News and Analysis
5 Curbside Pickup Solutions for Retailers to Use During Covid-19
Curbside pickup isn’t just a win from a public health perspective; it also gives stores an additional lifeline as they look for ways to sell products without violating physical distancing guidelines. What’s more, the trend may stick, bringing additional retailers into the process and boosting customer adoption even after social distancing subsides.
These are five technology companies offering platforms and tools that retailers can use to implement curbside pickup during the Covid-19 crisis.
Local Businesses Lean Heavily on Digital Tools During Covid-19
Digital platforms like Facebook, Google, Instagram, Yelp, and Twitter have never been more important for local businesses. With 80% of customers saying they are scaling down their restaurant visits now, restaurants are in uncharted territory. Local businesses in every industry are being forced to adapt their marketing strategies on the fly and use digital channels like Google and Yelp to keep people updated on their status.
Restaurants that were previously hesitant to use delivery services are now jumping on the bandwagon, and apps like DoorDash, Instacart, and UberEats are seeing a surge in businesses using their platforms. Smaller restaurants, retailers, and other local businesses are also beginning to accept more orders through messaging apps like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. Larger organizations are managing an influx of customer service calls using chatbots on these same platforms.
Coronavirus and Mobile Advertising: CPMs, Sensitivity, Geographic Comparisons
The Covid-19 crisis is a challenging time for all industries, but for mobile marketers it poses a paradoxical challenge. On the one hand, people are on their phones and engaging with media as much as ever. On the other hand, the economic downturn is putting a strain on marketing budgets, employees are working from home, and messaging during a public health crisis requires unusual sensitivity.
Brian Bowman, CEO of social marketing and user acquisition firm Customer Acquisition, provided Street Fight his takes on the current state of the mobile ad market, where it’s headed in the coming weeks, and how advertisers can approach their work with consideration for the difficulty of these times.
Commentary
Lots of Facebook News — But Little Progress in Local
Instead of integrating multi-media news consumption with entertainment, community conversations, events calendars, advertising, and a buyers and sellers marketplace, Facebook is isolating them as components. While this is consistent with its separate apps approach, it likely won’t result in as much audience cross-fertilization as it should. Nor does it feel at all local advertiser-friendly.
Should Local Businesses Ask for Reviews?
Reputation management services should focus on helping businesses understand what consumers are saying and engage with reviewers by responding. Unbiased review content is a true goldmine for the brand who works with a reputation company to glean deep insights about consumer sentiment offered by consumers themselves for free.
Two Big Facebook Moves in the First Two Weeks of 2018
“It will be interesting to watch how much SMBs’ costs go up with Facebook to achieve the same level of engagement that they have been enjoying,” Mike Blumenthal tells David Mihm in their biweekly column. “As Google expands their many local offerings, this might just play into their hands by forcing businesses back to Google My Business.”
Latest Posts
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GateHouse’s Newton: ‘We Want to Own More Local Newspapers’
The company recently created a division for new ventures and appointed as its CEO a publishing executive with deep experience in marketing and sales — Peter Newton, who will also continue as CEO of GateHouse’s Propel Business Services. In this Q & A, Newton talks about present and future change at GateHouse:
The Fight for Leads: How Marketing Agencies Help SMBs
This post is the third in the “Fight for Leads,” a series focused on lead-generation tactics in four key industry verticals: healthcare, automotive, legal and marketing agencies. Sponsored by CallRail. Rarely do local merchants have the time available, let alone sufficient knowledge and expertise, to manage every aspect of their businesses. With so many new digital marketing […]
Street Fight Daily: Facebook Launches Updates for Local Commerce, Pinterest Lends Hand to Brands
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Why Brands Need to Master Prompted Search
When a business launches a new product, or, say, the latest Harry Potter adaptation hits the market, retailers are often challenged to update their location pages in a timely manner to show the availability of the product for consumers who rely on local search to find what they want nearby.
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