SMBs Seek Speedy Relief to Recover in 2021
The Biden administration is pledging $15 billion in grants to help businesses, and $35 billion for small business financing programs, as part of its new American Rescue Plan. But many grants and recovery programs have long timelines, and business owners are saying they need more immediate support.
What Alignable’s New Trust Ratings Mean for Loyalty Vendors
Based on the results in Alignable’s 2018 Q1 Small Business Trust Index, the three least trusted categories of vendors include legal, hiring and people management, and loyalty and rewards. Alignable’s findings were based on Net Promoter Score ranges and averages for each products and services category.
How SMB Networking is Driving More Referral Marketing
Many small businesses have picked up on referral marketing options, but word-of-mouth referrals are an ancillary benefit of networking with other local business owners. “The entire business community needs a way to connect and have ongoing dialogue,” says Ro Prakash, co-founder of Townsquared.
New Alignable Rankings Shed Light on What SMBs Really Think of Tech Vendors
Alignable, a social networking platform for small business owners, has released its first quarterly SMB Trust Index which shows what small businesses think of a variety of small business technology brands. The index features a Net Promoter Score (NPS), which ranks products and services by user
Small Businesses Rate Social, SEO, Email as Most Effective Marketing Tools
Small businesses continue to be in love with social media. In the first in a series of surveys Street Fight will be conducting with Alignable, we asked approximately 100 small business owners to rate their most effective marketing tools and tactics among a list of a dozen. Two-thirds of respondents selected social media as one of their top three. SEO and email rounded out the list of leading techniques.
Street Fight Daily: Starbucks Launches Mobile Ordering, a Recap of Google’s Local Search Updates
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Never Wait in Line Again: Starbucks Rolls Out Mobile Ordering Nationwide (Mashable)… The New Google Local Search Display (Search Engine Land)… Postmates Unveils Revamped Platform, Announces 4 Million Deliveries (TechCrunch)…
Microsoft Is a Sleeping Giant in Local — But Its Window May Be Closing
What’s the most important dataset for a small business? More often than not, it’s a customer list. A batch of new relationship management systems have popped to make sense of customer data for small merchants in recent years, but the technology with the biggest market share isn’t what you might think…
Can Amazon Bring One-Click Purchasing to Home Services? Here’s What Experts Think
Earlier this week, Amazon launched its widely-anticipated Home Services marketplace where you can book plumbers, painters and other professionals. We caught up with a handful of small business experts to breakdown the news and handicap Amazon’s chances of transitioning its dominant position in ecommerce to a complex and scattered service landscape…
5 Keys to Small Business Success From 2014
Given all the hyperlocal solutions aimed at small businesses, it’s no wonder merchants took a varied approach in 2014. Over the past year, merchants have become savvier about online marketing solutions, and as a result, many are now willing to try platforms they would not have been comfortable using in previous years…
Alignable Growing a Social Network for Small Businesses
Founded by the co-founders of Constant Contact and Invisalign, Alignable allows small businesses owners to share information, ask questions, and seek answers from other merchants nearby and business owners in similar industries across the country. Think Nextdoor — but with worried store owners instead of overbearing parents.
Selling to SMBs: AIDA and The Conversion Zone
I’m often asked by entrepreneurs and venture capitalists alike to talk about what changes throughout the course of the “bell curve ride” in selling to small and medium-sized businesses — and how organizations need to adapt at each stage in order to ensure continued success. Here’s the best way I can explain how it all works.