Get inside the mind of today’s savvy advertisers.
The changing operational needs of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), brands and franchisors has a direct impact on how they want to allocate their marketing and advertising dollars to reach their customers.
Local Commerce Monitor™ (LCM) is BIA’s proprietary annual survey of SMB advertisers. The survey tracks SMB spending, web footprint, media performance assessments, and opinions about key topics like emerging media and sales channels. For this survey, “SMB” is defined as a business having from 1 to 100 employees.
LCM covers 50+ different media and platforms used by small businesses for marketing and promotion. The survey is updated annually.
Top-level media segments covered include:
- Social Media
- Digital Search and Display
- Mobile
- Email marketing & CRM
- Loyalty Programs & Transactions
- Video
- TV & Cable
- Radio and Streaming audio
- Print and Digital Directories
- Direct Mail
- Newspapers & Magazines
- Deals & Coupons
- Giveaway Items
- Community Sponsorships
- Product & Marketing Managers
- PR and Communications Managers
- CMOs
- Businesses Development Directors
- Sales Managers
- Sales Training Directors
- Anyone building a business among SMBs
- Product Road maps and new product feature developments
- Sales training programs and tools
- Sales training programs and tools
- Market sizing and marketing opportunity strategies
- Supports PR initiatives
- Market planning and selling strategies
- New market or product entry strategies
- Industry marketing and sales tools
The recent LCM Survey (Wave 21, Q3/2017) reveals that SMBs view Facebook, Twitter and their own web assets as more important today than ever before. It also reveals that SMBs will continue to allocate more and more of their marketing budget in these directions.
In contrast, franchisees use more advertising channels and adopt digital channels at a higher rate than most small businesses. Brands, on the other hand, are focused on data-driven metrics and stacked programmatic buys to augment their traditional approaches.
BIA works with a broad range of clients to deliver customized insights around the marketing and advertising trends of advertisers. Contact us to discuss your specific interests.
RECENT SURVEY BLOGS
Accessing the Research
LCM survey data is available through a subscription to BIA ADVantage, advertising intelligence data platform, or by purchasing individual reports.
Subscribers of BIA ADVantage can view the research immediately from the online dashboard.
Reports are available for purchase here.
Mobile Advertising and Small Businesses
The Local Commerce Monitor™ (LCM) report, Mobile Advertising & Small Businesses, examines the advertising opportunity and preferences of SMBs that use one or more mobile media channels for advertising and promotion. This 28 page report includes 7 charts and 5 pages of commentary on: Their usage of mobile media channels and their ROI assessment Which mobile media…
Advertising Habits of Established Small Businesses
In our recent Local Commerce Monitor™ (LCM) report, Established Small Businesses Advertising and Marketing Trends, BIA examines the similarities and differences in marketing and advertising activities of established small business groups. These businesses are identified by a question in our survey that asks what stage in the businesses cycle a respondent is in. As revealed in the…
Advertising Habits of New Small Businesses
In the Local Commerce Monitor™ (LCM) report, New Small Businesses Marketing and Advertising Trends, BIA examines the similarities and differences in marketing and advertising activities of both new and established small business groups. These businesses are identified by a question in our survey that asks what stage in the businesses cycle a respondent is in. As revealed in…
Small Businesses in Financial Services
The Financial Services vertical includes SMBs in accounting/bookkeeping, insurance and real estate brokerage. The report includes how much SMBs plan to spend on both traditional and digital channels now and in the future. It also covers complementary marketing and business service products that SMBs use and plan to use. The Small Businesses in Financial Services report…
Please email info@bia.com for more information.
BIA conducts the Local Commerce Monitor annually, online, with research partners. For the study, a small business is defined as a business having from 1 to 100 employees. LCM draws its sample of business respondents from a mix of nationally scoped MSAs, primarily based on first- and second-tier markets. Findings are weighted to reflect the incidence of small businesses by size bracket, according to size bracket data provided by the U.S. Bureau of the Census.
Small businesses that
spend less than $25,000 annually
on marketing and promotion.
Small businesses that
spend a minimum of $25,000 annually
on marketing and promotion.