#SFSNYC: ReachLocal, ShopKeep, and Swipely on Whether or Not Vertical Approaches to Local Inevitably Become Horizontal
Small businesses have a lot of options when it comes to choosing tools that keep things running smoothly. In fact, they have a lot of options even when partnering with a single vendor because companies within the connected local economy are transforming into marketing one-stop shops for advertising, point-of-sale (POS), and other solutions critical to the daily operations of SMBs.
Small Businesses Rate Social, SEO, Email as Most Effective Marketing Tools
Small businesses continue to be in love with social media. In the first in a series of surveys Street Fight will be conducting with Alignable, we asked approximately 100 small business owners to rate their most effective marketing tools and tactics among a list of a dozen. Two-thirds of respondents selected social media as one of their top three. SEO and email rounded out the list of leading techniques.
Street Fight Daily: Snapchat Cuts Ties with Yahoo, Publishers Share Digital Advertising Strategies
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Why Snapchat Axed Yahoo from Discover (Fast Company)… What’s Actually Working in Digital Advertising? 8 Publishers on How They’re Bringing in Money (Nieman Lab)… Yelp Is Using Image Search to Change How It Finds You a Bar (Wired)…
How Gannett’s Cost-Cutting and Breakthrough Video Ads Helped Land Journal Media Group
In less than six months, the newly constituted Journal Media Group did a 180-degree about-face, shifting from a strategy focused on acquisitions to being acquired by Gannett. The USA Today publisher brought two things that JMG couldn’t match: The proven ability to consistently wring substantial cost savings out of expansion and a digital ad strategy that holds the promise of making everybody — advertisers, audiences, and stockholders — happy.
Street Fight Daily: Target Partners with Techstars, Yahoo Exec Leaves for Square
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Target Teams Up with Techstars to Create a Retail-Focused Startup Accelerator (TechCrunch)… Top Yahoo Exec Jackie Reses Heads to Square as Senior Exec (Recode)… Publishers Straddle the Apple-Google, App-Web Divide (New York Times)…
6 Strategies for Improving Email Pitches to SMBs
Email is the go-to channel for pitching within the hyperlocal community, but with 81 percent of small business owners now being contacted by between one and five sales reps each week, according to a survey by Street Fight and Thrive Analytics, it’s becoming harder for digital marketing vendors to stand out from the pack. Here are six strategies vendors say they’ve successfully used to break through the clutter in local merchants’ inboxes.
LBMA Podcast: Walmart’s Simple Text Shopping Assistant, Walgreens Rewards Activity Tracking
On the show: Walmart’s Simple Text shopping assistant; Walgreens rewards customers for activity tracking; ordering pizza from the street courtesy of JCDeaux; LOCALīz from Bulzi; Droneports in Rwanda; Sunshine crowdsourced weather app; your opinion pays at Portland’s SamplingLab; using digital solutions to enhance the customer experience. Plus, news from RevTrax; Salvation Army; and eyeQ.
Street Fight Daily: IAB Accepts Blame for Rise of Ad Blockers, Analyzing Yahoo Gemini
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… The IAB Pivots on Ad Blocking and Issues a Mea Culpa: ‘We Messed Up’ (Adweek)… As Yahoo Gemini Ramps Up, How Well Is It Performing for Search Advertisers? (Search Engine Land)… First Data Slips in Trading Debut (Wall Street Journal)…
NinthDecimal Partners with TiVo to Measure TV Advertising’s Real-World Influence
In today’s digitally-focused advertising climate, overlooking TV’s influence is easy. It still accounts for the largest share of U.S. media spending, but with marketers increasingly focused on generating hard metrics-based ROI for every aspect of their campaigns, the challenge has been tying TV’s impact to real-world business results. With the launch today of a TV measurement solution in partnership with TiVo, NinthDecimal is banking on TV becoming a bigger piece of the ROI puzzle.
5 Reasons Why Your Business Needs Negative Reviews
All business owners cringe at the sight of a one- or two-star review shown publicly on any review site. The immediate feeling is often disbelief, anger, and resentment toward both the customer and the review site. There is almost nothing that makes business owners more emotional than public criticism of their work. But emotions aside, negative reviews can actually be a good thing. Here are five ways they can help your business thrive.
Transfernation Tackles Food Waste and Hunger with a Local, On-Demand Twist
In New York City each week, up to 1,000 lbs. of food is rescued from lavish events, office functions, and charity fundraisers. Instead of being discarded, the extra food finds its way to soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and other service organizations through Transfernation, a New York City-based nonprofit that’s at the forefront of the food rescue movement.
Street Fight Daily: Starbucks Tests Delivery, Pinterest Adds Location Info to Place Pins
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Starbucks Is Testing Coffee Delivery to Office Workers in the Empire State Building (Adweek)… Pinterest Will Automatically Add Venue Information to Place Pins (TechCrunch)… Postmates Expands API to Power Delivery for More Merchants (Forbes)…
Patch’s St. John: People Crave an Understanding of What’s Happening Right Around Them
“We have about just under 70 full-time salaried editors. Compared to the old Patch, which had a newsroom the size of the New York Times, that may sound small, but when I talk to other digital publishers and I tell them we’ve got 70 full-time salaried reporters in the field, that sounds like a lot to them. Our goal is to add more as we grow. As we get revenue, we put it immediately into expanding because we need to be national to really fully realize Patch’s potential,” said editor-in-chief Warren St. John.
Street Fight Daily: Facebook’s New Retail Features, Local Mobile Ad Spend to Reach $6.5 Billion by 2019
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Facebook Woos Retailers and Shoppers Alike with New Features (Gigaom)… Mobile Spend by Local Advertisers Forecast to Hit $6.5B by 2019 (MediaPost)… Security, Data Breaches Slow Down Mobile Payments Adoption (eMarketer)…
LBMA Podcast: Walkbase and Samsung Team up for In-Store Analytics, Localistico Makes Location Easier for SMEs
On the show: Walkbase and Samsung team up for in-store analytics; Localistico makes location easier for SMEs; Amazon creates its own Uber for packages with “Flex;” Nescafé and Google partner for 360-degree virtual reality experience; Beacons for Good. Plus, news from Best Buy, Google, Foursquare and OpenTable, and Virgin and Netflix.
Street Culture: Signpost on Being a Scrappy Startup
When you’re fast-growing startup company, the most important thing is hiring the right people. That means people who can do the job, and also, in some cases, people who are willing to build desks, said Justin Donnarumma, director of sales at Signpost, a marketing automation technology company that launched in 2010. “That’s the kind of scrappiness we look for in new hires.”