Media sellers and their local business customers often don’t see eye to eye about online marketing. However, a new study shows that when it comes to “essential marketing methods,” there’s agreement about the top channels. But after the top three or four methods the opinions diverge.

SEO, websites and social media were seen as the most essential channels by both groups. The largest discrepancy was "reputation management": 54% of industry respondents found it to be “essential,” but only 33% of SMBs agreed. Surprisingly, SMBs valued content marketing much more highly than media sellers.