News and Analysis
The Growth of Visual Search
Claire Carlile, in a recent post on visual search that contains useful tips for local businesses, shows us that Google is now making it possible to conduct a search that starts and ends with images. Her example search is conducted using Google Lens, where an image of a Sony headphones package is the “query” that produces a local pack result replete with its own images. This may or may not be the future of search, but it’s highly representative of the visual-first orientation that Google is embracing to a growing degree.
Report: Online Shopping Experiences Disrupted by Last-Mile Delivery Delays
Online grocery sales reached nearly $98 billion in the U.S. last year. Restaurants and home essentials sellers also saw incredible growth. While demand for the local delivery of goods purchased online continues to skyrocket, a new report finds that persistent delivery disruptions in the last mile threaten to impact customer retention and blunt long-term industry growth.
Commentary
Google’s Fitbit Purchase: Peek into Next-Level Local Dominance and Healthcare Hacking
Prescriptions by Google, then? The company indeed lacks Amazon’s delivery capabilities but has a stranglehold on search and therefore on consumers’ connections to local businesses. It is not hard to imagine a world in which Google appears to keep its privacy promise by refusing to sell ads directly based on Fitbit user data but still capitalizes on the data by using it to connect Fitbit users with local health care service providers, pharmacists, and even gyms. That would just constitute one more way Google is edging out the digital middlemen that once closed the loop from Google search to a local service provider.
Defining Your Purpose: 4 Ways to Optimize Purpose-Driven Marketing
Ultimately, ensuring the success of purpose-driven campaigns comes down to building meaningful connections using all the technology, data, and creativity at one’s disposal to reach the elusive double bottom line. Here are four tips that can help marketers tap into data and technology to optimize their purpose-driven campaigns:
The Power and Shifting Meaning of Local
Urban, suburban, and rural residents have different shopping habits in their “local” areas. Many marketers are investing in mobile location-based ads — BIA/Kelsey predicts US spending will top $26 billion this year — yet as a retailer your goal isn’t just to reach consumers but to connect with them by acknowledging their different perspectives.
Talking to your customers requires a customized strategy that prioritizes location and takes their everyday lives into consideration. Harnessing the power of local starts with knowledge: where your customers live, what they want, and how to deliver it on behalf of your brand.
Latest Posts
Flytedesk Empowers Advertisers to Reach Coveted Audience: College Students
Millennials, college kids, 18–24’s—whatever advertisers may choose to call them, they are the most desirable demographic for companies large and small, according to Alex Kronman, founder and CEO of flytedesk, which aims to connect advertisers of all sizes with that coveted audience.
GateHouse Media Shows How Media Orgs Can Offer Value for SMB Advertisers
“Most newspapers and Yellow Pages (and Yelp?) are basically ad-selling machines. GateHouse, in selling HR, IT, and financing services as well as digital services, understands that once you know how to sell one service, you can sell (or more likely upsell) any service. It’s critical for legacy organizations to bite the bullet and figure out services,” writes Mike Blumenthal.
How Food Trucks Can Leverage Location Data to Optimize Sales
“Food truck owners can increase sales with more accurate projection models that leverage location data from both traditional sources, like census and point of interest datasets, [coupled] with new streams, like transactional and foot traffic data,” explains Santiago Giraldo, an urban scientist at CARTO.
How a Proposed California Privacy Regulation Could Impact User Data-Driven Business
If it passes and is signed into law in November, the California Consumer Privacy Act would establish groundbreaking new consumer privacy rights throughout the country. The California act mimics the heavy regulations of the GDPR and could become one of the broadest privacy laws in the nation.
Street Fight Daily: Amazon and Google Announce New Initiatives Focused on SMBs
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Introduces Startup Campaigns for Small Businesses… Amazon Plans Startup SMB Delivery Services for Its Own Packages… How a Proposed California Privacy Regulation Could Impact User Data-Driven Business…
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Why TV Remains the Heartbeat of Local Connection