News and Analysis

Gimbal Innovates to Track Consumer Trends in the Physical World

For years, marketers have used Google Trends to uncover insights based on search data. Now, executives at the advertising and marketing automation platform Gimbal are hoping their newest product will serve the same purpose for the physical world.

Built on top of an independent location data set, Gimbal Trends has been designed to provide marketers with a comprehensive view of consumer behavior in the real world. The product was released this morning, and already Gimbal is seeing interest from companies in the entertainment industry that are interested in leveraging the data to optimize their decision-making processes about upcoming events.

7 Indoor Mapping Platforms for Retailers

More than half of shoppers (57%) have used a retailer’s mobile app while in-store. In order for their apps to provide the greatest amount of value, retailers need to tap in to location features, including indoor mapping. When Street Fight first wrote about indoor mapping tools back in 2013, the technology was still relatively young. Now, the market has had time to mature and retailers looking at integrating indoor mapping technology into their mobile apps have an even wider array of vendors to choose from.

Here are seven companies with indoor mapping solutions for retailers.

6 Recruiting Platforms for the Marijuana Industry

Cannabis startups are struggling to recruit job candidates who understand the cannabis market, which is opening the door to an entirely new vertical for technology firms with recruitment platforms. With the market itself still in its infancy, a handful of key players are vying to become the go-to recruiting sources for the cannabis industry as they work to match employers with job seekers who understand the state-by-state rules and regulations that govern the marijuana market.

Commentary

Survey: Merchants Gain Social Media Sophistication, Rate it Most Effective Tactic

Over the past several years, Street Fight has seen these local merchants shift their marketing budgets away from traditional media like newspapers, print Yellow Pages, and local broadcast towards digital marketing and media. That trend continues in a new survey that we conducted earlier this year.

How Does Google Determine the Authority of Local Entities?

“Each of these sites that Google trusts might calculate authority in a different way, but if Google can verify the relationship to the local entity, they can apply that authority to the ranking of the local listing,” writes Mike Blumenthal to David Mihm.

Where Home Phones Meet Voice-Assisted Search

Similar to the shift from desktop to mobile, local marketers need to consider how the shift to voice-activated devices will impact their strategy. The smart home hub offers a new device on which consumers will interact with local businesses.

Latest Posts

7 Ways Local Merchants Can Foster Customer Loyalty

Random rewards and eco-friendly initiatives are among the suggestions experts in local marketing offer SMBs who are looking to foster customer loyalty and bridge the gap between the virtual and the actual.

March Brand Battle: Marriott Residence Inn vs. Hilton Garden Inn

Spring break is a big time for family travel across the U.S. According to travel booking site Orbitz, 61% of spring travelers will be families. What are they looking for? The March Brand Battle pits two affordable luxury hotel chains, Marriott Residence Inn and Hilton Garden Inn, against each other in a fight for local-mobile hotel domination as they head into the spring break season.

How Retailers Can Bring Home the Beacons

Beacons will become standard when retailers use them to identify their businesses in the same fashion they publish their address or phone number. They will also become a standard when the industry starts treating them like a standard. That will solve the chicken-and-egg problem.

Foursquare’s Attribution Solution a Step in the Right Direction, but Still Leaves Gaps for Marketers

Foursquare—the location-based social network that now calls itself a “location intelligence” company—recently stepped into the analytics business. The company’s entree is a product called Attribution Powered by Foursquare that is intended to help brands measure how media impacts foot traffic in brick-and-mortar locations. To fuel this intelligence, the company pulls data from a panel of […]

Street Fight Daily: DoorDash Raises $127 Million, Billy Penn to Expand Its Local News Model

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… DoorDash Raises $127 Million in ‘Down’ Round (Wall Street Journal)… Can the Billy Penn Model for Local News Work Beyond Philadelphia? We’re About to Find Out (Poynter)… Yahoo Ad Revenue to Drop Nearly 14% This Year (eMarketer)…

PlaceIQ’s Mandeep Mason on Looking at Location from an International Perspective

PlaceIQ’s EMEA General Manager, Mandeep Mason, discusses international expansion, why this is a good time for local marketing, and why local analytics need to be part of any overall media plan.

Case Study: NYC Restaurant Uses Automation Tools to Update Search Listings

This case study looks at how New York City’s Paola’s Restaurant worked OpenTable, Yext, email and Yelp to boost walk-ins and traffic. Which tools were most effective and which weren’t worth the expense?

Street Fight Daily: Google’s Increasingly App-Like Mobile Web, Mobile Sensor Project ‘CrowdSignals’

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Is Gradually Turning Mobile Search Into an App-Like Experience (Screenwerk)… CrowdSignals Aims to Create a Marketplace for Smartphone Sensor Data (New York Times)… Retail Browsing Is Rapidly Shifting to Mobile, So Why Isn’t Buying? (AdAge)…

Go Daddy Launches Cloud Solutions for SMBs

Go Daddy has launchedtwo new products: Cloud Servers and Cloud Applications, both of which are engineered to help a web professional quickly build, test and scale cloud solutions.

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

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.