73 percent lack confidence in their marketing strategies, and 81 percent are nervous the current economy could negatively impact their business.

WALTHAM, Mass., April 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Today, Constant Contact, a digital marketing and automation platform that has helped millions of small businesses and nonprofits globally, issued its latest Small Business Now report. Featuring insights from over 1,300 small businesses in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada, the findings reveal most small businesses struggle to market themselves effectively due to low confidence, time constraints, and insufficient marketing knowledge.

With more than 300 million small businesses (SMBs) in the world, marketing is essential for differentiation and conveying value to customers. However, Constant Contact’s Small Business Now report reveals a concerning trend — many small businesses feel overwhelmed by marketing, and they are not confident that their current strategy is contributing to their business goals. Uncertainty about the best methods for communicating with customers and a lack of time to execute campaigns fuel a cycle of procrastination that prevents small businesses from reaching their potential.

“Small business owners are usually much more passionate about their products and services than they are about marketing, but they still need to attract and retain customers to grow,” said Sarah Jordan, chief marketing officer at Constant Contact. “Our research shows that while most SMBs recognize the importance of marketing, they often lack the time and expertise to be effective, especially in the rapidly evolving digital landscape. Constant Contact is committed to providing easy, yet powerful, tools that automate marketing to help our customers achieve better results in less time.”

Confidence is Low, Driven in Part by Economic Concerns

The economy is a bigger concern than in 2023, and small businesses aren’t sure their marketing is effective. To account for that uncertainty and keep up, they expect to spend more time and resources on marketing this year.

• 81 percent of SMBs surveyed are concerned the current economy could negatively impact their business.
• Small businesses in the UK report the highest level of concern about the economy (32 percent are very concerned) compared to other countries polled.
• 73 percent of small businesses surveyed show a lack of confidence in the effectiveness of their marketing strategy.
• 39 percent of SMBs surveyed plan to increase their marketing budgets this year, and 46% expect to spend at least 10% more.

There Isn’t Enough Time to Prioritize Marketing

The daily responsibilities of small businesses often overshadow marketing efforts. When they do find the time, they say it takes too long, which leads them to procrastinate on the things that could make a big impact.

• 56 percent of SMBs surveyed say they only have an hour or less each day to spend on marketing, and 34 percent feel marketing more efficiently is an area of opportunity.
• Small businesses in Canada report the least time available for marketing of any country polled.
• 52 percent routinely put off marketing in favor of other activities, with Australian SMBs the most likely to procrastinate. Comparatively, their counterparts in the U.S. are least likely to put off marketing tasks.
• The most time-consuming marketing tasks are posting on social media (51 percent), planning and strategy (40 percent) and determining what’s working (35 percent). Those are also the areas small businesses are most likely to avoid.

Knowledge Gaps Prevent Growth

Small businesses understand that they need to acquire customers, but they aren’t sure which marketing channels to leverage, what strategy works best, or how to improve their campaigns.

• The top marketing challenges facing SMBs are acquiring new customers (60 percent), understanding what’s working (33 percent), and lack of resources (32 percent)
• When asked how to improve ‌their marketing this year, 37 percent of SMBs surveyed said using the right channels is their biggest area of opportunity. In fact, 41 percent plan to increase the number of marketing channels they use in 2024.
• 82 percent agree that using multiple marketing channels leads to better results, but just 16 percent are confident that they are using the correct channels to reach their customers.
• Australian SMBs cite lack of knowledge as the biggest obstacle preventing them from using more than one marketing channel.

To learn more about the findings from Constant Contact’s Small Business Now, download the report.

Study Methodology:
Constant Contact‘s Small Business Now report analyzes insights from over 1,300 small business decision-makers at the Director level and above at companies with under 250 employees. Polls were conducted in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States and aggregated to determine global trends. All stats are representative of their associated demographics. The survey was conducted by Ascend2 in February 2024.

About Constant Contact
Constant Contact delivers everything small businesses and nonprofits need to build, grow and succeed. With powerful online marketing tools, contact management, sales features, and innovative AI capabilities, Constant Contact makes it easy to attract the right people, engage more customers, close more deals and grow.

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SAN FRANCISCO, April 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Today, RPX is pleased to announce the launch of RPX Empower.

“RPX Empower is a patent intelligence platform that I believe will significantly enhance both the capabilities of our existing patent-related tools and the model through which they are delivered,” said Dan McCurdy, Chief Executive Officer of RPX.

RPX Empower includes the ability to search and apply advanced analytics to detailed information on patent litigation, patent portfolio analysis, SEPs, NPEs, and much more. Empower is backed by RPX’s 15+ years of patent analysis and transaction experience.

The Empower platform offers subscribers access to:

• Litigation intelligence, including details on all patent suits filed in district court since 2000, Federal Circuit patent cases, PTAB proceedings, and ITC proceedings.
• Proprietary campaign perspective that groups matters by underlying patents and litigating entities, providing a holistic view of the plaintiff’s monetization efforts across cases, venues, and jurisdictions.
• Entity profiles built from in-depth research and intelligence on patent monetization entities, including their affiliations, litigation patterns and outcomes, and patent acquisitions.
• News and analysis of recent trends, notable litigation events, and patent transactions.
• Comprehensive portfolio assessment and optimization tools that simplify analysis of patent acquisition opportunities, portfolio growth potential, and portfolio maintenance decisions.
• A first-of-its-kind patent rights manager for tracking inbound and outbound patent rights in a unified system of record, reducing rights leakage, simplifying financial reporting, and providing analyses of portfolio expirations, litigations, and assignments.
• AI-enhanced scores and metrics, designed and vetted by RPX’s patent experts, that reduce the time required to analyze patents, patent assignments, citations, and patent filing activity.

To learn more about RPX Empower, visit empower.rpxcorp.com.

ABOUT RPX

RPX Corporation is the leading patent risk management platform, offering defensive buying, acquisition syndication, patent intelligence, and advisory services. Since its founding in 2008, RPX has introduced efficiency to the patent market by providing a rational alternative to litigation. The San Francisco-based company’s pioneering approach combines principal capital, deep patent expertise, and client contributions to generate enhanced patent buying power. By acquiring patents and patent rights, RPX helps to mitigate and manage patent risk for its growing client network.

As of March 31, 2024, RPX has invested over $4B to acquire rights to more than 200,000 US and international patent assets on behalf of more than 450 clients. 

For any questions, please contact [email protected].

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NEW YORK, April 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — In the dynamic world of decentralized finance (DeFi), staying ahead of the curve and maintaining a competitive edge is crucial. Today, it is thrilling to announce the launch of DeFi Lens (https://defilens.ai) – an innovative AI platform combining generative AI and Web3 trustworthy proofs to equip traders, especially those using technical analysis (TA) strategies, and crypto enthusiasts with better market signals and insights. DeFi Lens transforms how traders or crypto users search for alphas, exchange signals & data, and analyze trading strategies. The project is incubated by Oraichain Labs.

Revolutionizing Crypto Analysis with AI

DeFi Lens combines popular analytics tools in the crypto market and the power of generative AI. DeFi Lens is a fusion of AI and Web3 to approach real-time market intelligence to facilitate a Web3 future that is more efficient, and accessible than ever before.

DeFi Lens has its key features to compete with other crypto tools in the market:

• AI Explainer: helps traders understand crypto chart patterns, technical analysis, crypto predictions, data reports, and recommendations.
• AI Positions: optimizes strategy parameters to identify profitable trading strategies and generate trading signals based on historical data. With thousands of cryptocurrencies in the market, numerous signals, and trading strategies, real-time analysis, DeFi Lens aims to solve significant computational challenges with AI-powered automation.
• Mass Backtesting of Technical Analysis: candlestick patterns, chart indicators, trend following, volume profile, Wyckoff-based VSA/VPA. Signals and strategies are algorithmically verified, with results stored on the blockchain via the Trustworthy Proofs contracts, making crypto trading verifiable.
• Customizable Alpha Search: 31+ preference settings to conduct alpha search. No-code AI, using natural language to search, is soon available.

Join the DeFi Lens revolution

DeFi Lens launched its FREE public beta this April and is now available at https://defilens.ai. Explore this groundbreaking tool now, connect with its vibrant community, and take crypto journeys to new heights.

About DeFi Lens

Incubated by Oraichain Labs, DeFi Lens is an AI crypto tool with customizable and generative power to transform how traders or crypto users search for alphas, exchange signals, and analyze trading strategies. Signals and strategies are subject to monetary values and follow a Trustworthy Proofs protocol.

About Oraichain

Oraichain (https://orai.io) provides multidimensional trustworthy proofs of AI and enables secure integration with Web3. Oraichain is the world’s first layer 1 of AI oracle.

Media Contact: DeFi Lens, [email protected]

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View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/defi-lens-builds-advanced-generative-ai-for-technical-analysis-302123141.html