News and Analysis

Government Regulation Is Marketers’ Most Common Concern About Data-Driven Initiatives

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Changing political headwinds and increased media attention on data collection and privacy are apparently rattling marketers, who named government regulation as an obstacle to data-driven campaigns more than any other single factor. That’s per a survey of U.S. marketers by Winterberry Group and the Interactive Advertising Bureau, eMarketer reported.

Another Day, Another Story About Exposed Facebook User Data

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While we don’t yet know if any nefarious activity took place as a result of this latest news of Facebook user information’s exposure to third parties, the bottom line, as per the pithy genie line above, is that Facebook handled user data so recklessly for so long that there’s no guarantee the company can prevent exposure going forward. That means, potential regulations for which Mark Zuckerberg is now calling notwithstanding, the end of the Facebook privacy-breach saga is likely not in sight.

food

Walmart Enlists Google to Power Voice-Driven Grocery Shopping

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Partnerships between retailers and tech platforms will provide increasingly important benefits for local discovery as voice becomes a more established search channel. In the age of voice-driven local search, consumers looking for products and services will become accustomed to having only one option surfaced (as Assistant is unlikely to rattle off five choices), which means being a consumer’s first option will be paramount for brick-and-mortars.

Commentary

Foursquare’s Rosenblatt: ‘Location Is the Atomic Unit of Mobile’

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Foursquare has gone from check-in darling to an under-recognized data powerhouse. But in that transition, it’s more successful than ever. And its primary emphasis has remained the entire time: real-world consumer behavior. Meanwhile, the ad industry’s hunger for location data grows.

Selling to SMBs: AIDA and The Conversion Zone

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I’m often asked by entrepreneurs and venture capitalists alike to talk about what changes throughout the course of the “bell curve ride” in selling to small and medium-sized businesses — and how organizations need to adapt at each stage in order to ensure continued success. Here’s the best way I can explain how it all works.

The Increasing Impact of Reviews and Google+ (?!) on Local SEO

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Some new data has given us some “big time insight” into how Google is using authoritative local sites to inform local search rankings, says David Mihm. Mike Blumenthal agrees, saying that the prominence of local review pages and appears to be “transferring prominence directly to the local entity in a way that is totally independent of links.”

Latest Posts

It’s Been a Long Slog, but Digital News Publishers Are Beginning to Innovate

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News publishers get beat up regularly for not making a successful journalistic transition from their palmy print days to the hotly competitive digital era. And they certainly deserve it. But I think Neal Mann’s recent full-metal-jacket attack on them in Medium was way over the top.

Street Fight Daily: AOL Merges All Publishing Products, the Scope of Uber’s International Disruption

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… AOL Is Combining All of Its Publisher Products (Business Insider)… Why Uber’s Rushing Into Deliveries Could Reap $24.6B Internationally (Forbes)… For Some Sprint Customers, Watching Ads Cuts Phone Bill (Wall Street Journal)…

Report: Beacon Use Growing, Industry on Track to Deploy Nearly 400 Million by 2020

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“The number of sensors is increasing quarter by quarter,” said Unacast co-founder and CEO Thomas Walle. “A lot of companies are still in testing and trialing, but we’re moving out of that phase and into full commercial deployments.”

Basket President: App’s Crowdsourced Price Information Empowers Shoppers

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“The difference in prices between stores in a five-mile radius can be as much as 50 percent, based on in-store unadvertised specials, advertised specials, and variance in list price,” says Andy Ellwood. His company, Basket, has built “a massive database” that allows the company to display that price information back to consumers.

Street Fight Daily: How Ad Blocking Affects Ecommerce, Is Food Delivery the New Gold Rush?

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Ecommerce Links Become the Latest Unlikely Casualty of Ad Blocking (Digiday)… The Food Delivery Wars: A Little Bit of History Repeating? (PYMNTS.com)… FiveStars Gets $50M to Help Small Retailers Run Loyalty Programs Like Their Bigger Rivals (TechCrunch)…

6 Social Media Tactics that Reduce Marketing Costs for SMBs

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In addition to generating leads, building brand awareness, and adding credibility to a business, a well-implemented social strategy should also lower a merchant’s overall marketing expenses. Social media is oftentimes less expensive than other types of marketing, and can easily be used to leverage a merchant’s complimentary marketing programs.

Street Culture: Startups Bring the ‘Sharing Economy’ to Commercial Real Estate

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Commercial real estate has so far been slow to adopt technology solutions, sticking with many of its traditional roles and processes to navigate a crowded, demanding market. But new companies like PivotDesk, TheSquareFoot, Fundrise, and PeerRealty are starting to change that.

LBMA Podcast: Euclid Analytics, Foursquare, and Vistaprint

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On the show: Are you ready for a drive-thru supermarket?; GoInStore; Lyft partners with National MedTrans Network; EyeQ to make waves at NRF; 7Eleven helps corrupt with rewards; Google creating a virtual reality division; Shelfbucks acquires Emmoco.

Street Fight Daily: Starbucks’ Continued Mobile Success, UberEats Announcement Targets GrubHub

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Starbucks Mobile Program Reaches 6M Orders Per Month (GeekWire)… GrubHub Stock Hits an All-Time Low After Uber Announces Food Delivery App (Business Insider)… Google Paid Apple $1 Billion to Keep Search Bar on iPhone (Bloomberg)…

4 Ways That Retailers Can Gain Traction on Mobile

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As retailers continue to reimagine marketing to consumers using mobile, the tools to do so will evolve as well. Similar to marketing automation for B2B, retailer-focused solutions providers are enriching their platforms so that retailers can deliver marketing messages and offers to highly segmented consumers.