Main Streets needs mobile. It’s something everyone knows — but fewer know how to expedite.
But now one local internet advertising company, Chitika Inc., hopes to convince small businesses in the MetroWest region. Working with local business groups, Chitika intends to acquaint business owners with mobile advertising, and show them they can do it “without shelling out big bucks.”
“It’s not so much that mobile advertising hasn’t been available to small businesses,” said Andrew Waber, a Chitika marketing analyst, “but the metrics available to business owners who outsource mobile advertising to third-party services are not all that helpful. Such services typically provide state-level data about who is seeing mobile ads, and where.”
Waber is a man with a mission.
“There’s not much you can do with it,” Waber said. “Twenty-thousand people (might have seen) my ad last months, but were they very local? With state metrics, it’s hard to tell.”
But Chitika wants to change all that.
“Chitika’s new mobile marketing company, Cidewalk, launched last year and caters to small businesses that want to participate in mobile marketing but don’t have the staff or large marketing budgets bigger firms enjoy,” according to WBJ Journal. “And it comes at an opportune time, as mobile marketing seems to be gaining traction in the small business world.”
True enough. According to a study by cloud computing firm SalesForce, 46 percent of small businesses are employing mobile marketing— up from 23 percent a year ago.
“Through Cidewalk, the company says it’s “democratizing mobile marketing, providing small business owners access to the same technology and opportunities previously only enjoyed by Fortune 500 companies,” notes WBJ Journal.
Who deserves mobile? Every business, regardless of budget size, according to Venkat Kolluri, CEO of Cidewalk and Chitika.
“We believe all businesses, no matter the size, should have the same ability to access mobile marketing technologies as brands with massive budgets,” said Kolluri.