News and Analysis

6 Trends to Watch in Holiday Search Marketing

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With fewer than two months to go until Christmas, retailers are already kicking their holiday search marketing tactics into high gear. Holiday sales this year are expected to increase roughly 4% over 2018, according to the National Retail Federation, and consumers are expected to be especially price-conscious. How will the retail industry respond to the changing dynamics in search marketing?

Let’s take a look at some of the biggest trends expected to influence holiday search marketing this year, from tactics for extending the local reach of holiday campaigns and how those tactics convert customers at the point of decision to newer products like Local Inventory Ads, which allows marketers to feed store-level inventory into Google search.

In Fitness Industry, Vertical Platforms Cater to Specialized Operations

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Online appointment booking platforms are a dime a dozen, used by businesses in a huge range of industries. But among fitness businesses, specifically, general use booking platforms aren’t very common. That’s because fitness businesses are more likely to use vertical-specific tools designed to meet the needs of specialized operations.

Perhaps more so than any other industry, health and wellness has shown a great desire for verticalized technology solutions. Although verticalization isn’t limited to the health and wellness industry, fitness studios and related businesses are much more likely to use technology platforms designed specifically for their industry.

Uber, Lyft, DoorDash Fight Gig Economy Law in California

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Ride-hailing giants Uber and Lyft are teaming up with restaurant delivery service DoorDash to fight California’s AB 5, a law that would force gig-economy companies that survive on contractor labor to register their drivers (or dashers) as employees and offer them benefits, Vox reported.

The coalition, the Protect App-Based Drivers and Services campaign, is attempting to place a referendum on the 2020 California ballot that would give voters the choice to exempt ride-sharing services from the law. That would presumably include DoorDash, which is not a ride-hailing service but essentially iterated Uber’s business model, employing drivers to escort food instead of passengers from A to B on demand.

Commentary

The Fallacy of Google’s “Micro-Moment” Positioning

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“I see the customer journey as the customer journey wherever it leads,” Mike Blumenthal tells David Mihm. “I see Google’s efforts to oversimplify it into discrete points in time as a gross form of reductionism that doesn’t help us understand that journey better. “

Quantifying the Physical World with a Product-Based Approach

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By having access to real-world consumer footprints and analytics in real time, businesses have the potential to make decisions on product marketing quicker and more reliably.

The Key to Multi-Channel Success: Understanding the Search and Social Mindset

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People behave differently depending on where they are in the digital space. Even the same individual will exhibit drastically different behavior depending on when and where they are online. Understanding the different mindsets of your audience on these channels will help you align them more effectively.

Latest Posts

Could the ‘Smart Home’ Be the Next Big Opportunity in Local?

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We can now make a taxi, a pizza, or a plumber appear with nothing more than clicking a button or speaking a phrase. And convenience-hungry consumers not only want more, they’re expecting it. Smart home technology is now on deck to deliver on that expectation.

Leader of Reuters Institute’s Bleak News Report: ‘We Can Do It’

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A recent report had mixed emotions about the future of community news. So should publishers despair, or is there promise of sunlight behind the lowering clouds? We spoke with Nic Newman, digital strategist at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, and author of the report, to find out more.

Sponsored Content: Enterprise Totally Trounces Hertz in a Battle for Local Marketing Presence

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Vehicle rental companies Enterprise and Hertz battled their branding strategies in a Brand Battle that analyzed data accuracy, local search and advertising, reviews, and social engagement. In an industry where service can make all the difference to customers who are often stressed and rushed, Enterprise influenced its consumer base in positive ways, supporting loyalty and growth…

Street Fight Daily: The Location Data Sharing Boom, Google Enables Call Campaign Attribution

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Marketers Don’t Need Pokémon Go to Track You: Inside The Location Data Sharing Boom… Google Empowers Businesses to Establish Attribution for Call Campaigns… Uber Rival Gett Enjoys a Lift from Brand Filter on Hot App, Prisma…

5 Self-Serve Platforms for Location-Based Mobile Campaigns

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Although there’s still debate within the ad tech community over whether SMBs are best served by self-serve platforms, the demand is certainly there. With limited budgets and a strong desire to get the most bang for their buck, local business owners are searching for self-managed advertising and marketing solutions.

Telmetrics CEO: A Phone Call to a Business Is Really a ‘Data Call’

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Andrew Osmak talks with us about how the company has been evolving under his leadership over the past six months, where he sees the white spaces in call and data analytics, and why a tracked phone number can be a more valuable data point than a form-fill on a website.

Street Fight Daily: Zenreach Emerges from Stealth with $50M, Uber Partners with DigitalGlobe

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… WiFi Startup Zenreach Emerges from Stealth with $50 Million and Peter Thiel on its Board… Uber is Partnering with a Satellite Imaging Company to Help Drivers Find You… IBM’s Watson and Macy’s Team Up to Make In-Store Shopping Assistant…

TRAY Cooks Up Ways to Make Restaurant Checkout More Mobile and Social

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The startup is seeking to reinvent service businesses for both customers and proprietors by bringing a different experience to the table with cloud-based “self-service checkout made easy.” The company’s beta launched at the beginning of the year.

Placed’s Attribution Platform Expands as More Partners Demand Proof of ROI

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“Based on the growth and adoption that Placed is seeing across its clients, we’d expect that by the end of 2016, attribution will be a default on status for the majority of advertisers where they have an offline conversion event,” said the company’s CEO David Shim.

Street Fight Daily: Facebook Launches Tool for App Engagement, SMBs Draw Non-Local Searches

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Facebook Launches Dev Tool Focused on Mobile App Engagement… Case Study: 33% of Local Search Business is from Non-Locals… Yahoo Reveals Testing of Conversational Search, Virtual Assistance…