The Mobile Search Tipping Point: A Global Perspective

Share this:

The smartphone by its nature is portable, location-based, and focused on immediacy. Whether local search is a major segment of consumer activity or not today in a given country, there’s little question that it will be, and soon…

Is there a Local Marketing Play for Snapchat?

Share this:

Given its engagement levels, quality, and potential audience scale, Snapchat isn’t just competing with Facebook and other native ad platforms — it’s competing with television. And for that reason, its local play will be large national advertisers that increasingly localize campaigns…

3 Principles Every Early Stage Startup Needs To Know

Share this:

There are three things any startup needs to think about as they bring together their team and begin to build out a first version of their product or service…

5 Ways Starbucks Turns a Global Business Into a Local Brand

Share this:

When most people think of a local business, they imagine the neighborhood store or the mom-and-pop restaurant. But more and more today, global brands are positioned to use to digital tools to capture the relevancy and responsiveness that is at the heart of local businesses…

Google’s Cities Initiative and the Ownership of Local Data

Share this:

Google’s recent announcement of a new initiative called “Let’s Put Our Cities on the Map” belongs to the larger story of the company’s attempt to gain a critical mass of participation from small businesses…

5 Ways You’re Doing Mobile Wrong

Share this:

For consumers, it’s basically a mobile-first world. And as more and more money and activity moves into the mobile advertising ecosystem, marketers must move beyond the old models and start to think like consumers – mobile-first…

What Google’s Entry Into the Home Services Space Means for Local

Share this:

Google revealed earlier this week that it was readying an entry into the hotly contested home services category. Will Google have enough long-term commitment to a serious standalone product in this space to produce a real game-changer for local?

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

Share this:

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?

Share this:

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

Share this:

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

Share this:

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

Share this:

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

Share this:

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

Share this:

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

Share this:

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?

Share this:

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

Share this:

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

Share this:

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

Share this:

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

Share this:

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…