For each of the last four years we have welcomed more new members than the year previous, at numbers we hadn’t seen in recent history. 2017 was, once again, our biggest year yet, with 66 new members spanning the local ecosystem. (View new members from: 2016, 2015, 2014)
We remain focused on representing the interests of the local and location-based marketing space as it relates to SMB and national-to-local marketing. We have expanded member benefits to accommodate a very diverse set of audiences, becoming the meeting place for media publishers, agencies (big and small), MarTech and advertisers (multi-location brands and SMBs).
We couldn’t be more excited about our progress! Here are some of the highlights from 2017:
Conferences: We are continuing to explore new conference and event opportunities. This year we added the SMB Cloud Adoption Summit to our growing event lineup. The event explores the future of the SMB market and the first ever event was in San Francisco on 12.7.17. The Place Conference, which focuses on proximity marketing, was a success in New York City, surpassing 2016’s attendance. Finally, LSA17 was similarly successful and LSA18 is happening April 30 – May 2 in Chicago at the Loew’s Chicago Hotel. Mark your calendar!
SMB Education: We hosted five SMB marketing bootcamps in Phoenix, Nashville, Atlanta, New York City and Detroit this year. We plan to host additional bootcamps in 2018 but the schedule hasn’t been solidified yet. In addition, we continue to provide SMBs with the information they need to better understand digital marketing on MarketingBitz.com. There are many ways to get involved with our SMB education efforts in 2018.
LSA Co-op: LSA continues to invest in offering best-in-class co-op advertising support, insights and services. If you sell marketing and advertising services to small businesses, and aren’t already working with us, let us help you take advantage of this massive opportunity.
Tech Adoption Index (TAI): We began a new initiative, the Tech Adoption Index, as a way to measure the SMB market’s shift to cloud-based services. This initiative features a biannual tracking study, provider database and analysis services designed to help SMB providers make strategic businesses decisions as it relates to product development, competitive differentiation and growth strategies.
LSA Certification: To help combat mistrust from lofty or misleading claims in the marketing community, we introduced LSA Certification. LSA Certification is intended to foster trust between advertisers (buyers) and marketing providers (sellers) by evaluating the business practices of these providers.
SMB Surveys: Having built an audience of SMBs via our MarketingBitz.com platform, we are now offering our members the opportunity to survey this SMB audience. Pricing depends on the number of completes.
Custom Research: LSA offers custom research and analysis services focused on consumer behavior, SMBs and enterprise clients. Findings are used for planning, product development and sales support. If you have research funds budgeted for thought leadership or content marketing, consider taking advantage of LSA’s years of industry knowledge and expertise.
Insights and Data Services: In 2018 we plan to deliver more of the insights you’ve come to rely on from LSA. This will come in the form of marketing decks, blogs, reports, infographics and much more. If you have specific requests, we’ll find related stats and studies (proprietary and third party) to help with whatever project you’re working on. Just let us know what you need, and we’ll find what you’re looking for.
Exposure Opportunities: LSA’s blog offers opportunities for members and industry experts to offer their perspective on critical developments in the local media and marketing space. In 2017 we hosted almost 20 webinars, and plan to host as many in 2018. We also started our “On Target” podcast and you can check out all of the episodes by clicking here.
Membership Diversity: We welcomed 66 new members to the Association this year and big jump from the 48 new members in 2016. We’ll continue to expand and diversify our membership to be more reflective of the current marketplace.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of everything we do that benefits our members and we have some new initiatives coming in 2018 so stay tuned. Click here to learn more about LSA Membership or feel free to email us at membership@theLSA.org.
