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Kelsey ILM Coverage: Let’s Talk SMB Adoption
By Teri Foley | November 28, 2007
The Kelsey ILM show started out strong with its first session on why and how local businesses should be taking advantage of online SEM. The panel of speakers from Google, ReachLocal, Localeze, and Zvents and Topix brought a broad overview to the topic.
Zorik Gordon, the President and CEO of ReachLocal answered the “why” question succinctly: “Fundamentally as an offline business, you need to follow your customers…today that’s where the online opportunity is.” “Small businesses cannot afford NOT to be online today.”
Gordon also believes that small businesses won’t self-service their online search marketing efforts. ReachLocal found that their customers would rather cut a check than figure out how to manage campaigns. ReachLocal’s average customer is spending about $1,000/month on SEM, which Gordon recognizes is a slightly larger-spending customer than the average SMB. In their experience, advertisers that do leave to do-it-themselves end up coming back. In my own experience in working with small business owners, most of which are spending less than $1000/month on SEM, many think that doing it themselves will be easy to do and less costly than having professionals do it for them. I’ve heard from many of these advertisers that after a year or so of trying to do it on their own that it isn’t easier, more effective, or less costly. Even Eric Stein, the Director of Local Markets for Google, has said that for SMB owners “there is some level of service that is needed” for doing local SEM.
Topics: The Kelsey Group, Local Advertisers, Advertising |