Why ‘Google My Business’ Helps, But Doesn’t Fix, Local for SMBs
The company’s redesign of its SMB portal replaces both the old Google Places for Business interface and the equivalent within Google+, and consolidates several features into a friendlier interface. The features for the most part are not new, but the update does a good job of tying together the claiming and profile management process with Google+ sharing…
Mobile’s Increasingly Strong Influence in Consumer Purchase Decisions
The third annual installment of the xAd/Telmetrics Mobile Path-to-Purchase study shows that mobile is a powerful force throughout the consumer purchase cycle. Consumers are spending more research time on their mobile devices than on their PCs, and more than one-third of mobile users use their devices exclusively to research purchases…
New Listing Services Will Help Local Data Go Digital
Somewhat unexpectedly, 2014 has seen a profusion of companies entering the listing management arena, many of them veterans of related disciplines. Those of us with long experience in the space are not surprised that others would see the value in helping businesses get found on local search sites and apps. But why the sudden surge of activity?
Local Mobile Search in U.S. Still Outpacing Other Major Global Markets
We recently culled data from more than 13 million users of our mobile shopping platform in six countries. Not surprisingly, because of its high saturation of smartphone users, the U.S. market reports the highest percentage (60%) of all our search traffic from mobile devices. We expect that to increase as smartphone sales continue to grow…
3 Mobile Marketing Musts for Brick-and-Mortar Retailers
Over the past few years we’ve seen the mobile marketing industry mature, with new standards and best practices emerging to help marketers reach mobile consumers as they move throughout their day. Here are three mobile marketing strategies which have become table stakes for physical retailers…
What’s in a Swarm? Making Sense of Foursquare’s Split
It’s hard to envision now, but it could be that a decoupled discovery and recommendation service will be just what Foursquare needs to scale its dataset beyond entertainment and to encourage users to improve the quality and accuracy of venue information. These developments would turn Foursquare into a viable competitor to data aggregators like Infogroup and possibly to Google Maps itself…
Facebook’s Path to Dominating Mobile (Local TBD)
Facebook Audience Network will apply Facebook’s audience targeting to third party apps, such as those using Facebook Connect for log-in authentication. The beauty of such an off-site network is that it uses Facebook’s data and positioning to continue milking demand for mobile ads, without killing the cow…
Five Trends That Will Shape the Future of Local Commerce
Two decades after the first ecommerce site, the commerce landscape has begun to shift again. Over the past few years, we’ve seen a resurgence in innovation around mobile as technology companies develop new ways to bridge the gap between ecommerce and offline spending. Here are five trends, which will shape the future of commerce over the next decade…
Revenue Flowing Faster to New Marketing Channels, But Integration Is Key
A recent advertising report from the IAB found that U.S. interactive advertising revenues hit an all-time high of $42.8 billion in 2013, with digital exceeding broadcast television advertising revenues ($40.1 billion) for the first time ever. But some brands who are succeeding at hyperlocal are integrating legacy channels rather than eliminating them…
Putting Small Businesses on the (New) Google Map
Google Maps is a key resource that businesses can use to get more local searchers to discover them online. But can it also help them get more leads? The simple answer is yes, but it’s a not as easy as simply claiming a listing. It’s only by taking advantage of all that Google Maps has to offer — and then tracking how traffic from your maps listing converts into leads and customers — that you can see just how powerful accurate, optimized maps listings can be…
Recent Studies Show Mobile’s Broadening Reach
The reports underline what we might call the inherently local nature of mobile search. Whether you are in a store contemplating a high-ticket purchase or downtown hoping to discover a new restaurant, the phone in your hand is your portal to timely and actionable information as well as marketing incentives that are increasingly likely to gain your attention…
Reconsidering Location for On-the-Go Consumers
Out-of-home works because it is exactly what its name implies. That’s a powerful advantage. But with great power comes great responsibility. And in order to capitalize on this advantage, we need to re-think our approach. Once we start regarding out-of-home as a behavior (specifically, of consumers on-the-go) instead of just a set of location-specific screens, our success is almost guaranteed…
Payment Technology: If it Ain’t Broke… Start an Entire Industry to Fix it.
Mobile payments is an exciting area of cultural and technological disruption, and at the same time a solution in search of a problem. Somewhere in all the excitement, we seem to have forgotten that paying for things with cash or credit card ain’t broke. We’ve been covering mobile payments closely on this blog and many […]
Hyperlocal Retail ROI: Identifying Low-Hanging Business Objectives
Understanding where, when, and why consumers visit a location is invaluable data when it comes to driving sales and improving customer experience. Identifying the most valuable metrics amongst the vast data that can be generated with indoor analytics is often an overlooked, but critical first step in implementing these solutions…
The Shifting Line Between Free and Paid Local Marketing Services
The manipulation of organic reach on Facebook is one of many examples of the shifting boundary between free and paid local marketing services. In “pure” local search, that boundary has tended to be relatively clear: look for a local business in your typical IYP and you’ll see sponsored listings at the top of the results page, followed by organic results. But that boundary is likely more clear to those of us who know what to look for than it is to the general user…
How the Local Web Is Helping Neighbors Connect and Build Community
We are at the cusp of being able to solve the “last mile” problem, largely because with mobile devices we are nearing 100% access and interoperability. There are three key areas where we can make a big difference, right in our local community, with the types of information available to enrich our local lives: government; commerce and community…