By Sanjeev Aggarwal and Laurie McCabe, SMB Group, and Brent Leary, CRM Essentials SMB adoption of social media for sales, marketing, product development and customer service is on the rise – but how are SMBs tracking, analyzing and measuring the success of their social media endeavors? In our joint SMB Group/CRM Essentials “2011 Small and Medium Business Social Business Study,” we su...
Tag: Marketing
Changing Customer Service Channels: The Gap Between Social Media Haves and Have Nots
Co-authored by: Laurie McCabe and Sanjeev Aggarwal, SMB Group, and Brent Leary, CRM Essentials How quickly is social media catching on as an engagement channel for SMB customer service and support? It depends on who you ...
Social Business: Why Having a Plan Matters
Co-authored by: Laurie McCabe and Sanjeev Aggarwal, SMB Group, and Brent Leary, CRM Essentials Good plans shape good decisions. That's why good planning helps to make elusive dreams come true. Lester R. Bittel, The Nine Master Keys of Management This seems to be especially true when it comes t...
HubSpot: From Breakthrough to Breakout
I’ve been very impressed by HubSpot, which helps small and medium businesses (SMBs) optimize and streamline their inbound marketing programs (see my 2009 interview with HubSpot Marketing VP Mike Volpe) for a while now. Looks like others are impressed too—as evidenced by HubSpot’s announceme...
SMB Group Top Ten 2011 SMB Technology Predictions
Here are the SMB Group’s Top 10 SMB Technology Predictions for 2011! A more detailed description of each follows below. 1. Mobile Commerce Lifts Off 2. SMBs Demand that Vendors Bring Order to Social Media Chaos
What is Mobile Commerce, and Why Should You Care?
(Originally published September 13, 2010 in Small Business Computing) What is Mobile Commerce? Mobile commerce (also known as mobile ecommerce, m-commerce and other variations) consists of two primary components. The first is the ability ...
Does Your SMB Marketing Message Need a Makeover? Seven Questions to Ask
Countless technology vendors are targeting the increasingly coveted yet still somewhat elusive small and medium business (SMB) market. We do our share of message testing and market strategy work with them, and attend innumerable briefings from other vendors aiming to make their mark in this crowded space. All too often, we see some warning signs that indicate gaps a vendor hasn’t created a str...
Getting in the Social Media Management Game
Social media management for small businesses is a very hot area. A few weeks ago, I posted a blog about social media management solutions available to help small businesses manage their online and social presence more efficiently and effectively. While this is still a very nascent...
What is Social Media Management, and Why Should You Care?
(Originally published on March 4, 2010, in Small Business Computing) What is Social Media Management? As described in the column “
Relevance of Marketing Tools/Media in Customer Acquisition
The topic of lead generation and the role of various media solutions in the lead generation process draw significant conversation. From a survey of small businesses done in the summer of 2009 and detailed in my blog, '