NextDoor Rolls out Free SMB Marketing Tools

Hyperlocal community and news destination NextDoor has unveiled the latest phase of its product road map: free SMB marketing tools. The new suite of tools includes event listings, user polls, video, and unlimited business posts. The multi-format suite is meant to appeal to a wide range of SMB personas.

NextDoor says there are 3.6 million SMBs on its network, which each now have access to the new marketing suite. The company also framed this as a sort of lifeline during difficult economic times. That altruism is certainly respectable, while there are likely business drivers for this move as well.

In that sense, these free tools could be a sort of loss leader or freemium play, meant to demonstrate the impact of NextDoor presence to SMBs. Those that see results could be inclined to double down on their NextDoor promotions… in the form of paid amplification on the network (more on that in a bit).

Nextdoor’s New Product Strategy Aims for a Better Community

Deeper Dive

As for the new additions to the marketing suite, they’re available immediately to any business that has a NextDoor business profile, which is free to set up. The new tools themselves include events, polls, and video, as noted. Here’s a deeper dive on each…

Events: One of the main reasons neighbors come to Nextdoor is to find information about local events. Now, businesses can attract new neighbors and increase foot traffic by creating and sharing events. Events will be featured on the Discover page for neighbors within a 10-mile radius, as well as distributed on the newsfeed of the business’s neighbors and those who have Faved the business.

Polls: Businesses can create polls to learn more about the needs of their customers and discover what neighbors want. Whether it is input on which days to open their doors or a new flavor of ice cream to launch, polls make it easy for businesses to crowdsource data from verified locals.

Video: Video content brings businesses to life by giving neighbors a look at available products or a warm greeting from local employees. In fact, according to the survey, 87% of Nextdoor neighbors are more likely to spend money with a small business if they know something personal about it, like their backstory, history in the neighborhood, or people who work there.

As for the potential reach, NextDoor claims that it’s present in 305,000 neighborhoods globally. This includes a strong presence in the U.S. (1 in 3 U.S. households), the United Kingdom (1 in 4 U.K. households), Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Australia, and Canada.

Nextdoor Reports SMB Resilience and Support

Amplified Presence

Back to NextDoor’s paid ad play, its Ads for Business program contains several options for reaching local customers. For example, feed-based display ads can be used for amplified presence to geo-targeted users. And since NextDoor operates on a neighborhood level, targeting can be rather granular.

In addition to the targeting precision, there’s evidence that SMB promotions on NextDoor can resonate with its neighborhood-engaged users. In that light, the company reports that 91 percent of its users are keen to support local businesses, and 78 percent patronize local businesses at least once per month.

Perhaps more notable in a promotional context, 62 percent of NextDoor users say that they have discovered new SMBs on the network. This happens through a mix of organic community interactions (message boards, etc.), as well as outright promotions through feed-based business ads.

In both cases, NextDoor has baked-in mechanisms that let its users support and transact with SMBs. For example, users can “fave” a given business they encounter on the platform. This is basically a follow function, which algorithmically upranks that business’s updates in a given user’s feed.

“Faves” are also important currency on NextDoor as the fave count ( like a follower count) is a mark of reputation for any business on the platform. That number can be displayed on a given business’s profile page on NextDoor. And presumably, paid amplification is one way to accelerate that fave count.

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