News and Analysis
SMBs Warm Up to New Tech But Are Skeptical of Impersonal Interactions
A freshly released report from SMB software firm Broadly uses data from a survey of 300 SMB leaders to paint a picture of the American SMB in 2019: gradually embracing mobile-first communication, skeptical of innovation that undercuts human connection, and ambivalent toward large digital marketplaces like Amazon and Etsy.
Visual Search Moves Beyond Experimentation and Into Prime Time
After years of experimentation and broad discussions about how visual search would someday take hold, it’s clear that the future has arrived. Visual search has moved into the mainstream, and companies like Pinterest, Instagram, and even Google are paving the way for consumers to engage more deeply with the products they find online.
As visual search moves into the mainstream, questions are intensifying over what impact the medium will have on SEO and traditional search metrics.
Google Integrates Food Delivery into Search, Maps, Assistant
More or less following the model of Reserve with Google, which has seamlessly integrated the process of reserving a table at a nearby restaurant into SERPs, Google is now integrating food delivery into search, Maps, and Assistant, keeping consumers on Google properties for the entire journey as they make transactions via third-party couriers.
Commentary
Why Brands Need to Master Prompted Search
When a business launches a new product, or, say, the latest Harry Potter adaptation hits the market, retailers are often challenged to update their location pages in a timely manner to show the availability of the product for consumers who rely on local search to find what they want nearby.
Why Local Marketing Tech Is Strongly Influencing 2016’s Furious M&A Activity
This year, investment in marketing tech is on pace to more than double the investment in ad tech, suggesting just how promising this market is. Because these solutions are in high demand and are built on a recurring and relatively predictable software-as-a-service (SaaS) revenue model, profits have surged.
Apps Continue to Battle, But the Mobile Web May Be Catching Up
With a shift to mobile websites, most mobile marketing dynamics will remain, although implementation for sites versus apps will be more than nuanced. Mobile search is already undergoing shifts, and listings management must take into account the role of the mobile platforms, maps, and, probably, Amazon.
Latest Posts
Turf Talk Redux: Looking for the Future in Companies, People, and Products
I like to be a little out in front of things. Not too far (hyperloops) and not too close (digital couponing). In my writing about local marketing and media (both here at Street Fight, and previously), I’ve generally been most comfortable investigating advancements that attempt to intersect the possible and the inevitable. For instance: the […]
Street Fight Daily: How SMBs Can Win at Local Search, Uber’s New Feature Is a Lot Like Foursquare
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… How Brick-and-Mortar Merchants Can Win in Local Search (Street Fight)… Uber Will Give You Things To Do While You’re On Your Trip (Mashable)… How Oracle Is Helping Retailers Sell More Stuff (Recode)…
How the Rise of Virtual Reality Could Impact Local Marketing
With each passing tech revolution, response time diminishes while opportunity cost grows. Local media companies that were late to the consumer internet or the smartphone revolution already know this pain. With VR and AR, local startups will be more agile to experiment than larger incumbents.
Nashville ‘Indie’ Home Page Media, Now 5 Sites, Expands ‘Where There’s a Need’
Kelly Gilfillan launched her Home Page Media Group in suburban Nashville in 2009 smack in the middle of affluent turf that had been long “owned” by Gannett’s the Tennesseean. Having expanded her model to several nearby communities since then, Gilfillan is on track to hit $1 million revenue by 2017.
Street Fight Daily: Ford Launching Commuter App, the Benefits of Retail Subscription Models
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Ford Plans Commuter App, Ford Car Not Required (USA Today)… How Subscriptions Are Creating Winners and Losers in Retail (Harvard Business Review)… Challenging Uber, Lyft Bets on a Road Wide Enough for Two (New York Times)…
Companies With Culture Data Outperform Those Without It
To figure out how to identify the right interactions to promote, CultureIQ measures 10 different operational and strategic company qualities. Three are most important: support, work environment, and mission and value alignment.
LBMA Podcast: Beacon’d Cities, Crowdsourced Maps, and P&G Tests Snapchat Ads
On the show: Adored loved to the tuned of $2.3 million; Fleetzen’s on-demand fleet of pick-up trucks; ShopperTrack acquired by Tyco; Starbucks teams with Alibaba; Twitter lets you control drones; LinkNYC wifi payphones are HERE!
Street Fight Daily: Google’s 3D Mapping Coming to Smartphones, Apple’s Potential Impact on Search
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Tangoes with Lenovo to Bring 3D Mapping to Smartphones (Wall Street Journal)… How Apple Could Play Spoiler for the Search Ad Business (Search Engine Land)… 50% of Consumers in Mature Markets To Use Phones, Smartwatches for Mobile Payments by 2018 (BizReport)…
‘Indie’ Local News Now Finds Profitability in Affluent-but-Challenging D.C. Market
2015 was a big year for independent community news publisher Scott Brodbeck and his Local News Now sites in metro Washington, D.C. We checked in with Brodbeck recently to see what makes him succeed in the tough business of community news, and as a self-financed independent, no less…
5 Self-Service Predictive Analytics Platforms
Vendors with business intelligence software are introducing more self-service platforms. Many of these platforms include predictive analytics capabilities that business owners can utilize to make smarter marketing and operations decisions. Here are five examples…
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