News and Analysis
AARP Launches Platform Empowering Neighbors to Assist Each Other during Pandemic
Built by the team at AARP Innovation Labs over the course of just a few weeks, the Community Connections mutual aid aggregation platform gives volunteers and people in need a place to connect. It features a searchable directory of local mutual aid organizations, which are typically informal groups that provide key daily services, such as picking up groceries and delivering medications to people who are at high risk for contracting Covid-19. People can access the platform to find volunteer groups nearby, with links to those groups’ websites and locator maps.
With Stimulus Funds Delayed, Small Businesses Digitize for Survival
Experts at helping SMBs adapt to a tech-first commercial landscape say the pandemic has led some businesses to tap into their long-dormant potential as digital marketers and sellers, possibly setting them up for gains in the aftermath of the recession. Now that e-commerce is the only path to survival, mom-and-pop shops, aided by martech firms, agencies, and Silicon Valley giants, are capitalizing on cutting-edge marketing and retail techniques, many for the first time.
Thousands, if not millions, of Main Street businesses will close their doors for good as a result of the pandemic. Those that survive will be technologically savvier and sleeker than they were before.
What Search Behavior During Covid-19 Means for Healthcare Marketers
The headlines are everywhere. Open any newspaper, and you’ll see story after story about coronavirus and its impact on American society. But new data on consumer search behavior shows Covid-19 isn’t the only healthcare topic on people’s minds right now.
In an analysis of consumer search trends during the coronavirus pandemic, a team from the healthcare provider scheduling and search platform Kyruus found that search terms seemingly unrelated to Covid-19, such as “diabetes,” “cancer,” and “depression,” continue to rank more highly than those associated with the virus.
Commentary
Selling to Multi-Location Brands: Applying Geotargeting Lessons to Mobile Push
Mobile push marketing is one of the most popular technologies multi-location brands say they’re interested in exploring in the near term. Suppliers of local marketing technologies and services can help them do more than explore by taking lessons from brands that have had success with geotargeting.
Q&A, Reviews, and Fake News on Google: False Content Is Not Just a Facebook Problem
“Given the primacy of Google’s market position, and the primacy of Knowledge Panels in SERPs—also a conscious product decision on Google’s part—the percentage of customers who are likely to come across fake information is great,” David Mihm tells Mike Blumenthal in their biweekly column.
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Building the Essential Digital Marketing Bundle for Local Businesses
“Last time we identified our essential digital bundle for small businesses,” says David Mihm to Mike Blumenthal. “This week I thought we might tackle how agencies and media companies might go about building and selling that bundle — and why there seem to be so few who are actually doing it.”
Local’s Next Hurdle: The Impressionable Use Fallacy
No matter how good the targeting, creative, and “right person, right place,” the vast majority of our time contains urgencies that render us immune to push-based mobile ads. It’s basically a question of how often we’re actually idle, and therefore impressionable to being rerouted from a deliberate course.
Street Fight Daily: Lyft’s Impact on Hyperlocal Commerce, Facebook’s Ad-Counting Troubles Persist
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Lyft Touts Its Benefits for Hyperlocal Commerce… Facebook Reports New Issues with Ad-Counting Tools… In Smart Home Race, Microsoft, Google, Amazon Vie to Be ‘Hub of Everything You Do Online’ …
Street Fight Daily: Target Uses Data to Boost Brands, ProPublica Aims to Fill Local News Void
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Target Capitalizes on Shopper Data, Collaborates with In-House Brands On Programmatic… Attempting To Fill A Local News Void, ProPublica Launches Illinois Unit… Major Retailer Leverages Social To Score During Holiday Season…
TownNews Founder: News Sites Will ‘Perish’ Without Latest AdTech
In 1989, Marc Wilson’s Montana news bulletin board put editorial content into the hands of other local-news publishers more quickly, abundantly, and cheaply. Today, Wilson’s TownNews.com serves 1,600 newspapers — big and small, daily and weekly — as well as pure-plays and other digital publications
Street Fight Daily: Twitter Struggles with Publishers, Retail Marketing and Measurement
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Falling Behind Snapchat and Facebook, Twitter Struggles to Attract Publishers… How Retail Marketing Changes As Measurement Tools Improve… Where the Digital Dollars Have Gone: How 15 Major Media Companies Have Invested in Digital…
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