News and Analysis

Holiday Discounts Don’t Necessarily Lead to Loyal Customers — Here’s Why

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When brands go in on discount-focused events like RetailMeNot’s Cash Back Day, which was held earlier this month, there’s concern that the long-term impact might be negative and that brands might be training customers to expect discounts. That expectation can reduce the perceived value of the brand’s products, and it can diminish brand equity over time.

95% of Consumers Plan on Buying Most Holiday Gifts Online

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While brick-and-mortar sales remain a robust part of the holiday shopping experience, online shopping is asserting clearer dominance than ever before this year. A walloping 95% of consumers plan to do the majority of their holiday shopping this season online, according to multi-channel engagement platform Leanplum.

5 Ways to Improve the Customer Experience for Holiday Shoppers

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The retail space starts to feel chaotic this time of year, with brands pulling out all the stops to win over holiday shoppers. Amidst all the talk of sales and discounts, retailers this year are looking at integrating new customer experience initiatives designed to bring in first-time shoppers and encourage long-time loyalists to spend even more than usual.

To learn even more about the customer experience strategies retailers are launching this year, we checked in with a few industry experts. Here are their thoughts on the best customer experience strategies retailers are trying out this holiday season.

Commentary

4 Ways to Track Traditional Local Media Using Digital

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Digital and traditional media can work together. Traditional efforts often drive users to search engines, websites and social media platforms. If you own the SERP for your brand, you’ll be able to control what the user sees as they respond to your traditional media campaigns.

Survey: Enterprise Marketers Are Increasing Local Digital Mix

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As enterprise local marketers become experienced with digital tactics they originally used to promote their corporate sites, they are getting more savvy about digital marketing. Today, most of them spend less than a third of their digital budgets on local campaigns and programs, but 40% say they are increasing the local mix.

The Impending HTTPstrophe — And What it Means for Local Businesses

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“Google is rapidly moving towards a time when HTTPS will be an absolute necessity for websites,” writes David Mihm to Mike Blumenthal. “As soon as this month if an http:// website contains any input field, users will start getting scary security messages.”

Latest Posts

6 Ways Brands Can Automate Updates on Local Facebook Pages

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For a brand with 10, 100, or even 1,000 locations, having to create and manually update local Facebook pages can be daunting, but a number of hyperlocal vendors have stepped in with solutions to streamline the process. Here are six examples of platforms that multi-location businesses can use to automate their updates across local Facebook pages.

Street Fight Daily: Restaurants Eager for New Tech, P&G’s Facebook Experiment

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… How Yelp Plans to Consolidate Mobile Gains and Reach $1B in Revenue… Restaurants Would Implement Predictive Ordering, Drones if Available… Why P&G Decided Facebook Ad Targeting Often Isn’t Worth the Money…

What Local Consumers Really Want From a Loyalty Program

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To dig into what consumers expect in the loyalty programs they use most frequency today, we checked in with executives at a few of the most well-known loyalty platforms. Here’s what they said consumers are looking for in loyalty programs right now.

How Local Businesses Can Survive and Thrive in the Age of RankBrain

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A great site with proper titles, tags and meta descriptions alongside good and relevant ad copy, and an intelligent approach to drive the maximum number of relevant clicks, is the best defense for the local business against the self-awareness of the RankBrain machine.

Street Fight Daily: Amazon’s Drone Program, Location and Mobile Ads

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… The Future of Retail Delivery: Amazon’s Drone Program… Mobile Programmatic Ad Growth Propelled By Geotargeting… Facebook Combats Ad Blocking By Giving Users Control Over What They See…

Moz Targets Duplicate Listings With Revamped Dashboard for Businesses

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Multiple business listings can be a serious problem, according to Moz Local’s GM Dudley Carr: “When a business is not where it’s supposed to be or the phone isn’t answered, it has significant brand impact for the business. And typically the customer will blame the brand, and not Google or Bing or Apple for the information.”

5 Buy Online, Pick Up In-Store Platforms for Retailers

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Roughly 61% of retailers with online and physical outposts offer a way for shoppers to pick up their online purchases in-store, and the trickle down effect means more small and mid-size businesses are adopting the technology to make buy online, pick up in-store a reality.

Street Fight Daily: Lyft Adds Multi-Stop Feature, Search Attribution Elusive for SMBs

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Lyft Riders Can Now Add More Than One Stop to Their Routes… Moz Targets Duplicate Listings with Revamped Dashboard for Businesses… Most Retailers Offer Mobile Coupons, Payments, But Implementation Not Always Easy…

As Local’s Complexity Grows, What Does It Take to Build a Sustainable Agency Business?

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“There are two paths for consultants or small agencies today,” writes David Mihm. “Either be a generalist who’s aware of all the major channels, and the kinds of businesses that are good fits for those channels, or develop an incredibly deep focus in a particular channel, and make a name for yourself as the go-to resource within that channel.”

6 Ways Mobile Shopping Apps Are Targeting In-Store Customers

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More retailers are attempting to utilize the data breadcrumbs that shoppers leave behind when they use mobile devices in and around physical stores. Mobile shopping companion apps that add contextual intelligence layers — and target consumers in the moments when they’re most persuadable — are catching on among national retailers.