News and Analysis
Rakuten Ready Gives Merchants Access to Advanced Pickup Technology
Industry-wide curbside pickup has surged 208%, but statistics alone do not tell the complete story. Although large retailers were quick to pivot to a pickup-only strategy, small and mid-size retailers were largely boxed out. That’s because the ordering technology used by many large retailers comes with a price tag that small retailers cannot afford, and implementing the most sophisticated programs requires a level of technological sophistication that SMBs don’t usually have.
Rakuten Ready believes it has the answer to this problem.
Social Conversion Rates Climb During Covid-19
Covid-19 has changed the social media playbook, but brands who’ve been quick to adjust are seeing social conversion rates continuing to climb.
In an analysis of data pulled from more than 120 retail websites, the digital experience solutions company Episerver found that social conversion rates have increased steadily during Covid-19 shutdowns, from 1% in April 2019 to 1.2% in April 2020.
Street Fight’s June Theme: Retail Recovery
As the country starts to re-open and recover (some places more quickly than others), we’ll shift our focus to cover specifically how that’s happening. And what better vertical to represent local business recovery than retail? It will be a leading indicator for several other local commerce verticals.
So we introduce our June editorial theme: Retail Recovery. The goal: to chronicle the steps local businesses are taking to reemerge from locked doors and empty streets. Who’s doing what, and what can we learn from them? By “them” we mean businesses and the tech providers that support them.
Commentary
How Augmented Reality Will Change Local SEO
Ultimately, local SEO is all about engagement, and AR helps brands engage customers. Incorporating AR also shows that your brand is not just up on trends but actually ahead of the curve.
Toward a Better Definition of AI in Internet Communications
Under broad scrutiny, AI stands for “that thing we do with computer data manipulation that is somehow more complicated than layering algorithms on to data structures. But neither do we agree that the current state of AI represents actual computer or machine learning.
How Marketers Must Prepare for the Voice-Connected Consumer
As digital media surpasses traditional, marketers must prepare for the changes that will result from connected devices becoming a common source of customer experience. Local search will be of paramount importance as consumers turn to their voice devices, and eventually their connected cars and appliances
Latest Posts
The Increasing Impact of Reviews and Google+ (?!) on Local SEO
Some new data has given us some “big time insight” into how Google is using authoritative local sites to inform local search rankings, says David Mihm. Mike Blumenthal agrees, saying that the prominence of local review pages and appears to be “transferring prominence directly to the local entity in a way that is totally independent of links.”
Local Listings Get a Real-Time Update from Brandify
The company’s new digital marketing platform combines the power of tech with the authority of the human brain. Brandify’s Nip Zalavadia, says the platform has the capability to access and analyze huge amounts of data, but also uses real people to address details that often fall through the cracks of automated software solutions.
How Lawyers Capture & Convert Clients
No longer a taboo, law firms are aggressively using digital channels to recruit clients, in response to changes in consumer behavior. According to a survey by FindLaw, 74% of prospects who begin their searches online end up contacting their choice firms via phone. Eighty-six percent of consumers start their online research with search engines, and a small-but-growing 3% relies on social media.
Street Fight Daily: Apple to Report Revenue Drop, Reviews Increasingly Impact Search
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Apple Expected to Report First Drop in Annual Revenue Since 2001… From East Coast to West Coast: The Company Behind Miami’s The New Tropic Expands to Seattle… To Dunkin’ Donuts, Media is More Than Just New User Acquisition…
New Report Shows Urban SMBs Do Better with Agency Help
Street Fight’s new analysis, The Urban SMB Report, indicates that local business owners in big cities get better results from their digital marketing efforts by not doing it themselves. The more they outsource, either to internal staff or to an agency, the higher their satisfaction rating. But there is room for improvement.
Brand Battles in Depth: Looking at Starbucks vs. Dunkin’ Donuts
The series demonstrates the real complexity of cross-platform digital marketing and the importance of a data-driven strategy in identifying meaningful objectives and tracking performance. This commentary explains how Brand Battles are constructed and how their subject areas fits into the bigger picture of local marketing for national brands.
The Importance of Location in Today’s Innovation Dialogue
It’s hard to overstate the importance of location in today’s business innovation dialogue. While consumers are online more than ever before, they continue to live their lives in the physical world. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, while Americans spent $97 billion online in Q2 of this year, offline retail sales amounted to more than $1 trillion. The vast majority of transactions still occur in-store, and that makes location targeting an immensely powerful tool for brands.
Street Fight Daily: AT&T to Acquire Time Warner, Mobile Moves to Majority of Google Ad Rev
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… AT&T To Acquire Time Warner, Becoming Latest Media Giant with Cross-Device Mojo… Mobile Moves to Majority Share of Google’s Worldwide Ad Revenues… How Quartz Sculpts a Global, Mobile-First Brand…
With Launch of The Incline in Pittsburgh, Sprited Media’s Brady Says ‘We Want to Be a Connector’
Having recently launched his second “asymmetrical” local news outlet and taken an investment from Gannett, Brady and The Incline’s editor, Lexi Belculfine, spoke to Street Fight recently about how new revenue models are building a future for community news.
Openings and New Hires at Invoca, StructuredWeb, NeighborhoodX
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 Cars.com, Comcast Ventures, Factual, and NASCAR.
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Meta Is Automating Ads, But Brands Still Face a Bigger Problem