News and Analysis

5 Cannabis Payroll Platforms

Growers, dispensaries, and other businesses that operate in the legal cannabis industry are caught between federal and state regulations, which make banking and payroll a challenge. Despite marijuana being legal in many states, cannabis businesses are still on shaky ground at the federal level, and banks in particular are skittish about partnering with the industry. Without solid banking partners, local cannabis businesses can have trouble keeping up on payroll. So what’s the solution?

Rather than waiting for Congress to make a decision on potential regulations that would shield banks from federal punishment for maintaining accounts for cannabis businesses, more dispensaries and growers are moving toward using web-based cannabis payroll platforms designed specifically for their industry.

Hyperlocal Social Firm Nextdoor Closes $170M Round, Adds Meeker to Board

The company seems well positioned to address the ills of social network and platforms plagued by negative user-generated content in general these days. That’s because it actually verifies the identities of its users and puts people in touch who live near each other in the physical world, definitely not eliminating all risk but limiting the chance that people use digital anonymity to harass each other without repercussions.

Inform Your Multichannel Customer Experience Strategy

The Number-One Reason Consumers Will Delete Your App

It’s easy to get your app deleted from consumers’ phones at a time when every businesses has its own mobile property and social notifications are wearing consumers down. If you want to get deleted, just message your customers all the time, a new study by messaging platform Leanplum found.

The most common reason consumers deleted mobile apps is too many irrelevant notifications, Leanplum’s survey of 1,000 US mobile users found. This held true for all generations, from Gen-Z to Baby Boomers. More than 75% of the crucial millennial generation said they delete apps due to excessive notifications.

Commentary

Why Google Is Becoming the ‘New Homepage’ for SMBs

“So many things are happening right on Google; clicks to call, driving directions, etc., and even more so than a website,” Mike Blumenthal tells David Mihm. “For a business to do well there, things like photos, reviews (everywhere) and other visuals are becoming ever more important.”

Will Native-Social Ads Dominate Mobile?

The majority of mobile ad companies that don’t evolve their janky and interruptive banners will be displaced. A new era of mobile ads will be defined by intelligent formats that speak to the affinities of buying-empowered millennials (who are now almost 40 by the way).

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.

Latest Posts

Service Marketplace Lead Gen — What Color Do Disruptors Bleed?

Marketplaces are sexy. They have disrupted long-standing lead-gen sources like Google, Craigslist, HomeAdvisor, and Angie’s List — all of which caused disruption within yellow pages years before.

Street Fight Daily: Lyft Launches Waze Integration, ‘Platform Relationship Specialists’ Emerge

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Waze Integration for Drivers Rolls Out Nationwide in Lyft’s Mobile App (TechCrunch)… The Rise of the Publishing Platform Specialist (Wall Street Journal)… Publishers See Rising Premium on Mobile Advertising (AdExchanger)…

Raise Report: New funding for DoorDash, Handshake, GoCardless

Marley Spoon, a startup that delivers ingredients needed for specific recipes to users, has raised $17 million and some of the other top funding news of the past week in this week’s Raise Report.

Promotions and New Hires at Amazon, Nuts.com, and Gorilla Logic

An internal promotion at Amazon and some new personnel changes at Delivery.com and Gorilla Logic in the latest Movers & Shakers column.

Street Fight Daily: Apple Pay Coming to Mobile Web, DoorDash Moves Into Yelp Territory

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Apple Pay Moving to the Mobile Web, Could Give Big Boost to Mcommerce (Marketing Land)… DoorDash Takes On Yelp, Offers ‘Objective’ Restaurant Quality Scores (VentureBeat)… Microsoft Tells Possible Yahoo Buyers It Would Consider Backing Bids With Big Bucks (Recode)…

A ‘Network and Brand,’ 30A Aims to Add $1 MIllion Revenue in 2016

Mike Ragsdale’s 30A is successfully covering the Santa Rosa Beach communities in Florida, covering daily minutiae while capturing what’s special about the place. The site is also pulling in seven figures. Can others learn from him?

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 […]