News and Analysis
How Brands Are Using AR to Generate Buzz, Promote Loyalty
The push into AR can be seen as a way for brand retailers to differentiate themselves from Amazon, bringing the in-store experience into the online world. It’s also a way for retailers to jumpstart word-of-mouth marketing, with the hope that using innovative technologies is new ways will have a viral effect and get people talking.
DoorDash Will Put an End to Old-School Delivery—And Smaller Rivals
What does the big money for DoorDash mean for the crowded on-demand delivery space? The market is growing as a whole, but there isn’t all that much growth share to go around. DoorDash CEO and founder Tony Xu has said as much. “If you look at where the U.S. is, there’s two players gaining share. It’s DoorDash and Uber. And DoorDash is growing 65% faster,” Xu said in a conversation with Recode editor-at-large and co-founder Kara Swisher earlier this year.
Alexa Has the Confidence of SMB Marketers. Should It?
Forty-eight percent of marketers surveyed by Uberall said they trust the e-commerce giant over its competition when it comes to marketing applications of voice technology in these early days of the medium. Google Assistant had the vote of 29% of the market, with Apple’s Siri scoring a surprisingly high 17% given the widespread consensus that voice is really a two-way race at the moment.
Latest Posts
The Price of Free Listings Revisited: A Hyperlocal Business Perspective
The proliferation of online directories and directory services has made the local business owner’s life harder. It means more places to manage vital information and more third-party providers that control access to directories. Between the time and effort required to manage aggregators and the volume of citations, few small business owners do it themselves. As a result, the only stakeholders that truly know what information is authentic often are left out of the conversation.
Street Fight Daily: In-N-Out Burger Sues DoorDash, Uber Partners with TomTom
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… In-N-Out Burger Sues DoorDash for Delivering Its Food Without Permission (Recode)… Uber Signs Digital Mapping Deal with TomTom (New York Times)… Angie’s List Shares Surge After Company Rejects IAC Offer (USA Today)…
In Local Marketing, ‘Obsolete’ Is All Relative
The pace of innovation is such that many new technologies are deemed “obsolete” before small business owners get the chance to fully understand them, let alone implement them in their business. Many feel left behind the curve as a result. But obsolete is not an absolute condition when it comes to marketing techniques. Where marketing tactics and technologies are underutilized, potential for competitive gains still exists.
Do You Bing? If Not, It’s Time to Start
Microsoft recently announced that Bing turned its first profit since being launched in 2009. The company continues to extend its reach, grow its share of the search market, and add features that make it a stronger commerce tool. The question businesses should be asking is not whether Bing will catch up to Google, but whether they view Bing as a critical publisher to improve the reach of their location data.
Street Fight Daily: Amazon Food Delivery Expanding to More Major Cities, Google Maps Goes Offline
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Amazon Plans to Roll Out Restaurant Delivery in Cities Across the Country (Recode)… Google Maps Is Adding Offline Navigation and Search (The Verge)… Brand Advertising in Programmatic Era Fattens Margins for Big E-tailers (Ad Age)…
Dealmakers: Growth Hacking with Sales Automation Technology
We tend to think of fragmentation as a major hurdle, but it means opportunities as well — to leverage content, data, and analytics to create an efficient, effective lead pipeline. Investors are turning their attention to this opportunity, pouring money into and acquiring companies that facilitate sales and marketing automation. What distinguishes the companies receiving investment dollars this year is that they uniquely embrace the concept of “growth hacking.”
6 Tools Restaurants Can Use to Accept Mobile Orders
The mobile ordering landscape is quickly evolving, with increases in consumer demand fueling the growth. Even independently owned restaurants with just one or two locations are feeling the push to offer their customers mobile ordering. Here are six platforms restaurant owners can use to meet the demand.
Street Fight Daily: Google and Flipkart Partner to Eliminate Apps, Groupon’s Ideel Takes a Hit
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… With a Mobile Website Like An App, Flipkart Takes a Swipe at Apple (New York Times)… Groupon Site Ideel to Pack Up and Ship Out of New York (Crain’s New York Business)… Legacy Retailers Struggle to Ramp Up Mobile Marketing (Ad Age)…
#SFSNYC VIDEO: Smartphones Will Make the Connected Store a Reality
Implementing technology in retail environments as means of “saving” brick-and-mortar stores has been a consistent theme in recent years. But consumers have sent a clear message that the connected store can’t be about technology for technology’s sake. Smartphones’ increasingly central role in the shopping process, from research to purchase, makes them the logical link between connected shoppers and connected stores.
Franchises Make Scale Profitable for TAPinto.net’s Two-State Network
TAPinto.net has taken its New Jersey-centered franchise model for community news to adjacent and competitive Westchester and Putnam Counties in New York State’s heavily suburban Lower Hudson Valley. In this Q&A, founder and CEO Mike Shapiro explains how he’s been able to scale his seven-year-old community network through franchising, and do it largely through self-financing.
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AI Is Breaking Down Data Silos — Without Breaking Privacy