News and Analysis

Inform Your Multichannel Customer Experience Strategy

Consumers Welcome Some Automated Business Messaging, But Humans Must Tag Along to Help

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More than half of consumers are frustrated by customer-service situations in which they can only interact with automated agents, and nearly one in five even reporting feeling angry in those situations. That’s per a new survey of U.S. consumers conducted by The Harris Poll and commissioned by call tracking and analytics firm Invoca.

Texting Allows Marketers to Reach Customers Where They Spend the Most Time

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Seventy-six percent of consumers are already receiving texts from businesses, and a majority of consumers across all age groups would prefer that more businesses take up texting as a mode of communication, a new report from business text messaging platform ZipWhip indicates.  

A whopping 83% of Gen-Z respondents and 82% of millennials said they “wish more businesses” would use texting. Even for older generations, that number made up a more than slight majority, including 76% of Gen-Xers and 64% of Baby Boomers.

5 Consent Management Platforms for Brands and Publishers

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For brands and publishers that work with multiple ad tech partners, the process of obtaining user consent for data processing is overwhelming. To simplify the workflow, publishers have started using consent management platforms (CMPs). Not only have CMPs been designed to help brands and publishers obtain and manage user consent, but they also help with monetizing users, even when users haven’t opted-in to sharing data.

CMPs were largely developed in response to the GDPR — most are built on the IAB’s transparency and consent framework — which means the systems themselves are still relatively young. Nonetheless, the popularity of this type of platform has led to a spring of new players entering the space. Here are five examples of CMPs on the market right now.

Commentary

Google Maps Holiday Controversy Reflects Deeper Issues in Local Search

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In cases where community values are not unanimous, public companies are faced with an ethical question, and their answers can help to shape perceptions among users. For many, the removal of a Confederate holidays from Google Maps signals that it is truly a thing of the past.

Why Developing a ‘Near Me’ Strategy Has Become Critical for Local Marketers

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Mobile is no longer just an important or necessary element of a marketing strategy — it’s vital for the livelihood and existence of a brand. And it has led to a critical shift in shopper behavior that brand marketers are rushing to understand and adapt their digital marketing strategies to.

Why 2017 Will Be the Year of the ‘Micro Moment’

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A micro moment is the point at which a consumer searches for nearby information, for things to do, buy, or learn in real-time. Essentially, it’s a description of a new consumer mindset: one that has switched from regularity to spontaneity in shopping and learning habits, due to ubiquity of smartphones.

Latest Posts

All That Glitters Is Not Gold: Separating Real Value From ‘Shiny New Things’ in Local

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Perhaps there is an industry epidemic of insecurity around the value provided to local businesses given the large market opportunity. Or, perhaps some organizations still think there is business in obfuscating value long enough to make some profit regardless of the damage.

E-commerce Is a $341.7 Billion-dollar Industry — Can SMBs Get a Piece of the Pie?

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Small businesses can close the gap between online and offline commerce with some hard work and adherence to a smart strategy. Here are a few tips to get you started.

Street Fight Daily: Amazon’s Powerful Lobbyists, comScore and Viacom Announce Multiplatform Deal

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Amazon Leans on Government in Its Quest to Be a Delivery Powerhouse (New York Times)… comScore Says Multiplatform Deal with Viacom Will Transform How Ads Are Bought (Adweek)… Uber’s Quest to Catch the Tourist Buck (VentureBeat)…

Can LifePosts’ Digital Obits Provide Clues for Sustainable Local Publishing?

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LifePost’s digital obits are offering a way to commemorate people and pets in a dedicated place outside of social media. The idea has drawn support from Twitter ex-CEO Dick Costolo, among others.

Street Culture: Multi-Location Brands Connect Employees With Beekeeper

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Beekeeper is like Slack but for companies with employees who are on the move, waiting tables and parking cars. The mobile-based communications platform is growing quickly and meeting a current need in the marketplace.

Street Fight Daily: Airbnb Plans to Expand Service Offerings, On-Demand Assistant App GoButler Pivots

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Airbnb Plans to Offer Add-On Travel Services This Year (Bloomberg)… GoButler Pivots to Fully-Automated Service, Starting with Flight Search and Discovery (TechCrunch)… Can LifePost’s Digital Obits Provide Clues for Sustainable Local Publishing? (Street Fight)…

Brands, Meet the Data Amplifiers

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Data amplifiers distribute and publish your data to a broader audience than you could ever do on your own — what I call the “network effect.” Your brand becomes more visible because your business data becomes more open and accessible to the influencers who are in a position to help customers find your business.

Retailers Shift Focus to Offline Affiliate Marketing

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Location analytics represent the new battleground in retail, but imagine if you could apply the same analytics for online attribution to offline purchases. Offline affiliate marketing does just that, giving retailers the tools to analyze data from in-store purchases similar to what they can do for online purchases.

Drawbridge CEO: ‘Programmatic Has Led the Charge for Cross-Device’

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Kamakshi Sivaramakrishnan founded programmatic ad platform Drawbridge in 2010 after a stint at Google. She spoke recently with Street Fight about Drawbridge’s solutions, the ever-changing nature of mobile targeting, and the constant misinterpretation of the word “programmatic.”

Street Fight Daily: Google to Further Penalize Mobile-Unfriendly Websites, More Layoffs at LivingSocial

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google’s Latest Mobile Search Algorithm Update Makes Having a Mobile-Friendly Site Even More Important (TechCrunch)… LivingSocial Is Laying Off More Than 50 Percent of Its Staff (Recode)… Uber Debuts Family Profiles to Let You Pay for Others’ Rides (TechCrunch)…