News and Analysis

virtual reality metaverse

Opportunity In the Metaverse Isn’t Just About NFTs — It’s About Interactions

While there is certainly opportunity for brands to sell additional product in the metaverse—fashion retailers like Nike and Gucci are already working on developing pricing strategies for digital goods and services—branding experts believe the greatest long-term gains will be won through marketing approaches that focus on quality interactions and engagement.

Reputation Lands $150 Million to Power Reputation Experience Management

Reputation announced Tuesday morning that it has raised $150 million in fresh funding to power what it calls reputation experience management, or RXM.

chatbot

Report: Retail Lags in Omnichannel Customer Service

Retailers around the globe learned to adapt during the pandemic, quickly pivoting to offer curbside pickup, mobile payments, and online storefronts. Despite making strides in digital adoption, a new report finds that many retailers are still missing the mark on omnichannel customer service.

Commentary

Half of Organizations Send the Wrong Marketing Messages to Customers

The result of this data deluge? Organizations lack the insight into their customers they desperately need to deliver meaningful experiences, secure sales, and retain customers. New research estimates 48% of them struggle to gain these insights due to the data silos and more than half admit they don’t have a full picture of their marketing data and their customer journey.  

Given the many challenges marketers are up against, it’s no wonder they struggle to define their customer journeys and optimize customer interactions. Below I offer some advice for those in this data struggle.

Multi-Location Marketers Want to Do More Social Advertising, But One Big Thing Stands in the Way

Unlike search, social is a push medium that marketers can use to reach new audiences. Social can leverage rich ad formats such as mouth-watering images of restaurant dishes, explainer videos for complex products, and eye-catching celebrity or influencer endorsements that are much more impactful and engaging at storytelling than search. 

Today’s local enterprise advertisers know that they should be leveraging the one-two punch of search and social together. One day they will. But until social advertising can offer the same streamlined workflow that can make managing hundreds or thousands of locations as easy as search makes it, social will still lag behind in the local marketing media portfolio. 

First-Party Versus Third-Party Data: What You Should Know

Using first-party data is a win-win. As marketers, you are fostering an ongoing relationship with your customers and prospects by better communicating and serving them. But there needs to be a strategy and long-term commitment. In a survey of US digital marketers by Advertiser Perceptions and programmatic agency MightyHive, respondents said they were, on average, tapping into just 47% of their company’s first-party data potential. It takes the right strategy and technological infrastructure in place to activate first-party data at scale.

Latest Posts

What January’s New York Retail Traffic Patterns Mean for Media Delivery

In an effort to learn more about shopper behaviors and patterns, the data science team at the mobile location firm Blis analyzed post-holiday foot traffic patterns at Macy’s, Bloomingdales, Saks, and Lord & Taylor in New York City.

Street Fight Daily: Mobile Commerce Grows, Publishers Seek Collective Bargaining with Platforms

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… As Retailers Leverage Robust Visuals and Efficient Interfaces, Mobile Commerce Grows… Legislation Could Give Publishers a New Weapon Against Facebook and Google… Snap Is Laying Off About 100 Engineers…

How EU Data Regulations Could Benefit Global Brands

With less than three months to go until the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation goes into effect, businesses around the globe are looking for information on how to stay in compliance with what’s been described as the most important change in data privacy regulations in the past two decades.

5 Shopper Personalization Solutions for Brands

Here are five examples of hyperlocal vendors offering the latest personalization solutions for brands and retailers right now.

Street Fight Daily: All Marketing is Local, How GDPR Will Affect Brands

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… How Digital Advances Have Ushered in the Golden Age of Local Marketing… How to Open Your Mind to Amazon’s Marketing Potential… Collateral Damage from Facebook’s News Feed Changes Piles Up..

Amazon Rolls Out Free Whole Foods Deliveries for Prime Members in San Francisco & Atlanta

Further encroaching on one of hyperlocal’s oldest verticals, Amazon sent shivers down the spines of grocers in San Francisco and Atlanta on Tuesday, announcing it would begin delivering Whole Foods orders for free to Prime members in those cities.

SMB Index: Local Stocks Take a Hit in February

In a turbulent February, which saw stocks give back gains from January over 2 days (Feb 7–9), the SCP SMB Index retreated 2% during the month.

How to Create a Seamless Online/Offline Shopping Experience

Thanks to advances made in the digital world, in-store identification can be linked to existing digital identifiers and unlock sophisticated, real-time personalization that is seamless across channels.

SMB OS Operators, Part I: Upserve

The first in our series of interviews on SMB OS is Upserve founder and CEO Angus Davis. Formerly Swipely, UpServe had been living out the principles of SMB OS long before we started calling it that.

Street Fight Daily: Amazon Rolls Out Free Whole Foods Deliveries, Google Sells Zagat

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Amazon Rolls Out Free Whole Foods Deliveries for Prime Members in San Francisco & Atlanta… Google Is Selling Off Zagat… SMB OS Operators, Part I: Upserve…