Digital Advertising, Performance and Retention Solutions Will Be 70% of SMB …

CHANTILLY, Va., Aug. 30, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ –
Small and medium-sized businesses will continue the recent trend of shifting their marketing budgets to digital advertising, performance-based platforms and customer retention business solutions over the next five years, according to a new U.S. SMB Spending Forecast by BIA/Kelsey. This trend creates an increasingly large market opportunity for businesses serving SMBs and developing SMB tools.

By 2015 SMBs will allocate 30 percent of their marketing budgets to traditional advertising (down from 52 percent in 2010), with the remaining 70 percent going to digital/online media (mobile, social, online directories, online display, digital outdoor), performance-based commerce (pay-per-click, deals, couponing) and customer retention business solutions (email, reputation and presence management, websites, social marketing, calendaring/appointment-setting).

“With the advent of daily deals to drive customer acquisition, SMBs are now increasingly focused on leveraging technological solutions to engage, grow and retain a higher percentage of their customers,” said Neal Polachek, president, BIA/Kelsey. “As this trend accelerates, these SMBs will turn to outside providers — media companies as well as pure-play technology providers — to harness simple tools, which will enable them to maximize the long-term value of each new customer they acquire.”

BIA/Kelsey’s U.S. SMB Spending Forecast is derived from the firm’s U.S. Local Media Annual Forecast and its proprietary Local Commerce Monitor study, which tracks the advertising and marketing spending habits of SMBs. The forecast’s key findings include:

Overall, U.S. SMB spending on media, marketing and business solutions will grow from $22.4 billion in 2010 to $40.2 billion in 2015, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12 percent.

SMB spending on traditional advertising will be essentially flat during the forecast period, experiencing a 0.6 percent CAGR, from $11.8 billion in 2010 to $12.1 billion in 2015.

SMB spending on digital/online media will grow from $5.4 billion in 2010 to $16.6 billion in 2015 (24.9 percent CAGR).

SMBs will also increase spending on performance-based commerce and transaction platforms, from $1.7 billion in 2010 to $4.6 billion in 2015 (21.5 percent CAGR).

Spending by SMBs on customer retention business solutions will grow from $3.5 billion in 2010 to $6.9 billion in 2015 (14.6 percent CAGR).

“Our forecast clearly indicates that the allocation of SMB advertising and marketing dollars for acquiring and retaining customers will both shift and grow over the next five years,” said Mark Fratrik, vice president, BIA/Kelsey. “Traditional media companies and new upstarts that are actively building products and solutions in the areas of digital display, SEM/SEO, email marketing, calendaring, and other acquisition and retention tools will be in a good position to take full advantage of this substantive change in the overall SMB landscape.”

BIA/Kelsey will present its new U.S. SMB Spending Forecast to attendees of its upcoming conference, DMS ’11: The Summit for Small-Business Advertising Solutions, which takes place Sept. 20-22 in Denver. DMS ’11 is focused on how marketing services and solution providers can increase their penetration and profitability with SMBs.

The DMS ’11 program features more than 50 senior executives from across the small-business marketing solutions marketplace, including headliners Rita Fabi, head of market solutions, global customer marketing and communications, Facebook; Joe Walsh, president and CEO, Yellowbook; Clare Hart, CEO, Infogroup; Pat Hays, vice president of global search and display services, Microsoft; and Ben Smith, founder, MerchantCircle.

Conference sponsors include 3L System Group, Acxiom, Amdocs, Hostopia, Infycosm, Kenshoo Local, Local Matters, Localeze, Location3 Media, Marchex, Moon Valley, Telmetrics, TrafficMedia and vSplash. Association partners include the Association of Directory Publishers and the Local Search Association. Media partners include BIG Marketing for Small Business, ConferenceGuru.com, Search Marketing Standard Magazine, Street Fight, Topseos and Visibility Magazine. For more information about DMS ’11, including the complete agenda, list of speakers and companies attending, visit
www.biakelsey.com/DMS2011 .

About BIA/Kelsey

BIA/Kelsey advises companies in the local media space through consulting and valuation services, research, Continuous Advisory Services and conferences. Since 1983 BIA/Kelsey has been a resource to the media, mobile advertising, telecommunications, Yellow Pages and electronic directory markets, as well as to government agencies, law firms and investment companies looking to understand trends and revenue drivers. BIA/Kelsey’s annual conferences draw executives from across industries seeking expert guidance on how companies are finding innovative ways to grow. Additional information is available at
http://www.biakelsey.com , on the company’s Local Media Watch blog, Twitter (
http://twitter.com/BIAKelsey ) and Facebook (
http://www.facebook.com/biakelsey ).

SOURCE BIA/Kelsey

Copyright (C) 2011 PR Newswire. All rights reserved

Share and Enjoy

Responsys Finds Email Is Vital to Retailers’ Social Community Building Efforts

SAN BRUNO, CA, Aug 30, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) –
Responsys, Inc.


/quotes/zigman/4887515/quotes/nls/mktg MKTG
+4.99%



, the leading provider of email and
cross-channel marketing solutions, today announced the release of the
Viral Community Links in Emails 2011 report, which found that
retailers are more focused on using their email marketing programs to
promote their social communities and less focused on email for social
sharing.

Email marketing continues to be a key tactic for raising awareness of
and driving traffic to retailers’ communities on Facebook, Twitter
and other social media sites. Among the top online retailers tracked
by the Retail Email Blog, 88% of them include community links in
their promotional emails, up from 75% in 2010, approaching near
universal adoption.

“This report is a strong endorsement of email’s ability to raise
awareness of and drive traffic to brands’ social media pages on an
ongoing basis,” said Ed Henrich, Senior Vice President of
Professional Services at Responsys. “It’s also further evidence that
cross-channel integration is increasingly vital to future marketing
success.”

Facebook and Twitter dominate retailers’ community efforts, although
YouTube has grown to become a strong third-place contender. Every
retailer in the study linked to Facebook from their emails; 84%
linked to Twitter; and 29% linked to YouTube.

However, fewer retailers are including share-with-your-network (SWYN)
links in their emails, instead relying on their websites to spur
social sharing. The percentage of retailers that include a SWYN link
in every promotional email dropped to 25% from 26% in 2010 after
rising from 12% in 2009.

“Three times as many retailers include share-with-your-network (SWYN)
links on their product pages as regularly as they include them in
their emails,” said Chad White, Research Director at Responsys and
author of the Viral Community Links in Emails 2011 report. “That’s
a strong indication that retailers are sold on the benefits of SWYN,
but that placement further down the sales funnel is more effective in
general.”

Meanwhile, forward-to-a-friend (FTAF) usage continues its long-term
decline, dropping to 41% from 44% in 2010 and 48% in 2009. Overall,
52% of retailers now include some viral mechanism — either SWYN or
FTAF — in their emails, down from 56% in 2010.

For information on how to obtain a copy of the complimentary Viral
Community Links in Emails 2011 report, please visit:

http://www.responsys.com/land/viral-community-links-in-emails.php?cid=70150000000c2vGAAQ

About Responsys
Responsys is the leading provider of email and
cross-channel marketing solutions that enable companies to engage in
relationship marketing across the interactive channels customers are
embracing today — email, mobile, social and the web. With Responsys
solutions, marketers can create, execute, and automate highly dynamic
campaigns and lifecycle marketing programs that are designed to grow
revenue, increase marketing efficiency, and strengthen customer
loyalty. Responsys’ New School Marketing vision, flexible on-demand
application suite, and customer success-focused services aim to
deliver high ROI, increased levels of automation and fast
time-to-value. Founded in 1998, Responsys is headquartered in San
Bruno, California and has offices throughout the world. Responsys
serves world-class brands such as: American Family Mutual Insurance
Company, Avis Europe, Continental Airlines, Deutsche Lufthansa,
Dollar Thrifty, Lands’ End, LEGO, LinkedIn, Newegg, Orbitz, Qantas,
Southwest Airlines, and UnitedHealthcare. For more information about
Responsys, visit responsys.com.

Additional Resources

https://www.facebook.com/Responsys


https://www.twitter.com/Responsys

        
        Contact:
        Kimberly Canedo
        Responsys, Inc.
        (650) 745-1720
        Email Contact
        
        
        

SOURCE: Responsys

http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/emailprcntct?id=6D524446CAB7EBE0

Copyright 2011 Marketwire, Inc., All rights reserved.

/quotes/zigman/4887515/quotes/nls/mktg

Add MKTG to portfolio

MKTG

Share and Enjoy