Like Other Local Services Marketplaces, Amazon Will Have to Balance Competing Interests

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Anyone in the local services industry could be forgiven for worrying about Amazon as an intimidating competitor. But for all of Amazon’s Goliath brand dominance in retail, it faces the same complex challenges that the rest of us face when it comes to the services industry…

Livestreaming and Local: Tech’s Next Collision?

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Growth will ignite first from live video’s inherent virality, which could find hundreds of millions of users the same way Instagram did. Then we’ll see copycat apps come out of the woodwork. It will follow the standard path: quick industry growth, contraction, M&A, a few winners, maturity, etc.. Somewhere in that progression will be a local play…

In Targeting the Lucrative Hispanic Market on Mobile, Location Data Is Key

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We know that Hispanic Americans are highly engaged with their mobile devices, so it follows that one of the best ways to reach them is through mobile marketing. But “mobile” is a broad umbrella and most marketers are still struggling with the question of how to identify Hispanic consumers. One of the best strategies is to leverage location-based data…

How to Make Connections With Increasingly Mobile Consumers

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How does a small business owner communicate with a smartphone-obsessed population? Here are a few proven tactics that can help take advantage of the direct link smartphones provide to the consumer…

Survey: Small Businesses Still Not Sold on Apple Pay

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There’s no shortage of hype around mobile payments. Since the release of Apple Pay, pundits have claimed that your smartphone will soon replace your wallet. But a recent survey of small business owners suggests that it may some time before credit cards are threatened.

How Google Could Transform the $20 Billion Local Television Market

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The search giant this week announced that local TV ads shown to Google Fiber subscribers in Kansas City, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri, will see ads that are delivered in real-time and can be served up based on geography, the type of program being shown or viewing history, though viewers can opt out of the latter.

Lessons Learned While Building a Hyperlocal Startup

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I recently asked our sales team what they thought about serving the local market. I drilled down on what it’s like to build a hyperlocal company in today’s ever-connected world and how to best handle the inherent challenges of this unique customer base…

How Multi-Location Brands Can Dominate Local SEO

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There have never been more ways to find a Starbucks. You can go to the store locator on the website: chances are, it will be the mobile version, because that’s how local search happens more often than not. Or you could use the Google Maps, Apple Maps, Bing Maps, or HERE Maps apps. Or you could […]

Nextdoor Sports a Valuation Over $1B — But How Will It Make Money?

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For Nextdoor, a transactional model might explain some of the investors’ faith, and may provide a clear path to revenue growth than trying to untangle the knot that is local advertising…

Small Businesses and the Impact of Mobile Optimization

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Rather than competing with the big directories for search ranking, small businesses need to fit themselves within the dominant mobile search paradigm and ensure their profiles on third party sites are optimized for the needs of mobile consumers…

Why Email Marketing Is Still Vital for SMBs

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Small business owners often won’t reach out to existing customers in a regular way because they are afraid of “spamming” them. Ironically, however, it doesn’t stop these merchants from advertising and posting the same messages repeatedly on social media…

What You Need to Know About Google’s New Mobile-friendly Algorithm

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Google recently took to their Webmaster Central Blog to announce an upcoming algorithm change that will take effect on April 21st and affect large brands and small businesses alike. Going forward, mobile-friendly sites will likely rank higher in search results…

Why Market Sizing Is Critical for Hyperlocal Founders Seeking Investment

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The economics of venture investment dictate that professional venture investors only invest in businesses that have the potential to massively scale. This is because the majority of investments in early-stage technology businesses fail…

Apple Makes Quiet Gains in Local Mapping

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Apple has much ground to cover to convince the world that Mapgate never happened. App integration is one step in that direction. If the company can pull it off, it will also fulfill its prevailing goal of selling more iThings…

For Facebook (And Others), Small Businesses Aren’t the Focus

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Facebook’s decision to throttle organic reach has drawn ire among the small business community, and led some in the technology industry to question its future. The company is making very clear that the consumer is its real focus…

How Small Businesses Can Nail Social Marketing

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A strong social media presence can be a hugely powerful tool for any small business. With even a limited amount of time and effort you can create new opportunities for customers to engage with or discover your brand and strengthen your relationships with your target audience…

The ‘Five Places’ Method for Manageable Local Marketing

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It’s critical for SMBs to focus attention on a few of the most effective marketing activities, and to adopt a strategy that allows them to keep marketing efforts consistent. The “five places” method is a simple way to organize one’s efforts based on an inventory of what matters most…

5 Steps for SMBs Looking to Dominate the Local Competition

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SMBs’ natural advantages are being eroded by the techniques that social and mobile technologies make available to larger businesses. But they can gain back the advantages they’ve always had by operating differently. Here are five steps that can serve as the starting point for competing more effectively in the new social economy…

Why So Many Local Search Sites Are Adding Business Services

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Strategies around SEO, listings management and SEM have long helped businesses generate clicks, calls and store visits. And while this remains true, search sites have recently begun putting more emphasis on adding tools and services that look to accelerate the purchase process…

On-Demand Local Services: The End of SMB Advertising as We Know It?

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On-demand local services flip the traditional local advertising model. Instead of marketing proactively to generate demand, that demand is captured and revealed for service providers to react in real time. Put another way: Marketing is replaced with a commerce engine…