success is its ability to form partnerships with influencer organizations and individuals. “A brand’s likelihood of building a commercially viable audience with today’s young consumers is in direct relation to a brand’s ability to identify and connect with the right spectrum of groups within youth culture,” say the authors.

Which brands do it best? The authors give kudos to Mountain Dew, which is working to promote the work of street artists; Levis, which is working with urban youth; and Nike, which sponsors various efforts by skateboarders.

This book contains some interesting insights into Gen Z (7-22 year-olds). You’ll learn some valuable things about working with video and emojis, etc. But the authors don’t make an especially strong case that Gen Z is differentiated from Millennials (22-37 year olds). They’re all phone-based and social-media oriented, OK?

The book’s real strength is in several excellent playbook chapters that are organized to help brand marketers assess and segment their target audiences, and build programs geared towards today’s top social media platforms.





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