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If you ask your favorite local business owner about customer-retention marketing, he or she might sigh deeply and admit defeat. They probably realize their “Sign up here for updates” clipboard and basic email-generator is not cutting the mustard, but what to do?

Small business have started to spend more on search and social advertising in recent years, but the bulk of their spending goes to websites, email and other services meant to manage their existing customer base. As these channels expand, the market for software aimed at automating the retention marketing and front-office activities for small businesses has exploded.

Small businesses power the U.S. economy. They employ the majority of the nation’s workforce and contribute more than half of the private non-farming GDP. Despite the fact that consumers prefer small businesses over larger ones, eight in 10 small businesses expect flat or negative growth in 2014. Small business failures now outpace the number of

Backed by $15 million in venture capital, the company focuses on marketing automation for small and midsize businesses.

Signpost closed $10 million in funding to help small businesses automate marketing like the big boys.Small and medium businesses don’t have the huge marketing budgets of large corporations. Signpost says it software can close that gap by taking care of all their marketing needs for just $150 a month.

When it comes to starting or running a business, the devil is often in the details — finding the right permits, filing quarterly taxes on time, creating a logo that builds your brand, or using ads to attract the kinds of customers you’re trying to reach.

Today’s small business owners are faced with a seemingly endless parade of online marketing vendors, many of which are indistinguishable at first glance. Each one promises new customers and online exposure at a lower price than the next. But at the end of the day, many of these options are nothing more than lip service,