Strategies & Best Practices to Help Combat SMB Churn

Even after a decade or more of trying, small business churn remains stubbornly high. Local Search Association’s (LSA) Greg Sterling has said that in many cases and for many companies churn rates are north of 50% or 75% annually — meaning 75% of advertisers turn over on an annual basis for many vendors of digital marketing services.

As traditional media and digital pure plays strive to find the right mix of product, service and scale, no one seems to have fully cracked the code on local digital media sales. However, at the 2015 LSA Conference in LA, April 20-22, we will explore the latest strategies and best practices that are leading to more retention and client satisfaction.

Workshops and sessions will explore everything from the appropriate marketing mix for small budget advertisers to the need for more transparency. Applicable sessions and speakers include:

• SMB Marketing 2.0: The Arrival of CRM and Automation (Yelp, GoDaddy, Camilyo)
• Transparency and Transformation: A Conversation with ReachLocal CEO Sharon Rowlands
• Serving the Small-Budget Marketer (Moz, Closely, Local SEO Guide)
• Solving the SMB Retention Challenge (ReachLocal, BuzzBoard, Milestone Internet Marketing, AdMax Local, Advance Digital)
• Sales and Retention Workshop
  • Crafting a Compelling Sales Offering for Today’s More Savvy SMBs (Search Influence)

• Selling Mobile to Small Businesses: What’s Working Now? (UpSnap)
• Research: Triggers and Causes of SMB Churn (Vendasta)
• Sales 2.0: Best Practices (LA Times Media Group, BuzzBoard, Closely, Smartreach Digital)

In addition to all of these discussions on sales, the LSA|15 event will explore a variety of mobile related topics that will be tactical in nature. With mobile overtaking PCs for local search this year and Google’s coming algorithm change that will reward mobile friendly sites, these sessions are extremely timely and relevant.

Finally, in advance of the main LSA|15 event, on Sunday, April 19 we are hosting an SMB Digital Boot Camp where L.A.-area business owners can learn more about digital marketing from Google, Yelp, Yahoo, Bing, GoDaddy, YP, Goodzer, BuzzBoard and more. Working closely with these partners, we anticipate around 200 SMBs will be in attendance.

Overall, LSA|15 will offer a 360 degree view of what’s going on in the location-based marketing and advertising space. Content and sessions will be practical, tactical and prescriptive with a focus on case studies, examples, data and best practices.

We are offering Street Fight readers a 10% discount on registration for LSA|15. Simply use promo code “STREETFIGHT” upon registering. For more info on the event, click here.