SMB Research

The right info for your business

With so many resources in the market today, you could spend all of your time looking for the information you need to make informed business decisions. So we thought we’d make it easier on you, and provide you with relevant research insights that will assist you in expanding your advertising presence. The following articles are the most up-to-date research materials for businesses like yours.

 

Five things you should know about retail mobile marketing
Retail specialist Emily Timko of Microsoft Advertising shares her point of view on how consumers’ use of mobile devices is impacting retail advertising. Here are the key stats that influenced her outlook:

 

• Gartner, an IT research and advisory firm, estimates that 3 billion adults around the world will be equipped to conduct transactions via mobile or Internet technology by 2014. ¹ 
• Mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common web access device worldwide by 2013. ²

  

Find out more  about the power of connected consumers.

SMB optimism is infectious

A recent study by Forbes Insights shows that despite the economic challenges of the last two years, most small to mid-size businesses (SMBs) feel that the worst is behind us, and they are optimistic about the future. Highlights of the findings include:

 

• Small-business owners are feeling the impact of this economic pressure, working harder and longer than ever before. Still, there could be a payoff: many feel that they are now smarter about running their businesses and are better leaders.

• Most small-business owners expect their 2010 revenues to grow. But they see the world changing. As a result, they will have to do business in new ways to succeed in a more competitive marketplace
• Small-business owners know the importance of planning and want to spend more time doing it. However, many seem to be unclear about how to better focus their efforts.

 

Forbes Insights - "U.S. Small Business Outlook 2010: Lessons Learned—a Case for Greater Optimism."

Sit up and take notice of search and social media
Consumers—your customers—are critics, creators, and conversationalists, and Forrester’s Social Technographics study shows that they are becoming more active online with every year that passes. So as social platforms and search engines merge, an understanding of the two has become necessary not just for PR and marketing departments, but for every single function of a business.

This report provides three takeaways for SMBs:

• Combined effect: Search and social media are working together and replacing microsites.
• Informing strategy: Social media research is an important way to inform your search and overall business strategy.
• Response and reputation: Search and social media can be used as a response tool to successfully manage your reputation online. 

 

Learn how to make your brand stand out.

Boost the effectiveness of display ads with search
In a recent study commissioned by iProspect, findings show that online display advertising is an effective channel on its own, but its power is substantially improved when it is paired with search engine marketing—an important consideration for SMBs like you. Here are some of the stats from this report:

 

• More than half of Internet users actively respond to online display advertising.

• Nearly four in 10 Internet users who respond to online display advertising learn about a brand for the first time as a result of their exposure to such an ad.

• Nearly four in 10 Internet users eventually perform a search on the company, product, or service that is the focus of the online display ad to which they are exposed, and then visit the website from the search results. 

 

Read more about this integration study.

Search engines are now the number-one resource used by your customers
Nearly nine out of 10 people use search engines to find local businesses from which to shop—more than 1 billion local searches every month. In fact, an entire generation has now grown up in the Internet age, and they rarely consider traditional offline advertising resources for their local information needs. Of the 18- to 24-year-olds in this survey, 85 percent rely on search engines. And 67 percent of those over the age of 65 look to search engines.³

 

Key takeaway: No matter what the age of your customers, search engines are the primary resource used to find your business.

 

WebVisible research: "Why search matters to local business." 

 

¹ Mark Walsh, “Gartner: Mobile to Outpace Desktop Web by 2013,” Online Media Daily, January 13, 2010. 

² Mark Walsh, “Gartner: Mobile to Outpace Desktop Web by 2013,” Online Media Daily, January 13, 2010. 
³ A WebVisible and Nielsen NetRatings survey, September 2007.