MerchantCircle: Making a Difference!

It's often difficult to keep our perspective with the day-to-day demands of working in a fast-paced environment, but, sometimes we need to take a step back and remember that the work we're doing does make a difference in our members' lives.

Check out this great "behind the scenes" video starring several of our members from the Los Angeles area:

So, to our 1.2 million merchant members: we are humbled and honored to have some part in helping your businesses succeed.  Best of luck to you and your families and thank you for your support!

Sincerely,
The MerchantCircle Team

You Spoke, We Listened...and It’s Working!

As you know, we recently updated the MerchantCircle.com website experience.  It’s only been a few weeks, but we’re happy to report that consumer engagement with the site (especially merchant listing pages) is at its all-time highest level!  

This means that more consumers are finding more businesses on MerchantCircle than ever before.  Customers are spending more time on Merchant business listing pages, and they are reading and writing reviews about Merchants they love.  This has been our goal from the very beginning - connecting local Merchants directly with Neighbors who need their products and services.

The recent improvements are the direct result of Merchant feedback.  We asked what you thought, and you told us what you liked and what you wanted to see done differently.  We took what you said to heart and focused on the features and capabilities you valued the most.  

• You asked for improved search across the site - you got it!  
• Merchants didn’t really care for the anonymous reviews, so they’re gone...replaced with reviews from registered MerchantCircle Neighbors.  
• The pages are cleaner, less cluttered and it’s much easier to find what you’re looking for.  

We will continue to make improvements that make the overall MerchantCircle experience better, faster and more relevant.

In fact, on the development side, our MerchantCircle Product Development Team, the magicians behind it all, have been working their magic indeed. The team has been using a version of Agile Product Management (it's a tech thing) that allows us to push updates to the site much more often. This means that we can resolve issues faster, add features quicker and easier, and continue to improve the Merchant and Neighbor experiences as fast as we can.

Over the next several months, you can expect to see more features and new capabilities for both Merchants and Neighbors.  Here’s a short list of the stuff we’re focused on delivering in the next month or so.

• More social media features and functionality
• A new mobile app - an extension to the 4.5-star rated Merchant app
• Prominent focus on Reviews & Compliments
• Optimized search functionality making it smarter and easier to use
• Better "request a quote" functionality to reduce the time from search to transaction

If you have suggestions, questions or any other input - please join us on the MerchantCircle Forums. 

Sincerely, 
The MerchantCircle Team

The New MerchantCircle: We've Remodeled!

With the new year upon us, lots of folks start thinking about embarking on remodeling projects. Here at MerchantCircle, we spent much of last year remodeling the site, and you could say we learned a few things.  We thought we’d share our experiences with all of you out there thinking of taking on a remodeling project, no matter how big or small.  

Here’s what we learned...

It’s good to have a plan...but plans change.  Looking back, our original plan didn’t take into account the complexity of the task ahead.  As we went along, we learned a ton about the site and each other.  The biggest lesson: the only way to make real progress is to get out of the “planning” phase and into the “doing” phase.

Everything takes longer than you think.  That’s probably true with many things in life, but definitely true with remodel projects.  You don’t know what you don’t know, at least until you start tearing things down.

You’re never really “done”.  Just when you think you can’t go on a day longer...you will find yourself checking things off your “punch list”.  The initial project will get done, but the tweaking, tuning and improving never ends.  

If you’ve recently remodeled (your kitchen, a bathroom, or maybe even your business website) share your experience in the new MerchantCircle forum. 

Now for the good stuff…

The launch of the new and improved MerchantCircle is a key milestone in the integration of MerchantCircle with Reply!.  As you can probably tell from our new homepage, we’re refocusing MerchantCircle a bit to help busy people get things done – big and small – by connecting them with a network of local business owners who are eager to help.

Here’s what’s new on the site…

For consumers (we like to call them MerchantCircle Neighbors):

·      Better search experience – three search bars focused on finding merchants, answers, or deals

·      New localized category pages that includes top merchants, deals, and advice (see examples here and here for examples)

·      More prominent display of top-rated merchants

·      Integrated “request a quote” functionality on listing pages, category pages, city pages

·      Easier access to expert articles and advice

For our fantastic merchant members:

·      A completely new support section and fresh user forums 

·      Reorganized layout for claimed listing pages to drive more user engagement

·      More prominence for photos and a new Photo Viewer

·      No more anonymous reviews

·      Better promotion of content and better search through new categorizations for businesses

And we’re not even close to done…in the coming weeks, we’ll announce other exciting improvements!

Stay tuned...

Sincerely,

The MerchantCircle Team

P.S. To learn more about the new, improved MerchantCircle, we've created this handy-dandy FAQ

P.P.S. We’ve also create a whole host of “how-to” videos to keep you up to speed on the new features available to you

Q4 2011 Merchant Confidence Survey -- Full Results

Several folks have asked for the full analysis from the Q4 Merchant Confidence Index survey, so here ya go!  This presentation is chock-full of stats pertaining to small business owners' thoughts about our economy, the future of small business hiring and trends in the adoption of new marketing channels like daily deals, pay-per-lead and mobile advertising.



Enjoy!



Sincerely,

The MerchantCircle Team

MerchantCircle Q4 2011 Merchant Confidence Index

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Customer Acquisition is (Still) King for Local Merchants

For many small businesses, the biggest challenge is acquiring new customers at an acceptable cost. And in 2011, we saw several new approaches to customer acquisition gain momentum: Facebook Ads and group deals.





According to our most recent Merchant Confidence Index survey of 2,500 local business owners across the U.S., while newspaper ads and direct mail – tried-and-true offline customer acquisition techniques – are still popular, with 25% and 24% of merchants using them, some 12% of merchants have offered a daily deal – up 33% compared to three months ago – and 24% bought targeted Facebook Ads.

Daily deals appear to be effective in driving customer acquisition tool for some small businesses.  According to the Merchant Confidence Index, 75% of merchants who have used daily deals in the past would do so again.  Of those who would use daily deals again, 61% of said they’d use them again because daily deals are “effective for customer acquisition.” While only 37% of merchants said the deals were “profitable”, it seems getting a new customer through the door makes daily deals worth trying again.

Local merchants are also acquiring new customers via Facebook Ads, the targeted paid ads offered by the world’s largest social network.  Some 38% of merchants said they’d use Facebook Ads again due to their effectiveness as a customer acquisition tool.  But for those who wouldn’t use Facebook Ads again, 66% said it’s because the ads did not work to acquire new customers – showing that customer acquisition is a top priority for small businesses.

Customer acquisition is so important to local merchants, the majority of respondents said they’d be willing to purchase qualified prospect information on a pay-per-lead basis. Over 60% of merchants in the financial services industry would pay for leads, while one-third of merchants in the automotive, construction, and home improvement industries would.  Look for this strategy to gain steam in 2012.

Marketing strategies that aren’t proven to bring in new customers are, unsurprisingly, not very popular with local merchants looking to grow their businesses. Mobile marketing, for example, has been slow to catch on with local merchants. Only 22% of merchants have tried mobile marketing, with 72% saying they’ve hesitated because they don’t have a good understanding of how to use it to reach potential customers.

With nearly a third of local merchants concerned about the high cost of marketing in the next year, it’s no wonder they prefer to use channels that deliver what they most need: new customers.

Sincerely,

The MerchantCircle Team

New Data on Small Business Adoption of Facebook Ads and Group Deals (Google Offers, Groupon and LivingSocial)

New marketing trends data from MerchantCircle's 7th survey of small business owners across the U.S. reveals that group deals are gaining popularity among small businesses and shows Google Offers and other niche deal providers are putting increased pressure on Groupon and LivingSocial. There’s also evidence of slowing adoption for Facebook Ads, although favorability for this new advertising medium remains strong among those who are using it.

Key insights from MerchantCircle's research include:

1. Group deals are experiencing steady growth among local merchants

• Nearly 12 percent of local merchants now report having offered a daily deal, up 33 percent since the last MerchantCircle survey in June 2011.

• About 75 percent of respondents say they would offer another deal in the future, citing its effectiveness for customer acquisition as their top reason (61 percent).  Deal profitability also appears to be on the rise: 37 percent now say solid profitability will lead them to offer another deal, up from just 24 percent in June.

• Among the 25 percent who said they wouldn’t offer another daily deal, 42 percent said it was not effective for customer acquisition, 36 percent said it was too costly and 34 percent said they lost money on the deal.

2. Cost is the most important criteria for selecting a deals provider.

• 64 percent citing cost as their top consideration when selecting a deals provider.  Local targeting (57 percent) and the ability to reach a large audience (52 percent) were the second and third-most important selection criteria.

• Businesses that plan to use Groupon in the future report that the ability to reach a large audience is equally as important to them as cost, with 62 percent citing reach and cost as key selection criteria.

3. Groupon and LivingSocial may face increased pressure from Google Offers in 2012.

• About 19 percent of local merchants who have offered a group deal have tried using Google Offers since its launch this summer, as compared to Groupon (26 percent) and LivingSocial (21 percent).  A large number of specialized deals providers have also entered the market; these services have been used by about 43 percent of local merchants who have offered a group deal.

• About 32 percent of merchants planning to use Google Offers for their next deals, as opposed to 26 percent who plan to use Groupon and 16 percent who plan to use LivingSocial.

• Google Offers enjoys the highest retention rate of all the large deals providers: 66 percent of its customers plan to use Google Offers again.  Just 41 percent of Groupon and LivingSocial customers report that they plan to use these services again.

• Before ceasing operations, Facebook Deals had been used by 22 percent of the respondents who’d offered a daily deal in the past.  More than half of these customers say they plan to use Google Offers for their next deal (53 percent).

4. Facebook Ads growth slows among local merchants.

• About 23 percent of local merchants report having tried Facebook Ads to date, which is only five percent more than six months ago.

• That being said, favorability for Facebook Ads remains strong among those who have tried them, with 62 percent saying they would use Facebook Ads again, citing ease of use (62 percent) and the ability to start and stop campaigns (55 percent) as the top reasons for continuing.

• Of the 28 percent who say they wouldn’t use Facebook Ads again, nearly two-thirds report that they didn’t acquire new customers (66 percent).  But more merchants now also cite high costs and low click-through rates as reasons not to advertise with Facebook again: 41 percent of merchants said the ads were too expensive (up from 35 percent in June) and 37 percent reported low click-through rates (up from 29 percent in June).

• While Facebook Ads growth may have slowed, general Facebook marketing continues to be extremely popular among local merchants, with 70 percent of people using the social network for marketing, up from 66 percent in June. 

A big THANK YOU to all our merchant members who participated in the survey.  Stay tuned for more insights into small business marketing in the coming days!

Sincerely,

The MerchantCircle Team

Small Business Survey: Group deals and "Pay-per-lead" poised for growth

The results from our latest installment of the Merchant Confidence Index survey are just in.  We received over 2,500 responses from our small business members and we'll be "crunching the numbers" over the next few days to share insights into: 1) small business owners' opinions of the current economy, and 2) the adoption of new marketing channels by these business owners.



As illustrated by the super-cool infographic below, newer paid marketing channels like Facebook Ads and group deals are now part of the small business marketing mix, with local pay-per-lead poised for some serious growth in the near future.



Also surprising is the quick adoption of Google Offers relative to the "big boys" in the group deal space like Groupon, Facebook Deals (no longer around) and Living Social.  Local business owners tell us that they plan to try Google Offers more than any other group buying service in the future.



Enjoy the infographic!



Sincerely,

The MerchantCircle Team