What Will It Take to Make Self-Serve Ad Platforms Work for SMBs?

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Self-serve advertising platforms have been seen as a potential lynchpin for creating successful hyperlocal business models —potentially bringing down the cost of merchant acquisition to the point where serious profit can be made. But self-serve is easier proposed than done. We asked a few different leaders in the local marketing space what they think will be the key to establishing a self-serve model that works…

Survey Shows Rise In Mobile Search as a Starting Point for Consumers

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A new survey, released by Telmetrics and xAd, indicates that there is increasing use of mobile devices by consumers as a part of their path-to-purchase, as well as increasing desire for local. The results found that 45% of consumers go to their mobile device first when starting a search. One-third said they used mobile throughout their purchasing process, two-thirds switched to another device or converted offline…

Locu Adds Yelp to Its Growing List of Publisher Partners

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The company has announced a new partnership with local reviews and discovery service Yelp. The partnership, which follows previous deals with OpenTable and CitySearch, means that Locu’s 15,000 local merchant customers will be able to distribute their location, coordinates, hours, and menus to Yelp with real-time updates…

Study: 81% of Consumers Search for Restaurants on Mobile Apps

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A new report released by SinglePlatform and Chadwick Martin Bailey finds that more consumers have searched for a restaurant on their web browser in the past six months than have done so on a mobile app. Meanwhile, 75 percent of consumers said they were more likely to dine at a restaurant based on the results of their searches…

Constant Contact Founder Randy Parker Launches Mobile Web Platform PagePart

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Constant Contact founder Randy Parker has launched a new mobile web platform for SMBs called PagePart. The company seeks to be a simple and low-cost online and mobile solution for SMBs to establish and update their information online, and to optimize it for mobile…

Swipely Adds New SMB Tools, Reports 100% Network Growth in Q1

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Swipely, which provides local merchants with tools and data to help them accept payments and better understand their customers, has launched a new marketing tool that allows merchants to track online marketing, in-store revenue, and customer reviews that are tied to specific campaigns. The company also announced that its network of small businesses doubled in size in the past 90 days…

The AR of the Future Is About ‘Helping People Make Decisions’

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Augmented reality is still a fairly new technology, but in the coming years it could have huge implications for how we see and browse through the world around us. Street Fight recently spoke with Jules White, co-founder and chief scientist of PAR Works, about how AR can be used to aid in the consumer’s decision making process.

When Will The Last Yellow Pages Book be Printed?

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With the rise of local search sites, social media, and mobile directories, the physical Yellow Pages books delivered to consumers’ doors — long a staple of local marketing — are quickly becoming obsolete. We asked a few folks from around the industry what date they would envision for the directories’ final print run…

Study: 82% of SMBs Use Facebook for Marketing, 25% Use Twitter

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“Facebook remains the dominant platform because it simply has more active users than any other social network,” Mark Schmulen, general manager of social media at Constant Contact, told Street Fight. “It effectively offers marketers the biggest potential reach to engage with customers. In addition, Facebook is a more mature marketing platform, offering marketers highly targeted advertising products and customizable brand pages that enable them to run promotions like sweepstakes, coupons, and user-generated contests.”

5 Can’t-Miss SXSWi Panels for the Local-Obsessed

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The annual SXSW Interactive Festival starts tomorrow and runs through Tuesday. With five days packed with a wide range of panels and presentations, the confab can be thrilling and overwhelming at the same time. Here are five sessions focused on the future of local and social that Street Fight readers will be especially interested in…

Voice Media Group Relaunches City Apps — Can Mobile Really Be Alt-Weeklies’ Salvation?

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Voice Media Group, which acquired 11 alt-weeklies around the country back in October, is re-launching its various cities’ mobile apps, which it hopes will become go-to listings and reviews guides for their local markets. According to Tiffany Shackelford, the executive director at the Association of Alternative Newsmedia, many alt-weeklies, like VMG, are beginning to understand the importance of mobile…

5 Ways SMBs Can Find Success With Social Media Marketing

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A debate has been brewing on Street Fight over whether small business owners should be spending money on social media, and its general overall importance as a marketing strategy. We figured it might be worth it to check in with a few social media marketing companies to get their latest and best tips and insights for SMB success in social media…

Tagwhat Expands to Aggregate Offers by Location

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Tagwhat, the maker of an app that focuses on location-based content (from articles to video and audio about a given place), recently announced its entry into the business end of location services with new features that help users find offers from nearby merchants. The service now will pull time- and place-sensitive deals directly from Facebook (and other social networks), displaying them next to to the place-related content already provided users…

5 Misconceptions SMBs Have About Mobile Advertising

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Even as small and medium-sized businesses are increasingly warming to digital marketing, questions and misinformation persist about how mobile campaigns reach local consumers and influence their behavior. We asked a few folks who work in the mobile sphere to provide us a taste of the kind of concerns about mobile ads they’re hearing from SMBs…

Why OpenTable’s Foodspotting Buy Is Good for Restaurants

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Foodspotting, a provider of a food-sharing and recommendations app, announced yesterday that it would be acquired by reservations company OpenTable for $10 million. While the two services seem quite different (one is for reservations and the other is a social network organized around food) the acquisition could mean good things for both companies as well as local restaurants….

Yext Expands into Rich Content With Expanded Listings

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Yext has rolled out a new feature called Power Listings +, which brings rich content lists to its existing Power Listings product. Businesses can now syndicate staff bios, event calendars, and product availability information in real time across a network of search engines, mapping services, and mobile apps as part of their existing subscription.

Local Corp CEO: Mobile Is a Type of Traffic, Not a Type of Product

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Street Fight recently caught up with Local Corporation CEO Heath Clarke, who has helmed the company since 2001 — several lifetimes ago in Internet years. He talked about the company’s position in the hyperlocal ecosystem, the growing importance of mobile for SMBs and the future of daily deals as a category…

5 Social Gifting Apps That SMBs Can Use to Connect With Customers

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Social gifting apps allow users to send physical items or gift cards via Facebook or email, combining social media marketing and e-commerce. While some gifting platforms are aimed at national brands, a number of services are popping up that local merchants can use. Here are five…

How Social Search Changes the Way We Find Local Businesses

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As online maps, directories and social media evolve, consumers are finding new ways to locate local businesses — and social search has become increasingly important, as users integrate the recommendations of friends into their local searches. Street Fight recently spoke with Wajam, a company that integrates social media into online searches, about how social media is changing the way people find merchants, and what social search might mean for the future of Yelp reviews…

Seeking to Connect With Restaurants, Foodspotting Launches ‘Rewards’

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While a number of apps allow users to rate restaurants, leave comments, and create a map of what’s nearby, San Francisco-based Foodspotting focuses its attention on the food itself — and on helping food seekers find the specific dish they want nearby. Street Fight recently spoke with Foodspotting founder and CEO Alexa Andrzejewski about the company’s push into local marketing…