News and Analysis
Why Are Brands Struggling to Track Influencer Campaigns?
Without accurate ways to measure and monitor the success of influencer campaigns, most brand marketers are left sitting in the dark. And many of the metrics used to track the success of campaigns on traditional advertising channels don’t work with influencer marketing, where context is everything and the volume of brand mentions can be deceiving. The data company Sama thinks it has a solution.
Commentary
No Matter What Business You’re In, You Are In The Business of Selling
Kendrick Shope: I coach a lot of entrepreneurs, many of whom are brilliant at what they do, have excellent people skills, and should be setting the world on fire. Unfortunately, they’re stuck trying to make ends meet when they should be doing seven figures in a year because they haven’t mastered the art of selling. It’s a skill like any other, and once you learn it and become really good at it, your business is going to change forever. If you really want to up your sales game this year, focus on these five selling strategies.
Increasingly, Your Brand Is Its Reviews
Mihm to Blumenthal: The famous Jeff Bezos quote comes to mind: “Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.” Increasingly, the room is not a physical place but a virtual one—and it’s not a place you own. Reviews really bring the need to run a decent business at your core into stark relief.
Latest Posts
The New Local Ecosystem: An Interview With Darren Shaw
As of this year, the task of updating the Local Search Ecosystem has been handed to Darren Shaw of Whitespark, who also inherited David Mihm’s other well-known brainchild, the Local Search Ranking Factors report. Last week, Darren released Local Search Ecosystem 2017, a bold departure in visual design and a much-needed update to the last edition, from 2014.
Google Elevates Local Marketing to Prime Time
Many industry watchers and practitioners correctly perceived the GMB API as a sign of how important it is for businesses to manage their location data properly. But the progression of the API represents something even bigger: empowering businesses to elevate and measure the value of local search marketing.
Yelp Analysis Finds Bright Spots for Business Growth
A new economic outlook report released by Yelp this morning finds ample opportunity for growth for small businesses throughout the country, and particularly those located in Southeastern states. “The markets we often think of as being on the forefront of trends in food, retail and other sectors can also be the toughest for small-business success,” explains data editor Carl Bialik.
Cultural Shifts Underlines Google’s Local Enterprise Play
“Google at one time talked about a suite of GMB products called the Business Builder but it got left on the cutting room floor of the forced march to Google Plus and the subsequent ugly separation,” Mike Blumenthal tells David Mihm. “It’s refreshing to see a similar strategy finally coming to fruition. I think we are seeing them being slowly tied together.”
How Brands Are Using Hyperlocal Marketing to Reach Millennial Shoppers
Members of the millennial generation—generally defined as those born between 1982 and 2004—are more comfortable receiving targeted digital ads than consumers in other generations, and they’re warming to technologies like NFC and mobile payments. Here’s how five brands have targeted millennials with location-based strategies, along with insights into what made their tactics so successful.
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Authentic Storytelling: Real-Life Scenarios Showcase Brand Values and Build Trust