Is the Camera the ‘New Search Box’ for Local Discovery? Part II

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It’s often said in the ad-tech world, and other sectors that are reliant on data, that “Content is King, but Data is God.” This is increasingly true in local ad-tech and martech given the need for “ground-truth” conversions to attribute ROI. And it will equally apply in local AR.

AR and VR — Will Local Advertisers Bite?

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Local advertising is a $150 billion market, and is particularly conducive to AR, given the technology’s ability to qualify purchase decisions in the commerce-heavy offline world. There will be a land grab for this digital real estate as mobile AR gains consumer traction. There will be also questions about who “owns” that virtual space.

How Brands Determine Their Local Marketing Effectiveness

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Website analytics are the most popular means of evaluating local marketing for multi-location brands. While that’s a logical tactic for analyzing digital marketing and advertising effectiveness, it hardly presents the full picture of multichannel marketing or online-to-offline attribution.

So Long Local Search — Hello Machine-Directed Discovery

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Whatever you thought you knew about getting your business found online and on mobile, or whatever you are currently learning, is already obsolete. The way consumers interact with search technology today is on its way out. Why? Autonomous cars, artificial intelligence and voice commands are all transforming search into something we can only begin to imagine.

The New Local Ecosystem: An Interview With Darren Shaw

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As of this year, the task of updating the Local Search Ecosystem has been handed to Darren Shaw of Whitespark, who also inherited David Mihm’s other well-known brainchild, the Local Search Ranking Factors report. Last week, Darren released Local Search Ecosystem 2017, a bold departure in visual design and a much-needed update to the last edition, from 2014.

Google Elevates Local Marketing to Prime Time

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Many industry watchers and practitioners correctly perceived the GMB API as a sign of how important it is for businesses to manage their location data properly. But the progression of the API represents something even bigger: empowering businesses to elevate and measure the value of local search marketing.

Cultural Shifts Underlines Google’s Local Enterprise Play

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“Google at one time talked about a suite of GMB products called the Business Builder but it got left on the cutting room floor of the forced march to Google Plus and the subsequent ugly separation,” Mike Blumenthal tells David Mihm. “It’s refreshing to see a similar strategy finally coming to fruition. I think we are seeing them being slowly tied together.”

Voice Assistants Could Transform Local — But Not Necessarily How You Might Think

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Voice search and AI are widely misunderstood. Generalist tech coverage has painted the picture of an opportunity that resides mostly with stationary devices like Amazon Echo. But the real scale will happen elsewhere.

New Street Fight Report: Benchmarking and Best Practices in Enterprise Local Marketing

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The report Enterprise Local Marketers 2017: Benchmarking and Best Practices examines current trends in their local marketing tactics, channels, and operations. By analyzing the survey data and correlating digital marketing effectiveness with spending, tactics, and management, Street Fight has identified key enterprise local marketing best practices.

Is the Camera the ‘New Search Box’ for Local Discovery?

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Though still nascent, visual search builds on a few key trends. Smartphones have increasingly powerful optics; AI and machine learning support computer vision to identify items; and there’s behavioral alignment with millennials who use the smartphone camera as a communication tool.

What Happens If Facebook Gets Serious About Local?

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What Google is to search, Facebook is to social. Those same local business owners know that, when it comes to social marketing, a good portion of their success depends on what they and their customers do on Facebook. So if Facebook gets serious about local, could that change the local landscape? What would it look like?

4 Ways to Track Traditional Local Media Using Digital

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Digital and traditional media can work together. Traditional efforts often drive users to search engines, websites and social media platforms. If you own the SERP for your brand, you’ll be able to control what the user sees as they respond to your traditional media campaigns.

Survey: Enterprise Marketers Are Increasing Local Digital Mix

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As enterprise local marketers become experienced with digital tactics they originally used to promote their corporate sites, they are getting more savvy about digital marketing. Today, most of them spend less than a third of their digital budgets on local campaigns and programs, but 40% say they are increasing the local mix.

The Impending HTTPstrophe — And What it Means for Local Businesses

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“Google is rapidly moving towards a time when HTTPS will be an absolute necessity for websites,” writes David Mihm to Mike Blumenthal. “As soon as this month if an http:// website contains any input field, users will start getting scary security messages.”

The ABCs of Reputation Management for Brands

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Every multilocation brand today has a social media agency or department, and most, though not all, are running some type of local listings management program, whether internally or with a partner. But plenty of brands are neglecting to do anything about online reviews of local stores.

Understanding How Google Measures Store Visits

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Even though ecommerce is growing and brick-and-mortar retail is arguably in the midst of a slow decline, 90% of consumer dollars are still spent in physical stores, and the intent of Google’s store visits data is to help demonstrate the efficacy of multiple online touchpoints that might drive consumers into a store.

Where Will VR Fit Into Local Advertising? Part II

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It’s important to step back and look at the reality of consumer adoption of VR. The technology is pretty nascent and future-looking — but to what degree? That question can partly be answered by original data on consumer VR behavior and sentiments.

Sophistication, Efficiency, Control: Unlocking the Future of Programmatic Direct for App Publishers and Advertisers

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As it splits the difference between real-time bidding and totally manual ad-buy systems, programmatic direct allows publishers and advertisers to create specific agreements around how the process will work. It guarantees protected inventory and premium placements without requiring much in the way of hands-on operation.

iPhoneX, AR & Local: How Do All the Pieces Fit?

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There are lots of ways that augmented reality (AR) is a natural fit for local commerce. But questions remain: How will AR will materialize in local? How long it will take? And how do these factors signal local startups and media companies where to place their chips?

How Social Media Disasters Can Tarnish Brands

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Gaffes by businesses, celebrities, and politicians on Twitter and Facebook have been with us since the advent of social media, but recent events have highlighted two very serious consequences for brands that may not have been clear previously.