News and Analysis

To Meet Consumer Demands, Automotive Marketing Goes Vertical

Share this:

While customer feedback is coming in from every direction, the automotive industry has done a better job of funneling reviews into vertical-specific platforms than some other industries. Large auto retailers like AutoNation are making major data stack investments, while others are working to improve their online ratings and reviews by engaging more frequently on sites like Facebook and Yelp as well as on automotive-specific platforms like Cars.com and Edmunds.

Jump of 0.1 in Five-Star Review Averages Can Make the Difference on Conversion

Share this:

When customers are looking for a quick fix and do not intimately know the shops around them, star-rating averages are crucial. A new report by location-based marketing firm Uberall indicates they are so influential in consumer decision-making processes that a mere 0.1-point jump in a store’s average rating can increase its conversion rate by 25%.

How Can Brands Capitalize on Google’s Latest Ads Update?

Share this:

Almost a month has passed since Google officially killed its ‘average position’ metric. The metric was retired on September 30, and marketers using Google Ads have been encouraged to transition to using ‘prominence metrics’—made up of the search top impression rate and search absolute top impression rate—instead. Google’s announcement was designed to give brands the opportunity to update their strategies before the average position metric was axed to hopefully make the transition a seamless process.

To understand how that transition is actually working in the real world, and how brands are adapting to the change from one metric to another, we connected with Walker Sands Digital’s Ryan Sorrell. A digital marketing expert with experience deploying competitive content analysis for B2B clients, Sorrell shared his thoughts on how Google’s decision to axe the average position metric will impact brands going forward and which new opportunities are at play as Google shifts its sights toward automated bidding strategies.

Commentary

New Street Fight Report: Selling to Local Merchants

Share this:

Street Fight’s latest report on local merchants is a companion piece to our annual survey of local small and medium-sized businesses, that focuses on vendor strategies for selling local marketing services and up-selling add-ons or suites of offerings.

Using Social Media for Enterprise Local Marketing: Comparing Twitter and Facebook Marketers

Share this:

Surveys suggest social media is pretty influential for shoppers, particularly young ones, although they gravitate to Instagram and Snapchat. Big brands are taking heed. Although packaged goods giant P&G said it was paring back its most highly-targeted Facebook ads, it recently confirmed that it was maintaining its overall Facebook spending.

The Place of Newspapers in the Local Marketing Ecosystem

Share this:

“Digitally speaking, NextDoor is encroaching on a space that local papers really should own.” David Mihm tells Mike Blumenthal. “It’s basically a glorified forum that in my view would be every bit as successful, if not more so, if hosted by a truly local entity.”

Latest Posts

LBMA Podcast: Twitter/Foursquare, Amazon Dash, Verve/Roximity

Share this:

This Week in Location Based Marketing is a weekly video podcast from the Location Based Marketing Association with Asif Khan and Aubriana Lopez. On the show: Pinterest, Danone + INRIX, KWIK, Dolce & Gabana, Rover, KFC India, Gimbal + Health Media Network, xAd + Comscore.

Street Fight Daily: Lyft Launches Luxury Service, Localytics Integrates with Oracle

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Lyft Launches Premier, Poaches Uber Employees to Get It Running… Localytics Integrates with Oracle for Omnichannel Marketing… Uber Raises $1.15 Billion From First Leveraged Loan…

Life After Patch: Finding Success in Community Publishing as a One-Person Operation

Share this:

Two years ago, Aol’s sale of Patch to Hale Global prompted a number of the company’s former editors to found their own independent sites. Michael Dinan, who had held major Patch posts in suburban Connecticut, was one of them. In this Q & A, we see how he and NewCanaanite.com are faring.

5 Steps to Identifying the Channel Partners That Will Grow Your Business

Share this:

It’s no surprise they call the golden rule of channel sales the 90/10 rule where 90% of the sales are going to come from 10% of your partners. The best approach to this problem is to come up with frameworks you can use to focus on those most likely to end up in the winner bucket.

Street Fight Daily: Gannett Acquires Jersey Papers, Walmart Responds to Apple Pay

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Gannett Buys the Bergen Record and Other New Jersey Papers… Walmart’s Answer to Apple Pay is Now Available in All Walmart Stores… Used-Car Mobile Marketplace, Shift, Launches…

Super Retailers Face Super Location Data Problems

Share this:

Managing location data across hundreds and thousands of locations requires dedicated resources to scale the data and change it. Just as importantly, a business must treat location data as a competitive asset, organized and managed like inventory.

7 Ways Booking Platforms Can Utilize Location Technology

Share this:

Booking vendors use location technology to personalize and streamline the online scheduling experience for consumers. This, in turn, benefits the businesses that use these platforms because it makes their clients more likely to schedule more frequent appointments.

Street Fight Daily: Angie’s List Strikes Paywall, Google Maps Enables SMB Discovery

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Angie’s List is Now Free, and What That Means for SMBs and Local Search… Google Maps Makes It Easier to Find Local Businesses On Your Route… Square and Facebook Serve Up Offline Attribution for an Ohio Eatery…

Why Enterprise Marketers Are Such an Elusive Market

Share this:

A new report based on insights collected from 200 executives at some of the biggest brands and retailers, reveals a lingering preference for traditional media over digital. But it offers a glimmer of hope where it shines a light on the pain points that are keeping digital from realizing its full potential with enterprise marketers…

Is Google Shrinking the Local Pack?

Share this:

The reduction of local search real estate represents a huge challenge to marketers, who must work even harder to ensure their clients’ listings can compete in a shrinking field. It also suggests that a strategy combining organic and paid efforts is becoming ever more important.