News and Analysis
6 Ways Wearable Tech Is Reshaping Retail
Rather than being spooked by these new retail engagement strategies, surveys show most consumers are excited by them. Sixty-seven percent of wearables owners say they find dynamic user experiences that vary based on location “useful and exciting.”
Here are six examples of strategies that retailers can employ to improve the shopping experience using wearable technology.
Report: Reviews for Local Businesses Are Essential. Ratings Below 4 Stars Are Deadly
If it had not already been clear that building up a significant inventory of positive online reviews is key to attracting new customers to a business, let doubt linger no further.
A whopping 52 percent of consumers ages 18-54 “always” read reviews when searching for local businesses, and only 53 percent will consider a businesses with fewer than four stars, according to survey of 1,005 US-based consumers by marketing platform BrightLocal. Eighty-two percent of consumers overall read online reviews.
Connected Consumers Are More Demanding Than Ever – How Retailers Are Adapting
As the omnichannel approach to retail takes off, industry insiders are beginning to wonder whether giving shoppers what they want, when they want it, across any connected device, is causing consumers to develop unrealistic expectations about the types of experiences and services their favorite stores can provide.
Commentary
The New Local Ecosystem: An Interview With Darren Shaw
As of this year, the task of updating the Local Search Ecosystem has been handed to Darren Shaw of Whitespark, who also inherited David Mihm’s other well-known brainchild, the Local Search Ranking Factors report. Last week, Darren released Local Search Ecosystem 2017, a bold departure in visual design and a much-needed update to the last edition, from 2014.
Google Elevates Local Marketing to Prime Time
Many industry watchers and practitioners correctly perceived the GMB API as a sign of how important it is for businesses to manage their location data properly. But the progression of the API represents something even bigger: empowering businesses to elevate and measure the value of local search marketing.
Cultural Shifts Underlines Google’s Local Enterprise Play
“Google at one time talked about a suite of GMB products called the Business Builder but it got left on the cutting room floor of the forced march to Google Plus and the subsequent ugly separation,” Mike Blumenthal tells David Mihm. “It’s refreshing to see a similar strategy finally coming to fruition. I think we are seeing them being slowly tied together.”
Latest Posts
7 Ways National Brands Can Localize Email Marketing Campaigns
Going local with an email campaign can be as simple as segmenting lists by city and including the addresses of local stores or as involved as editing the copy to reflect regional purchasing trends and language dialects. The end goal remains the same: to ground the business in the local community and give customers a sense of trust.
After the Brand Battle: The Final Score
The nine Brand Battles demonstrated true commitment to local branding by nearly all of the companies that competed – but fights over best data quality, superior customer engagement and reviews were intense, and the scores were close. Out of the five areas where Brandify collected data, the point of attack in local SEO and advertising proved that a clear strategy equals clear winners…
Street Fight Daily: Lyft Disputes Sale Report, OpenStreetMap Debuts Crowdsourced Street View
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Factual’s Rob Jonas: Location Tech Still Has Some Big Problems to Solve… Lyft President Says Company Was Never Looking for a Buyer… Many Businesses Can’t Assess the Digital Customer’s Experience…
New Data Shows National Marketers Want to Place Dollars in Local Media
National marketers care an awful lot about local media, and they put stock in some of the traditional channels such as radio and print, but they’re shifting dollars and interest toward digital innovations. Local media have a big opportunity to leverage their local context and relationships, and lead national marketers into digital waters. In other words, they can take the dollars for local media, plus capture the continued expansion of budget for online initiatives…
Street Fight Daily: Lyft Seeks a Buyer Without Success, Google Expands Local Business Cards
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Lyft is Said to Be Seeking a Buyer, Without Success… Google Local Business Cards or Posts About to Roll Out to Thousands of SMBs… How the Wall Street Journal Plans to Reach 3 Million Subscribers…
Case Study: Harley-Davidson Dealers Push to Grow Mobile Database
When marketers discuss the effectiveness of email and SMS campaigns, the size of a company’s customer database can play just as significant a role in the success or failure of a given campaign. That was one of the challenges faced by Calculated Risk Motorcycle Group, a management company for six Harley-Davidson dealerships.
Give Placed Your Location, and the Company Will Give You Frequent Flyer Miles
Location analytics firm Placed today is launching a new app that allows consumers to share their location data in exchange for frequent flyer miles. The Frequent Flyer app, with its explicit value exchange for consumers, has the potential to show how effective mobile ads can be in driving in-store purchases.
LBMA Podcast: Jack Daniels + Facebook, Bloom for Publishers, Mastercard + PlaceIQ
Welcome to This Week in Location Based Marketing, a weekly video podcast from the Location Based Marketing Association with Asif Khan and Aubriana Lopez. On the show: Dixons Carphone, ZoneTap, LinkNYC, Brightsign + MoodMedia for Costa Coffee, Swirl + Oracle Marketing Cloud, Comqi + Panasonic.
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