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

Three Lessons from the Dex Media/YP Merger

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For Dex Media and YP to become DexYP, they had to teach one another three lessons that every business in the local space should know: the primacy of distribution, the fallacy of stagnation, and the inevitability of market consolidation.

Accidental Ad-Blocking: The Brand-Safety Snag that Advertisers Can Fix

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When it comes to ads that brands want to publish on the web as well as in-app, there’s a brand-safety technology snag that many advertisers don’t know about — and it’s costing them in-app impressions. Think of it as accidental ad-blocking.

Cutting Through the Crowds at Festivals: How Brands Can Reach Summer Groupies

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When fans use their mobile phones to travel to or around a festival, or when contacting their friends on-site, they’re giving brands valuable information about where they are and what they like. And if advertisers know how to capitalize on this data, they’ll be able to identify and reach their ideal audiences.

Latest Posts

Raise Report: Fresh Funding for Verve, Thrive Market, InVision

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Every two weeks, we round up some of the biggest fundraises taking place in hyperlocal marketing, commerce, and tech. This week’s edition includes new rounds for Condeco, Lystable, Narvar, and Farm Hill.

LBMA Podcast: Facebook, Factual, Uber and Adtile

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Welcome to This Week in Location Based Marketing, a weekly video podcast from the Location Based Marketing Association with Asif Khan and Aubriana Lopez. On the show: Adelaide Zoo, MCX, Nesa Solutions, Tywst, Posterscope + Lamar, Verve, Broadsign + TINT, Digerati Magazine.

Street Fight Daily: 80% of News Site Traffic from Facebook/Google, Walmart Expands 2-Day Shipping

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Amazon Revamps Alexa Skills to Stay On Top of Smart Home Market… Online News Sites Get 80% of Traffic from Facebook and Google… How Uber and Lyft Have Changed the Game for All Travel Brands…

As Gannett Acquires ReachLocal, Some Lessons From Its U.K. Exit

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As news filtered out earlier this week that media giant Gannett had bought ReachLocal for $156 million, it capped off several years of speculation in the local marketing industry about where the public company would end up. As a former ReachLocal employee (2010-2014) now living in Norway, I’ve watched the company as it has faced steep challenges […]

Why Local News Sponsorships Are More Relevant than Ever

Two Views of Community News — From 30,000 Feet and at Ground Level

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There are plenty of bad prognostications about the future of the community news business out there. But if you look at what is actually happening company by company, site by site, the view is not universally grim. There are a number of players making serious progress in digital revenue.

Street Fight Daily: Facebook Demotes Publishers on News Feed, Yelp Launches ‘Knowledge’ Platform

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Facebook to Change News Feed to Focus on Friends and Family, Not Publishers… Yelp Announces Expanding ‘Knowledge’ Social Analytics Platform… Google Launches Two New APIs to Improve App Intelligence and Context…

Are Community Networks the Final Frontier for Local Publishers?

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What if local publishers changed their strategy to focus exclusively on engaging and connecting their community at large? It still requires the great content that they create daily, but also a powerful and relevant search experience for users, more calls to action, and a more native and engaging mobile experience.

How Much Do You Know About Your SMB Customers?

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They say that what you don’t know can’t hurt you, but when it comes to landing SMB clients, that’s simply not the case. That’s why we went out to more than 500 local merchants and asked them about their experiences in local marketing. The result? The Local Merchant Report…

Rover’s New Location-Based Mobile Marketing Platform Focuses on ‘Experiences’

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“Advertising is not the hard part; the hard part is getting end users to care about location-based content,” CEO John Coombs told Street Fight. “Proximity and location is about more than push notifications and coupons. It’s really about experiences.”

Street Fight Daily: Twitter Launches Dashboard for SMBs, Pinterest Adds Shopping Cart

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Pinterest Adds a Shopping Cart and Visual Search to Challenge Amazon… Twitter Courts SMBs With New Dashboard App… Why Publishers’ Engagement Metrics Are All Over the Map…