Street Fight Happenings
Brandify Study Shows Consumer Search Preferences for Healthcare, Restaurants, and Retail
Google in particular has made significant moves in recent months to verticalize the consumer search experience. For example, the team responsible for the relatively new Google Travel and Google Hotels sites has reported that they built a new consumer experience for hotels specifically because they noted important differences in the ways consumers searched in that category.
Brandify’s study illustrates that consumer preferences for additional verticals are similarly differentiated, both in the channels consumers prefer for each vertical and the sorts of information they seek out when searching. Already, the search experience for restaurants, retail stores, and healthcare providers varies by vertical, especially on Google, which has added prominent vertical-specific attributes as a result of Covid-19 such as dine-in, takeout, and pickup availability for restaurants.
Street Fight’s May Theme: Local Commerce’s Recovery Playbook
In our own reporting and analysis (and through the words of our contributors) this month, we’ll define the playbook for local re-entry. As business ramps back up, what will best practices be for local staples such as search marketing and reputation management?
We’ve already covered how businesses are digitizing to adapt to the challenges of commerce in a time of social distancing, embracing curbside pickup, social advertising, pop-up distribution centers, online classes, and retail tech. With an even longer-term view, we’ll examine how this period of uncertainty will shape the future of local commerce.
The State of Reputation Management 2020
Not long before the COVID-19 outbreak was officially deemed a pandemic — it seems like years ago, but it was only March 11 — we planned to commemorate Street Fight’s March theme, Word of Mouth, by surveying a select number of experts in local marketing about the state of reputation management and what to look forward to in 2020.
Current events got in the way of our plans, and therefore we’re releasing this report in April rather than March. But we were pleased that the experts we asked came through and offered a great deal of valuable insight on the priorities and challenges of reputation management for local businesses. So let’s dig in to the insights provided by local marketing leaders at ThriveHive, Reputation.com, Chatmeter, Brandify, GatherUp, Uberall, and BrightLocal.
Theme of the Month
Essential Business Foot Traffic: U.S. Grocery Store Trends
This article takes an up-close look at foot traffic to what may be the most critical of essential businesses: grocery stores.
Grocery stores are crucial during the quarantine and will remain so as areas of the retail economy reopen and as we enter into a recovery period. According to the National Grocers Association, grocers are especially adept at making and executing contingency plans in the event a disaster strikes. This involves coordination with myriad producers, distributors, and wholesalers throughout the supply chain. It is no small task keeping eggs, milk, butter, and bread in stock and on the shelves of your local supermarket.
GMB Insights Reveal Pandemic Search Trends for Multi-Location Brands
Given the dominance of Google as a tool for local search, and given the fact that Google provides a richer set of search and engagement metrics for each of its business profiles than any other publisher, we thought it would be worthwhile to examine Google My Business data as an indicator of consumer search trends during the time of the pandemic.
The verticals that are booming in the pandemic period, with major gains in overall GMB activity, include pharmacies, banking and finance, hardware and home improvement, general retail, gas and convenience, and grocery. Those whose struggles are borne out by significant GMB activity decreases include restaurants and eateries, branded retail, and hotels and accommodations.
How Brick-and-Mortars Move Forward
The coronavirus pandemic has transformed brick-and-mortar business, possibly forever. Peter Paine, former eBay and Walmart executive and now head of retail partnerships in the Americas for Cover Genius, checked in with Street Fight to share the strategies physical businesses large and small should prioritize to prepare for the near- and long-term future.
Latest Posts
Essential Business Foot Traffic: U.S. Grocery Store Trends
This article takes an up-close look at foot traffic to what may be the most critical of essential businesses: grocery stores.
Grocery stores are crucial during the quarantine and will remain so as areas of the retail economy reopen and as we enter into a recovery period. According to the National Grocers Association, grocers are especially adept at making and executing contingency plans in the event a disaster strikes. This involves coordination with myriad producers, distributors, and wholesalers throughout the supply chain. It is no small task keeping eggs, milk, butter, and bread in stock and on the shelves of your local supermarket.
GMB Insights Reveal Pandemic Search Trends for Multi-Location Brands
Given the dominance of Google as a tool for local search, and given the fact that Google provides a richer set of search and engagement metrics for each of its business profiles than any other publisher, we thought it would be worthwhile to examine Google My Business data as an indicator of consumer search trends during the time of the pandemic.
The verticals that are booming in the pandemic period, with major gains in overall GMB activity, include pharmacies, banking and finance, hardware and home improvement, general retail, gas and convenience, and grocery. Those whose struggles are borne out by significant GMB activity decreases include restaurants and eateries, branded retail, and hotels and accommodations.
Location Weekly: Google Highlights Curbside Pickup
In this episode of Location Weekly, the Location-Based Marketing Association hosts Jed Schneiderman, EVP of growth and marketing for EQ Works.
The team also covers Pedigree getting behind Zoom-based dog adoption in Nashville, Chantel Jeffries throwing a virtual DoorDash dinner party with Chili’s, and Google highlighting businesses with curbside pick-up in local search results.
Why Brands Are Turning to Influencers During Covid-19
Brands are on delicate ground as they look for ways to promote their non-essential products during the pandemic. Stay the course with existing marketing strategies, and it looks like the brand is ignoring a global health crisis. Push too strong with coronavirus-themed ads, and brands run the risk of being seen as capitalizing on the tragedy.
The solution that some brands have come up with is to put the ball in the influencer’s court.
How First-Party Data Can Drive a Comeback for Local Travel
Long live the road trip. Experts predict that people will largely look to visit domestic and drivable destinations because of new health and economic concerns. We’ll see more three- and four-day trips because of finances, work pressures, safety concerns, and changing school schedules. That said, travel companies, hotels, and CVBs are now considering reinvesting in marketing to local audiences. It’s time to hit the gas at this first sign of recovery.
Marketers have to think about geo-optimization because there may be pockets of travel in certain regions and an opportunity to be more fine-tuned. Larger brands that do national advertising may miss an opportunity to be more targeted on a regional basis.
7 Ways Retailers Are Using Mobile Messaging to Connect During the Pandemic
By most measures, it appears that retailers have a tough road ahead of them. While deep investments into ecommerce and steep discounts on existing merchandise are expected, many retailers are exploring other avenues in a bid to connect with customers and offer a sense of assurance during the pandemic. Mobile messaging platforms are being utilized in new and unexpected ways. With open rates close to 100%, texting has become the communication channel of choice during the ongoing pandemic.
Here are seven examples of ways that retailers are using mobile messaging to connect with customers during Covid-19.
Location-Based Search Disrupts Brand-Centric Theory of Marketing
Building a brand will never stop being essential for companies with brick-and-mortar locations hoping to secure the dollars of nearby consumers. But a new report from location marketing firm Uberall suggests the rise of location-based or “near me” search is undermining the power of branding alone, increasing the importance of optimizing for searches in which consumers are simply looking for the closest, most convenient option while on the go.
The Impact of Covid-19 on Marketing and the Best Ways to Deal with It
What is the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on marketing, and what are the best ways to deal with these newfound challenges and sustain your business? Read on to learn the best possible ways to sustain your business and build strong communities during these troubled times.
Top 5 CRO Tools That Will Increase Conversions for Your Small Business
CRO is the process of setting up a website in a way that leads site visitors to take action and purchase products. As a result, they are converted into customers of the business.
If you have a site that has high traffic, that is naturally a good sign. But it doesn’t mean much unless that traffic leads to conversions. Based on current research, we’ve compiled the top 5 CRO tools that you can use to increase conversions and bring in greater profit.
Covid-19 Accelerates Online-Offline Retail Convergence
The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the offline-to-online convergence in retail, leading to a huge shift in the way people shop over a short period of time. Shelter-in-place orders have forced shoppers to purchase the majority of their goods online, and it’s made retailers rethink the way they’ll operate in the post-pandemic world.
Big0-box retailers have beefed up their ecommerce divisions, and we’ve seen dozens of major chains with new curbside pickup options. Some types of retail environments have done better than others. Hardware stores, like Home Depot and Lowe’s, have found themselves categorized as “essential” businesses, and they’ve been able to remain open in many areas with little adaptation necessary. The transition has been harder for retailers in high-touch categories, like clothing, and for those independent operators that didn’t have websites with ecommerce capabilities in place before the pandemic began.
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Essential Business Foot Traffic: U.S. Grocery Store Trends