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

Snapchat Expands Its Foray Into Local with Snap Map

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Pinterest and Snapchat both are turning digital space into a closer analogue to physical space, where we look for visual cues to understand the world. In different ways, both apps are collapsing the distance between virtual and real.

Comparing Enterprise and SMB Attitudes on Local Tech

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In recent Street Fight surveys, both brands and local merchants reported that they are increasing the digital portion of their marketing spending. Over half (57%) of local merchants surveyed said that was the case, and 40% of the enterprise local marketers agreed.

One Size Does Not Fit All in the SMB Digital Market

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“At the very least you have to recognize your day-to-day experiences both discovering and interacting with small businesses are wildly different from customers in rural markets,” David Mihm tells Mike Blumenthal in their biweekly chat.

Latest Posts

How Businesses Can Take Advantage of the Massive Opportunity in Local Data

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The difficulty of accessing local data has been changing with the rise of smartphones. We no longer have to guess and approximate where consumers go, because mobile phones can provide data that paints a much richer picture of where, when, and why users visit the world around them.

Case Study: Non-Profit Searches for Cost-Effective Marketing Solutions

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Community support is essential for any local organization, and particularly for non-profits like Keshet Dance Company, which relies on partnerships and sponsorships to fund its socially-driven programming for at-risk youth.

Street Fight Daily: Gannett Buys ReachLocal, Facebook Debuts Staff-Curated Event Recommendations

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Gannett to Buy Digital Services Company ReachLocal… How Businesses Can Take Advantage of the Massive Opportunity in Local Data… Facebook Debuts Event Recommendation Based On Staff Opinions, Not Algorithms…

Online-to-Offline: Is Local’s Holy Grail Within Reach?

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The outcome could be the biggest step towards local ad attribution we’ve seen yet. And Facebook’s sheer scale will force more advertisers’ hands — especially those still not doing more to measure activity where $7 trillion in U.S. consumer spending happens.

6 Tools SMBs Can Use to Identify Dissatisfied Customers

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Customer opinions have never mattered more, when just a few dissatisfied customers have the ability to tank a small business’s reputation on social media and review websites like Yelp. Here’s how vendors are giving SMBs a way to make all of their customers feel heard.

Street Fight Daily: Twitter Launches Location Feeds, Are Ride-Share Drivers Independent Contractors?

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Twitter Launches Tags to Location Feeds with Foursquare… Lyft’s $27 Million Deal to Make Drivers Independent Contractors Gets Closer To Approval… 6 Tools SMBs Can Use to Identify Dissatisfied Customers …

Street Culture: G/O Digital Building Community via Nerf Wars

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The right way to build a company culture: it’s different for every company, every leadership team, and every squad of employees. CEO Tim Fagan says that when G/O spun off from TEGNA, the strategy to build culture was intentionally developed with just three short, simple values: accountability, quality, and urgency.

#SFSW16 VIDEO: At the Intersection of Travel and Local

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The kinds of connections being made between travelers exploring a new city and local businesses are similar to those that people make when they are looking for goods and services at home. And Airbnb has made it clear over the past couple of years that the company wants to help travelers “live like a local.”

Street Fight Daily: Uber Phasing Out Surge in Favor of Upfront Pricing, Apple’s Reply to Echo

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Uber Switches Out Surge for Price Transparency… Why We Might Not See An Echo-Like Device From Apple… Google Takes Steps to ‘Democratize Programmatic’ for Buyers…

How Community News Can Win Respect — And Bring in Revenue

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“You can’t always focus on monetization,” says 30A’s Mike Ragsdale. “You have to focus on what’s good for the community and for your audience. In my experience, if you do that, the money will eventually follow. Put others first, and they’ll inevitably support you.”