Category: Events

The November 2015 AZIMA event invited Cory Elliot, VP of research at Borrell Associates, to share some useful and interesting research about small- to medium-sized-business owners and their perceptions of current marketing trends. For those who missed his presentation, here’s a recap with all the highlights.

Borrell Associates conducted a survey among SMB owners at 110 of its partnering entities in Q1 of 2015. This survey asked about spending on marketing now and in the future, as well as which tactics these business owners were most interested in using. The results pointed to a few common trends and challenges.

Overall Trends

According to the research, it seems SMB owners are overwhelmed by the number of marketing channels and options available in today’s landscape. They are interested in digital tactics, and there seems to be an increase in focus and spending on online marketing and advertising. In fact, digital ad purchasing exceeded print in quarter 1 of 2015, and the research suggests digital media will account for half of all local marketing efforts in 2016. Online and mobile tactics are also predicted to have the greatest increase in interest, while directories and local newspapers are expected to see the biggest decrease.

Based on the survey, it seems the hottest digital marketing opportunities for SMBs might not be ads. While search and social ad use are on the rise, small businesses are spending the most of their digital budgets on the following services (in order):

1. Website design/hosting
2. Social network support
3. Lead generation programs
4. Graphic design services
5. Event marketing

Segment Trends

While many SMBs are increasing spending for online and digital tactics, some industries are doing more so than others. According to the survey, morticians, pet stores and government entities spend the very least on digital marketing. On the contrary, the automotive industry is quickly taking advantage of digital channels, as 66 percent of auto marketing budgets have been spent online and on mobile so far in 2015. Health care businesses are also beginning to spend more on digital marketing this year, with additional planned budget increases in the near future.

SMB Challenges

By far the greatest challenge noted by those surveyed was a lack of time. With so many options and how quickly channels change, staying on top of all of a small business’s digital assets is hard to do. Additional challenges included keeping up with social media trends and technology, as well as measuring marketing efforts.

Working with SMBs

To make this and other challenges easier to manage, Elliot suggests digital agencies and media companies consider the following when partnering with SMBs:

• Establish ROI parameters first
• Create “social” campaigns
• Invest in social media management capabilities
• Respect the SMB owner’s time and budget
• Read up on beacons (fast – it’s the next big thing)

The insights provided by Elliot’s research provide marketers a better understanding of the perceptions the owners of small- to medium-sized businesses might have. We thank Cory Elliot for sharing his research with AZIMA and giving an interesting and valuable presentation.

A special thanks to Jessica Ropolo for her expert help with writing this post. 

As content marketing rapidly evolves, the key to businesses successfully adopting it into their strategy is to know where it’s heading. Joe Griffin, CEO and co-founder of Phoenix-based iAcquire and ClearVoice,shared his knowledge and vision of the future of content marketing with a presentation to more than 120 guests on July 17th at Arizona Interactive Marketing Association’s (AZIMA) monthly program.

While highlighting the fall of traditional content channels and sharing the ingredients of the “brave new world” of content marketing, Joe started his presentation by clarifying the shift from the old to new.

“The future of content marketing is here,” he said. “The general collapse of big journalism, the shift in consumerism over the last four years, adoption and usage of smartphones and smart tvs, and big data is changing the marketing landscape forever.”

Joe outlined the future with interesting statistics by illustrating some of the trends that determine the future of content. First he shared these startling mobile, social and search figures:

• Smartphone ownership skyrocketed from 63 million in 2010 to 166 million in 2014
• Smartphone usage followed the same path with an average use time/day of 24 minutes in 2010 to 2 hours and 51 minutes in 2014
• The number of daily searches went from 3.6 billion/day in 2010 to almost 6 billion in 2014
• In 2010, 62{2bbd478b6aadf2a9bb5e10dcf35d17c0d0772390afbaf5ac8145fb1096668903} of the population was on social media and in 2014 the number still climbed to 72{2bbd478b6aadf2a9bb5e10dcf35d17c0d0772390afbaf5ac8145fb1096668903}

“The mobile revolution is the most fundamental change in the way we work,” Joe said.“The process of the purchase funnel is at the core of any content strategy.” He further explained this point with a graph that showed how mobile, search and social create myriad influences a buyer now considers on the path to purchase.

The presentation then highlighted the dramatic fall of traditional content producers and the shift to new publishers of content.

• Newspapers newsroom workforce dropped from about 56,000 employees in 2006 to 38,000 in 2012
• Native digital news organizations grow their staff
  • Vice: 1,100 employees
  • Huffington Post: 575 employees
  • Politico: 185 employees

Joe continued with what he calls the “Content Conundrum” by sharing a slide labeled “The Deluge of Crap.” As brands and many others become publishers of content the amount of quality content lessens. As search engines like Google and its Panda update attempt to battle this deluge, strategic content marketers have an opportunity to shine. “The winners in the post-deluge era will be the companies that build something precious,” Joe said, coining a quote from Velocity Partners.

After explaining the past and current content atmosphere, Joe shared the future of content marketing. “Big data, content targeting, native advertising, retargeting, off-line convergence and influencers are changing the game,” he said.

His presentation continued to explain in greater detail these future content marketing elements culminating with iAcquire’s unique ClearVoice tool to help find and connect with targeted influencers.

To learn more about what caused these fundamental changes to content and elements of the future of content marketing, check out Joe’s presentation here:

Be sure to join us on Thurs., Aug. 21 for our next program, “Is the Second Screen Experience Overrated?” Hosted in conjunction with Ad2 Phoenix, this unique program takes place at Macayo’s Restaurant in Phoenix and features a panel of experts who will discuss this popular topic.

We encourage you to learn more about AZIMA and contact one of our board members with any questions!