News and Analysis
Businesses Find Opportunities to Fundraise, Connect Through Local Platforms
Consumers say they want to help the local businesses in their communities, and many are buying gift cards and launching GoFundMe campaigns to help their favorite restaurants, retailers, and brewpubs avoid going out of business. But restaurants and other essential businesses that remain open still need a way to let customers know how they’re selling their products and services, and how they can place orders without showing up in person.
The neighborhood social networking app Nextdoor is one of a number of platforms working on ways to ease that burden. Yelp, Facebook, and Patch are joining the fight.
PlaceIQ Buys Freckle IoT, Marking Second Instance of Location Consolidation in 2 Days
Location intelligence firm PlaceIQ bought fellow location data and measurement company Freckle IoT. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The move comes just a day after the bombshell announcement that location leader Foursquare was merging with location data firm Factual. Speculation that the Foursquare-Factual merger could portend additional consolidation in the location data-driven marketing and insights industry came to fruition quicker than analysts could have predicted.
Commentary
SMB Ecosystems vs Universes: What’s the Difference and What Do They Tell Us?
From analyzing the companies that specifically target the SMBs, this space is better depicted by a series of galaxies that swirl independently of each other and offer the SMB a myriad of choice. The upshot of all this work is that some stars are shrinking and others are growing. Bigger companies are actively acquiring and consolidation is increasing.
Cost-Per-Visit and Bad Location Data: Are You Really Getting What You Pay For?
CPV is generating a welcome dialogue in the ad industry as it wrestles with questions such as how to value repeat customer visits and how much is a visit worth. Key to answering all these questions, though, is clearly understanding the accuracy of the underlying location data being used to score the visit.
The ABC’s of AR: Always Be Closing
In these early days of augmented reality (AR), we’re learning a lot about consumer behavior and preferences — the same learning curve defined the early days of smartphone apps. One lesson so far is that consumer AR use cases will be fairly limited. It’s not a silver bullet and it’s not for everyone.
Latest Posts
Selling to SMBs: AIDA and The Conversion Zone
I’m often asked by entrepreneurs and venture capitalists alike to talk about what changes throughout the course of the “bell curve ride” in selling to small and medium-sized businesses — and how organizations need to adapt at each stage in order to ensure continued success. Here’s the best way I can explain how it all works.
Street Fight Daily: Google Gets Lift from Maps Ads, Facebook’s E-Commerce Strategy
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Sees Lift from Maps Ads, Local Mobile Clicks… Facebook Puts Off Monetization of E-Commerce Efforts to Boost their Popularity… BloomReach Acquires Hippo to Create, Personalize, and Measure Every Digital Experience…



















































Scaling Seasonal SEO Across Locations With AI Insights