News and Analysis

As Agencies Feel the Squeeze, Covid-19 Reshapes the Martech Industry

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One in four small businesses has temporarily shut down, and 43% believe they have fewer than six months until permanent closure is unavoidable. With the small business community in panic mode, budgets for digital marketing have been slashed, and agencies are feeling the pinch.

“Everyone has been in panic mode, and rightly so. Businesses are worried about who might have to be furloughed [or] laid off, getting their PPP loans, what kind of regulations do they need to comply with, [and] what their contingency plans are for keeping any amount of revenue coming in,” says Simon Schwartz, founder of Locasaur. “Businesses are not interested in being pitched new marketing tech.”

5 Retail Tech Solutions Keeping Shoppers Safe During Covid-19

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Beacons, sensors, security cameras, and touchless payment solutions are all being used in ways they haven’t been before. Technology vendors are even changing up their offerings, or in some cases pivoting altogether, to better serve the retail market during this ongoing pandemic.

Here are five examples of technology providers offering innovative solutions for enhanced social distancing and improved shopper safety during the Covid-19 outbreak.

Curbside Pickup Moves Into Primetime, But Retailers Struggle With Implementation

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Petsmart and Kohl’s have it. So do Best Buy, GameStop, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and dozens of other national retailers. With social distancing orders in place across most of the country, curbside pickup is becoming an increasingly popular checkout option for retailers. Integrating curbside technology into existing ecommerce fulfillment programs hasn’t been without its challenges, though, especially given how hastily many of these programs have been rolled out.

Commentary

How Patch Has Quietly ‘Bootstrapped’ Itself Into 36 NYC Neighborhoods

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Patch CEO Warren St. John tells our columnist Tom Grubisich why he decided to bet big on hyperlocal news in New York City while other local publishers were shutting down or threatening to do so, retrenching or selling out.

SurePath Capital Breaks Down Last Year’s Money Moves in SMB Software

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Last week, my firm SurePath Capital Partners released its annual State of SMB Software Report, which looks at fundraising and exit activity in the SMB software space in North America. 

Taking Control of the Control Group: How to Collect Reliable Data

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Only when marketers account for the totality of their consumer data and account for it in an integrated way will the data actually offer visibility and control.

Latest Posts

Broadstreet CEO: ‘Value’ in Local Publishing Is More Than Scale

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Kenny Katzgrau talks with us about what he calls the “growing divide” between publishers, like local newspaper groups, who pitch advertisers with the scale of big numbers of pageviews, and independents, who emphasize value.

5 Tools For Evaluating Which Hyperlocal Ads Work Best

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There are a number of tools already available for marketers looking to decide which hyperlocal ads are working best, many of which go beyond basic click-through rates and engagement rates to generate a complete picture of advertising successes and misses.

Infographic: The Fight for Leads

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In the battle to find and convert customers, a range of tools are at the disposal of marketers. This infographic highlights eight winning tactics being used by marketers in health care, automotive, marketing agencies and law firms. It is the final post in the “Fight for Leads” series sponsored by CallRail.

Street Fight Daily: Business Discovery in the Voice Search Age, Mobile ROI Eludes Marketers

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… SEO’s Path Forward in the Age of Google Assistant, Home, and Amazon Echo… 67% of Marketers Can’t Measure Mobile ROI… Among Marketers, IoT Is Seen as Critical Emerging Technology…

State of Hyperlocal Report: What’s Hot in Local Marketing and Commerce

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social media, data and analytics, and mobile—especially geotargeting—are the hot technology investments for marketing and commerce. The investment in data and analytics is in part driven by the biggest overall industry challenge, online-to-offline attribution measurement, and one of the most difficult issues facing individual companies, proving ROI to customers.

With New Partnership, Commerce Signals and PlaceIQ Marry Location With Transaction Data

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Commerce Signals this week rolled out its new centerpiece product, called databridge. The platform lets marketers see unfiltered transaction data directly from financial institutions when purchases are made. This transaction information is being combined with location data in a new partnership with PlaceIQ.

Street Fight Daily: Meal Kits Cut Into Local Supermarket Spending, Tracking Google’s Shift to Mobile-First

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Popularity of Meal Kits Sees Steady Rise, Cutting Into Supermarket Spending… Google’s Shift to Mobile-First: Mobile Moments That Matter… Gett Secures $100M Loan from Sberbank to Expand Its On-Demand Ride Service…

LBMA Podcast: British Petroleum, Crust Pizza, Simpli.fi

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This Week in Location Based Marketing is a weekly video podcast from the Location Based Marketing Association with Asif Khan and Aubriana Lopez. On the show: Galleries Lafayette, Royal British Legion, Coca-Cola, xAd buys Weatherbug, DAC Group, Yelp + SweetIQ, and AirBnB.

Using Chatbots to Improve the Customer Experience

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Although automated messaging has been around for years, today’s chatbots combine machine learning with artificial intelligence to create enhanced user experiences. Chatbots are also giving brands a chance to flex their creative muscles, utilizing technology in innovative ways.

How Brands Can Get More Out of Their Brick-and-Mortar Marketing

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Marketers that fail to see local storefronts as a critical channel are missing out on a rich sales opportunity. Brands invest $70 billion in local markets each year, but a significant portion of that spend often goes to waste because they fail to work collaboratively with their local partners.