What Local Marketers Can Learn From the Trials of Google Plus

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With Google’s recent announcement that Google Plus will be decoupled from YouTube and other services, industry watchers are predicting that this may be the beginning of the end for the social network. Here are a few lessons a local marketer might learn from the social network’s challenges.

How SMBs Can Respond to the ‘Uber Effect’

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If the past 15 years have taught us anything, it’s the resilience of brick-and-mortar businesses. Effective enterprises sense and respond to change by incorporating new technology and business models while relying on their distinct advantages, such as face-to-face service and distinctive ambience.

INFOGRAPHIC: A Quick, Deep Dive Into Local Optometrists

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Local optometrists in the U.S. number some 33,000 businesses and generate an estimated $15B in annual sales at an average of $450k per year. The industry is growing at 5% annually, but it’s under considerable pressure from the likes of Amazon and Warby Parker.

What Do the Death of Flash and the Rise of HTML5 Mean for SMB Advertisers?

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HTML5 allows marketers to do more with online display ads than they were able to do before. They can add functionality and interactivity, filling their ads with content and creating something akin to a mini-website delivered across the web.

The Future of Retail: ‘In-Store Mode’ and In-Aisle Payments

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Wouldn’t it stand to reason that higher receptivity to promotional messaging comes when consumers are truly in buying mode. And wouldn’t the probability of that mode be greatest when someone is in-store, as opposed to browsing Instagram on their couch?

Why the Contractor-Employee Conundrum Isn’t a Fatal Liability for the On-Demand Economy

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The recent California Labor Commission ruling, classifying one Uber driver as an employee has led to a lot of chatter about cracks in the business model underlying the “on-demand economy.”

So How Do We Define a ‘Small Business’ Anyway?

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Small businesses pack a big punch when it comes to the economy. A working definition that most people and corporations can agree on would aid market interpretations, statistical analyses, and, of course, make it simpler for advertisers to reach the right audience.

Study Finds Consumer Search Preferences Depend Heavily on Type of Business

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A few categories like restaurants, physicians, and beauty salons consistently capture the greatest volume of searches, stretching out into a long tail of lower-volume searches for occasional needs like roofing, chiropractors, and house cleaning.

On-Demand Services: Lessons Learned From the Rise and Fall of Homejoy

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The news that on-demand home cleaning service Homejoy is shutting down at the end of the month wasn’t a big surprise. Here are a few key lessons that stick out in thinking about the company’s trajectory.

Local Publishers: Take Back Control of Your Brand

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The announcement of the Digital News Initiative partnership with Google is yet another step backwards for publishers. If they would just consider how they operated their own platforms before the 1990’s they will realize that Google, Facebook and other current tech platforms owe them nothing.

Local Tech Businesses Diversify to Serve a Wider Range of SMB Needs — But Do They Really Know Their Customers?

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In the rush to diversify their offerings, single-product local tech companies either move horizontally (reaching out to all the markets that could remotely utilize their product) or, more often, vertically (seeking to cater to all the nuanced needs of a niche market).

Small Businesses Aren’t Afraid of Amazon — And You Shouldn’t Be Either

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Yes, Amazon is a giant. But as long as you continue to innovate and keep your hand on the pulse of independent business needs, it’s not going to kill your business. Here’s why.

Why All SMBs Need an Ecommerce Strategy

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While online research to offline purchase is the more common path-to-purchase, future-looking SMB retailers will holistically consider an ecommerce strategy as more and more consumers embrace online shopping.

Why All Brands Need to Prepare for the Localization of Marketing

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In order to fully appreciate the significance of localized marketing, we first need to understand the dominant forms of marketing that preceded it. There have been three major technological disruptions over the past century that fundamentally changed the marketing landscape.

Why Selling to Partners and Resellers Is Never a Straight Path

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Media companies are constantly bombarded by digital product and ad tech platform companies vying for consideration. Getting the attention of reseller and partner decision makers requires a clear understanding of their business challenges.

What Merchants Need to Know About Apple Pay and Loyalty Apps

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Having provided a window into the future of Apple Pay and Wallet, Apple recently left small businesses wondering about how to adapt their mobile strategies to stay competitive. Here’s how the changes could affect merchants.

Labor Issues Aren’t the Only Hazard in Uber’s Business Model

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Uber-for-X innovators and investors be warned: several elements of Uber’s market inoculated it against three hazards associated with the single service model: Trigger Infrequency, Customer Loyalty, and Market Density.

Is the On-Demand Economy a Local Media Growth Engine — Or Its Death Knell?

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Local on-demand services continue to dominate press and investor attention. But the elephant in the room is the degree to which on-demand could displace local marketing as we know it.

INFOGRAPHIC: A Quick, Deep Dive Into Local Pharmacies

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Here’s a view of the U.S. pharmacy industry – not the drug makers but the local distribution networks made up of thousands of retail pharmacies. These pharmacies help drive the nearly $260B in “Drug Store Revenue.”

On Building Local Products With Merchants in Mind

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In local, particularly, it seems important to underscore something for new startups: to really think about and envision and understand their customer base…