New MerchantCircle Promotion Helps Small Business Owners Disappointed With Print Yellow Pages

As Yellow Page companies like RHDonnelley and Idearc have lost millions of dollars of valuation this last year, their infrastructure and value to merchants will continue to take a hit. Investors, consumers, and merchants know that less and less people turn to the Yellow Pages with the influx of multi-media that is available at our fingertips. Our own MerchantCircle members have taken on the question of whether Yellow Pages actually work. To be fair, they still have value for many merchants. Check out the discussion by clicking here.

To alleviate fears for merchants and to help them during this difficult economic environment, we wanted to introduce an online advertising promotion that would help them cut-out the high cost of print Yellow Page advertising and replace it with online advertising. In order to ensure that merchants have nothing to fear, we will buy your next Yellow Page ad if you're not 100% satisfied.

Here's an excerpt of the release:

“With the economy being what it is, it’s important that local businesses try more cost-effective advertising channels, like online advertising,” says Darren Waddell, MerchantCircle VP of Marketing. “While the majority of our members tell us the yellow pages no longer work for their businesses, many are hesitant to completely stop advertising in the yellow book. We believe this promotion will help local businesses take the leap into online advertising and feel safe doing it.”

"Many small businesses know their traditional media buys are not as effective as once were, but they're afraid to adopt new platforms and strategies," said Greg Sterling, founder Sterling Market Intelligence/analyst Opus Research. "This program addresses that hesitation by attempting to remove some of the perceived risk of online marketing."

Read the entire release by clicking here.

As always, we wish you all, business success.

Sincerely,
Community Relations

What President-Elect Obama's Email Campaign Can Teach Business Owners

Whether you're Republic, Democrat, Independent, or other, it's hard to argue against the effectiveness of President-Elect Barack Obama's game-changing online outreach. Armed with more than 10 million e-mail addresses, his legion of supporters were constantly kept up-to-date with the campaign, and were directly responsible for organizing, registering, and rallying millions more.

Nearly 1/3 of the 10 million donated money to the campaign and shortly after winning the election, a message was sent to his supporters, that this was only the beginning. His campaign was able to keep him instantly connected with his supporters through the web, a lesson that business owners should also use to their advantage.



With MerchantCircle's e-mail options, you can upload your customer and contact information and business contacts to send out coupons, blogs, or newsletters. If you don't have any of your customer contact information, you should consider asking your customers whether they want to receive coupons and specials from you. As your contact list grows, you will be able to maximize the effectiveness of any specials or sales, without have to spend money advertising it in the newspaper, radio, or television. Just like President-Elect Obama's e-mail list, it won't cost you a thing to reach your most valuable customers.



Click here to get started on your Merchant Dashboard.

Sincerely,
Kevin
Community Relations

Presidential Election Survey Results: Small Business Owners Support McCain over Obama by a Large Margin

Even as new polls suggest Barack Obama is widening his lead over John McCain amongst likely voters, 53% to 45% supporting Obama according to the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation, small business owners surveyed in a MerchantCircle study overwhelmingly support McCain. The survey was conducted from September 25 to October 6 to over 4,300 small business owners in all 50 states. MerchantCircle is the largest online network of local business owners in the nation with 625,000 members.

The surveys were conducted voluntarily from business owners via email. Over 96% of the responders intend to vote in November, although 10% are still unsure which candidate will help small businesses the most.

10 questions were asked, shown below:

Here are some interesting stats from breaking down the results:

• Of those (1602 surveyed) who rated that the current administration has represented the interests of local business as “not well at all”, 75.3% indicate they will vote for Obama, 8.7% McCain, 11% don’t know; and 4.9% other.
• 55% have seen a “Severe” or “Moderate” decline in sales and revenue over the past year; 49.4% of McCain supporters versus 40% for Obama supporters.
• McCain had the largest margin of support from businesses with 21+ employees – 64.7% to Obama’s 27.8%. Businesses that identified themselves as having one employee had the closest margin of difference – 47.9% indicated they would vote for McCain to 42% who would vote for Obama.

For individual state break downs, or special requests for specific data, please email Jennifer Roberts at Support@MerchantCircle.com.

Sincerely,
Kevin
Community Relations

Despite $700 Billion Bailout - 80% of Small Business Owners Still Not Convinced It Will Help

As we prepare Tuesday's official release of our Presidential Election Survey results, we're coming across a lot of discrepancies between the Government's message and what Main Street America believes. We also have an overwhelming response as to who Small Business Owners plan on voting for come November election time. Here's an excerpt of the release below:

MORE THAN 44% OF SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS SAY $700 BILLION DOLLAR FINANCIAL BAILOUT WILL NOT HELP THEM, AND 35% NOT SURE ACCORDING TO NEW STUDY

Despite White House and Congressional Efforts to Persuade Main Street America the Bailout is Needed, Nearly 80% of Small Business Owners Remain Unconvinced

Los Altos, CA October 3, 2008 – Only 20.1% of local business owners surveyed around the nation believe the U.S. Government’s proposed $700 billion bailout of the financial industry will help them, according to new survey results set to be released next Tuesday. The study was conducted from September 25 to October 1 by MerchantCircle, the largest social network of local business owners in the nation. The survey results came from over 4,200 responders in all 50 states. MerchantCircle has 625,000 members across the nation.

“I think what we’re seeing here is Washington not conveying their message to Main Street America,” says MerchantCircle Founder, Ben T. Smith, IV. “Nearly 45% say the bailout will not help them out, and 35% aren’t sure. To me, that means they view this bailout as only helping out Wall Street, with little effect on the economy around them. The focus should be on how Main Street America sees this bailout – and that’s not coming across.”

To read the complete release, click here.

Sincerely,
Kevin
Community Relations