News and Analysis

This Startup Is Helping Local Stores ID Customers During COVID-19

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Chatbots are helping resolve customer service issues when businesses are closed and call centers are slammed, but brick-and-mortar stores are still struggling to adapt to an online-only business format. Pure play ecommerce outlets have spent years developing systems to manage transactions and verify customer identities, but most retailers on Main Street are accustomed to seeing shoppers in person and visually checking IDs.

A San Francisco-based startup called Persona is offering to help those local businesses adapt by giving away its online ID verification service for free during the COVID-19 crisis.

7 Delivery Apps Keeping Restaurants, Grocers Afloat During COVID-19

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Dozens of states have banned dine-in service at restaurants, and nearly as many are requiring retailers to close up shop in a bid to slow down the coronavirus outbreak. As local businesses deal with the enormous financial implications that come with closing down to customers, many are trying out delivery services for the very first time.

For restaurants and other local businesses interested in offering their products via on-demand delivery, here are seven delivery platforms with which local businesses can partner during the Covid-19 crisis.

Google’s SameSite Update and the Third-Party Cookie-Free Future

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The end of the third-party cookie forces marketers to take earning consumer consent for data collection more seriously, and it will open up new methods of data collection, some directly devised by Google and others by the many companies in its ecosystem. These new methods of data collection will aim to clarify the impact of ads and allow for pertinent advertising (or targeting) with consumers’ more clearly stated consent.

To obtain an insider’s perspective on marketing tech’s reaction to Google’s SameSite update and the industry’s path forward, I got in touch with Brian Silver, president of email marketing firm LiveIntent.

Commentary

Unpacking the Increasingly Complex Local SERP

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“While I think [these local ad changes] might be better for many small businesses AND consumers, it gives Google a great deal of power to approve or disapprove participants,” Mike Blumenthal tells David Mihm in their biweekly column.

People Are Talking About You: The Hidden Value of User-Generated Content

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Simply put, insights gleaned from reviews can help you do business better. Though reviews may contain bias of various kinds, they are still the best source you can find of detailed feedback from real customers.

Understanding the Proxies That Can Undermine Location Data

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For marketers, the ability to deploy technology that identifies and bypasses online users who may be masking their locations and digital traits yields improvement in the form of targeted campaigns and fewer wasted impressions.

Latest Posts

Voice Search Profoundly Changes the Way Consumers Interact on Mobile

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Sponsoered content: Business listings are an important part of voice searches, particularly when “near me” searches are involved. Localized searches may see an even more rapid shift to voice than other searches, based on consumers’ increasing comfort with using hands-free devices in the car or when their eyes are otherwise occupied while outside the home.

Street Fight Daily: Facebook-WhatsApp Data Sharing Blocked Abroad, OpenTable Scales Back

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Facebook Runs Into Roadblock Abroad Taking User Data from WhatsApp for Targeted Ads… As OpenTable Struggles to Take Hold Abroad, Priceline Scales It Back… Uber Rival Karhoo Shuts Down After Blowing Reported $250M in Funding…

Report: Airports Could Be the Next Big Beacon Hubs

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In U.S airports, we don’t see as much beacon activity as we might expect, but a new report by Unacast’s proximity marketing network service, Proxbook, indicates that by 2019, 84% of all global airports will be involved in a deployment or a trial project with beacons or other proximity sensors.

Just How Big a Deal Are Voice Search and Chatbots for Local?

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At Street Fight Summit we raised a little controversy around the potential disruptiveness of voice search to the hyperlocal economy. Street Fight believes voice search is a critical emerging technology, a view that seemingly contrasts with that of many companies on the supply side of hyperlocal.

Street Fight Daily: Google Begins Mobile-First Indexing, Apple News Drives Traffic for Pubs

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Begins Mobile-First Indexing, Using Mobile Content For All Search Rankings… Apple News Drives Significant Traffic for Some Publishers, But Measurement Remains Iffy… The Economist Turns to LinkedIn over Pinterest and Tumblr…

Openings and New Hires at CallRail, GateHouse Media, Guarantee Digital

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Every two weeks, Geoff Michener covers some of the latest job changes taking place in this dynamic industry. This week’s edition includes moves and new openings at the IAB, Signpost, Boostability and Factual.

Raise Report: New Funding for Hollar, Culture Trip, Silvair

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Every two weeks, we round up some of the biggest fundraises taking place in hyperlocal marketing, commerce, and tech. This week’s edition includes new funding for CaliberMind, OpenDataSoft, and Otonomo.

LBMA Podcast: Sam’s Club, Pizza Hut, and IHG’s Sasha Trifunac

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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: Smart Water + Proxama, Google’s OTTO, InContext + Intel Capital, Tesco, LinkNYC to UK, Sue Bee Honey & InMarket, Bank of America, and Groupon buys Living Social.

Street Fight Daily: Brands Leverage Apple Search Ads, Yelp Struggles Internationally

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Big Brands Are Already Targeting Their Competitors with Apple Search Ads… Yelp, Struggling Internationally, Lays Off 175 In Sales and Marketing… Foursquare Licenses Drawbridge’s Cross-Device Identity Data for Location Intelligence…

This Holiday Season, Brands Need to Pay Special Attention to Data Details

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Many brands are already breaking out holiday decorations, hoping to attract the efficient crowds this early in the season. But glittery ornaments and fake snow only goes so far: 30% of local search users have cited “inaccurate” information as the issue they most frequently experience, and Google’s “near me” searches have increased 34-fold since 2011. Once the Brandify 360° Network completes initial listing corrections, the solution provides additional insights and value, such as pinpointing where online traffic originates from for specific listings and automating details to save time and energy for management.