News and Analysis
Mastering Threads – 5 Brands with Winning Strategies for the Newest Social Platform
Less than one week after its public debut, Threads has already become the fastest-growing mobile app in history. More than 100 million users signed up for Meta’s new social platform in just the first five days — and now brand marketers are ready to get in on the action. While Threads looks nearly identical to […]
“Podcast Studio Near Me”: A Chat With Brian Howie Who is Bringing New Media to the MULO World
Multi-location (MULO) marketing services storefronts are nothing new. Brands offer printing and swag to small businesses and conference-goers, delivering flyers, brochures, posters, signage, and even tee shirts to consumers and companies. Companies like AlphaGraphics, Minuteman, Signarama, and Staples fulfill those needs. Custom Ink started as an online-only creative and production resource but now has multiple […]
Amazon Leans Into Livestream Shopping to Promote Prime Day Deals
More than a decade after livestream shopping first took off in China, it’s yet to reach critical mass in the U.S. Now, Amazon could finally be changing that. Companies like Shopify, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, and Amazon have all invested heavily in live selling in recent years. Although Facebook famously bowed out of its investments […]
Commentary
How Retailers Can Prepare Omnichannel Operations for Looming E-commerce Fatigue
The aim of clienteling is to increase customer loyalty and drive sales, while also increasing associate motivation by rewarding staffers for the resulting revenue uplifts.
The Pandemic Prompted a Programmatic DOOH Revolution. Here’s What Comes Next
Rather than stunting DOOH’s long-term growth, the pandemic instead led to DOOH becoming a more nimble and integrated part of advertisers’ overall media mixes.
Data Science Enables ABM to Achieve Its Full Potential
ABM’s evolution must begin with finding ways to achieve greater levels of personalization that will enable marketers to identify, target, and engage the stakeholders within organizations who wield the real power when it comes to making buying decisions. Only when the targeting challenge is solved can the attribution problem be addressed.
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Covid-19 and Retail Survival: The Online-Offline Imperative
Covid-19 has upended the way consumers buy products. But the pandemic is hardly the only factor accelerating the shift from in-person to online purchasing. This trend has, in fact, intensified over the last decade. With more than 9,000 store closures last year in a strong economy, physical retailers for some time have been trying to figure out how they can thrive (and in some cases survive) in an increasingly digital marketplace.
It’s therefore imperative that retailers (of all sizes) embrace a hybrid business model, where online and offline assets are more integrated. Covid-19 has only made this more apparent.
Consumer Concerns Shift from Covid-19 to Economic Uncertainty
Local businesses have been forced out of their comfort zone this summer as the economic impact of Covid-19 lingers and uncertainty persists into the final weeks of summer. With so many questions unanswered, businesses are searching for resources to help guide their decisions in marketing and general operations.
A number of martech firms are looking to fill the information void by launching their own Covid-19 resource centers and consumer data projects. The location-powered advertising and analytics firm Blis launched its own consumer sentiment tracker, with data from consumers in the United States, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, and Australia.
Foursquare Uses Location Data to Increase Shopper Safety During Covid-19
Social distancing has become a new way of life, but in crowded metro areas, it’s not always possible to remain socially distant inside busy places like supermarkets and pharmacies. Shopping during off-peak periods is the best way to avoid crowds, but during the daytime hours, it’s anyone’s guess whether a particular store will be crowded or empty.
Foursquare thinks it has a solution.
Google My Business Search and Engagement Trends Define the Next Normal
With the addition of call data from DialogTech, we’ve been able to add an important new layer of insight to our examination of consumer sentiment in 2020.
The current report also adds two full months of new Google My Business data to our ongoing study. As you’ll see, the picture painted by the new data is one where consumers are continuing to limit their shopping activities in comparison with pre-pandemic trends, but have increased store visits and contacts significantly throughout the summer, likely with a focus on an expanded set of essential needs mixed with optimism about a return to normal.
How Brands Meet Evolving Customer Expectations with Creative Automation
What customers want from brands is transparency, product information, and available services. Tell audiences about new curbside pickup or what you’re doing to make deliveries safer. Think of how you are removing friction and easing customers’ worry and then speak about it, because not only are they listening, but they’re also paying attention to those who haven’t gotten it right.
Aside from finding the right story angle for customers, many marketing and in-house creative teams are struggling to produce enough new assets and push them quickly out the door, especially as they adjust to remote work. Here are some of the most common challenges brand-side creative teams face during these times and how creative automation can help overcome them.
Location Weekly: DoorDash Opening DashMart Stores
In this episode of Location Weekly, the Location-Based Marketing Association covers Verizon deploying 2cm precision location tracking, DoorDash opening DashMart stores, and Google launching earthquake detection on Android devices. Rich Ventura of Sony Electronics joins as a guest.
Snapchat’s “Promote Local Place”: The Deeper Dive
Snapchat’s 200 million users can now use Snap Map to find businesses in addition to finding friends. These two activities can go hand in hand if friends are discovered nearby on the map when users are planning local adventures.
But what matters most for local is that Snap will now let businesses promote themselves in the map interface, adding a key option for local advertising. This will happen on a self-serve basis for both SMBs and multi-location brands.
How to Start Selling on Amazon in 4 Steps: Complete Guide for Beginners
As the coronavirus pandemic keeps shoppers away from brick-and-mortar stores, those same customers are looking for shopping alternatives online. That, combined with the general increase in e-commerce popularity, makes this an opportune time to expand your online retail presence — including opening up shop on the Moby Dick of all e-commerce marketplaces, Amazon.
6 E-Commerce Tools for Brick-and-Mortar SMBs
Brick-and-mortar merchants are moving their stores online or developing combination solutions that encompass both website sales and curbside pickup to keep pace with customer demand. Many of those businesses that haven’t made the switch are weighing their options and looking for the right technology. Plug-and-play e-commerce platforms tend to be the most popular route for merchants looking to quickly pivot to online sales, but features like scalability, flexibility, and integration with inventory management software are also important to SMBs.
Here are six e-commerce solutions that brick-and-mortar merchants will want to check out.
Third-Party Data May Help Brands Fill Gaps Opened by Covid
The Covid-19 pandemic altered fundamental daily behaviors in most consumers’ lives almost overnight. For some, it had even more drastic effects for better and worse, shifting jobs and spending habits as well as where people go and how they spend their time.
For businesses, the drastic changes of 2020 mean existing data may be unreliable. Ruby Brenden, head of data products at data management platform Lotame, described the stakes of the current situation to Street Fight and gestured toward opportunities to meet the moment.
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