News and Analysis
With Stimulus Funds Delayed, Small Businesses Digitize for Survival
Experts at helping SMBs adapt to a tech-first commercial landscape say the pandemic has led some businesses to tap into their long-dormant potential as digital marketers and sellers, possibly setting them up for gains in the aftermath of the recession. Now that e-commerce is the only path to survival, mom-and-pop shops, aided by martech firms, agencies, and Silicon Valley giants, are capitalizing on cutting-edge marketing and retail techniques, many for the first time.
Thousands, if not millions, of Main Street businesses will close their doors for good as a result of the pandemic. Those that survive will be technologically savvier and sleeker than they were before.
What Search Behavior During Covid-19 Means for Healthcare Marketers
The headlines are everywhere. Open any newspaper, and you’ll see story after story about coronavirus and its impact on American society. But new data on consumer search behavior shows Covid-19 isn’t the only healthcare topic on people’s minds right now.
In an analysis of consumer search trends during the coronavirus pandemic, a team from the healthcare provider scheduling and search platform Kyruus found that search terms seemingly unrelated to Covid-19, such as “diabetes,” “cancer,” and “depression,” continue to rank more highly than those associated with the virus.
As Agencies Feel the Squeeze, Covid-19 Reshapes the Martech Industry
One in four small businesses has temporarily shut down, and 43% believe they have fewer than six months until permanent closure is unavoidable. With the small business community in panic mode, budgets for digital marketing have been slashed, and agencies are feeling the pinch.
“Everyone has been in panic mode, and rightly so. Businesses are worried about who might have to be furloughed [or] laid off, getting their PPP loans, what kind of regulations do they need to comply with, [and] what their contingency plans are for keeping any amount of revenue coming in,” says Simon Schwartz, founder of Locasaur. “Businesses are not interested in being pitched new marketing tech.”
Commentary
Will 2018 Be a Tipping Point for Voice?
“There may only be 6-7 ‘commands’ that we use regularly with voice, though I’m willing to bet that as people get more and more accustomed to the interface, the horizon of possibilities expands,” David Mihm tells Mike Blumenthal in their biweekly column.
Addressing Multi-Location Brands’ Digital Marketing Pain Points
Street Fight’s 2017 State of Hyperlocal analysis showed that selling to enterprise local marketers was one of the toughest challenges facing suppliers, right up there with raising their own company’s brand awareness and showing marketing attribution and ROI.
With Data and Local Guides, Google Maps Stays Ahead of the Rest
Justin O’Beirne marvels that, with the AOI initiative, Google has figured out how to “create data out of data,” meaning that AOIs are a mashup of 3D modeling and data extraction from images. Looked at more broadly, this is not the only example where Google has built features on top of features within the Maps universe.
Latest Posts
Yext Integrates With Uber as Local On-Demand Becomes More Ubiquitous
With the new integration, clients of Yext’s Location Cloud for listings and local site management can let their customers book an Uber ride to their store from a local website, app, or email campaign via a “Ride with Uber” button. Once the customer catches a ride, the business can show an offer or other information to the rider.
The Google My Business API Takes Another Step Forward
Google has many paths for sourcing local content, from user edits to third party licensed data, but none provides as comprehensive or accurate a source of truth as data that comes directly from businesses, so there’s every reason to remove friction from that path wherever possible.
Street Fight Daily: Google Expands Free Measurement Tech, Social Gains More of Marketers’ Budgets
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Expands Free Measurement Tech for Its Marketing Cloud… Yext Integrates with Uber as Local On-Demand Becomes More Ubiquitous… Social, Not Search, Gaining More of Marketers’ Budgets….
5 Tools for Buying Local Ads in National Publications
By placing localized ads in national publications, smaller businesses and national chains with physical locations can cut down on wasted spending and ensure their ads are only being seen by consumers in the markets they serve. At the same time, these businesses are getting access to high-quality publications for a tiny fraction of the typical cost.
Burbio Creates Smarter Community Calendars for Local Events
Calendar and event sites in surburban towns have a “massive pain point,” according to hyperlocal entrepreneurs Dennis and Julie Roche. Their company, Burbio, tailors calendar information for consumers so that they can more easily keep up with everything that’s going on in their communities.
Street Fight Daily: Salesforce Launches Retail Platform, 55% of Online Shoppers Start on Amazon
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Salesforce Announces Cloud-Based Retail Platform for In-Store, Online (MediaPost) As part of the Customer Success Platform, retail brands on the Salesforce Commerce Cloud can transform how they connect with their customers at every step in the journey: from discovery, engagement, and transaction to […]
Verve CEO: Eliminating Uncertainty in Location Data Is ‘Critical’ for Mobile
Street Fight recently caught up Nada Stirratt to talk about how brands are coming to understand location as a part of their mix, why high-quality location data is so vital for marketers, and where the “white space” is in local tech.
Pingup and EatStreet Set the Table for Simple Digital Food Ordering
Ordering dinner is getting a little bit easier. Two powerhouses in the chain that links that Chicken Phad Thai to the plate on your table are partnering to simplify the process of actually getting it there. EatStreet, the digital ordering service with more than 15,000 restaurants in over 250 cities in its quiver and transactional tech developer Pingup (connecting scores of […]
Street Fight Daily: Amazon Eats Up Warehouse Brand Market, Figures on AMP’s Progress
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Amazon Prime May Be Cannibalizing Traditional Warehouse Brands’ Customer Pool… Need for Speed: Google Shares Its Progress on AMP… How Millenial Journalists Are Unraveling Local News for their Peers…
State of Hyperlocal: Early Returns From Street Fight’s Annual Survey
The early results of our annual survey indicate that suppliers of local marketing and commerce technology and services see their customers continue to increase spending on social media and mobile marketing — and their own investments are following the money.
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