News and Analysis
Vendors Rush to Bring Privacy Verification Solutions to Market
The demand for data privacy is at an all-time high, just as consumer trust in the technology space is at an all-time low. Advertisers are grappling with wasted ad spend and uncertainty over ad verification. The market is in disarray, and technology vendors are hoping they have a solution to the problem.
Just this month, the offline consumer intelligence and measurement company Cuebiq launched a new verification solution for third-party data. The solution gives advertisers verifiable proof of compliance with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
Consumers Welcome Some Automated Business Messaging, But Humans Must Tag Along to Help
More than half of consumers are frustrated by customer-service situations in which they can only interact with automated agents, and nearly one in five even reporting feeling angry in those situations. That’s per a new survey of U.S. consumers conducted by The Harris Poll and commissioned by call tracking and analytics firm Invoca.
Texting Allows Marketers to Reach Customers Where They Spend the Most Time
Seventy-six percent of consumers are already receiving texts from businesses, and a majority of consumers across all age groups would prefer that more businesses take up texting as a mode of communication, a new report from business text messaging platform ZipWhip indicates.
A whopping 83% of Gen-Z respondents and 82% of millennials said they “wish more businesses” would use texting. Even for older generations, that number made up a more than slight majority, including 76% of Gen-Xers and 64% of Baby Boomers.
Commentary
Selling to SMBs: AIDA and The Conversion Zone
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
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.”
New Report Shows Urban SMBs Do Better with Agency Help
Street Fight’s new analysis, The Urban SMB Report, indicates that local business owners in big cities get better results from their digital marketing efforts by not doing it themselves. The more they outsource, either to internal staff or to an agency, the higher their satisfaction rating. But there is room for improvement.
Latest Posts
Raise Report: PlaceIQ, Movinga, Toast, Euclid Analytics Rack Up New Rounds
Every two weeks, we round up some of the biggest fundraises taking place in hyperlocal marketing, commerce, and tech. This week’s edition includes new cash infusions for Blueshift, Carwow and Care24.
LBMA Podcast: CES Beacons, GM and Lyft, Reveal Mobile CEO
On the show: EyeLock & Diebold rename the ATM “Irving”; Screen commerce by Think&Go; Billy Bishop Airport DOOH’s the tunnel; Faking human stench to fight Dengue Fever; Emirates + Millennial Media; AT&T, Cisco, IBM, Intel and the city of IoT.
Street Fight Daily: Foursquare Gets a New CEO, How Apple’s iAd News Affects the Industry
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Foursquare CEO Steps Down as Valuation Plummets (Wall Street Journal)… What Apple’s iAd Changes Mean for the Industry (Digiday)… How Google’s Search Chief Has Been Living the “Mobile First” Life (Search Engine Land)…
Dealmakers: On-Demand and Deep-Linking Companies Born Under a Lucky Star
Two areas in the industry I see creating genuine value are in-app search, or “deep linking,” and on-demand tech. In both cases, the value these two segments of our industry bring is in the efficiencies they create. In other words, where and how they reduce friction in consumer transactions is where we will see 2016 investment and M&A activity.
Menu for Success at Brooklyn’s Corner Media: Food, Crime, Homes and History
The eight sites of Brooklyn’s Corner Media Group stretch from northwest to southeast in New York City’s most populous borough. We recently caught up with the network’s publisher Liena Zagare to talk about about her growing hyperlocal empire and the formula behind its success.
Street Fight Daily: The Trouble With “Uber for X” Companies, Apple Moves Away From Mobile Advertising
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… ‘Uber for X’ Will Fail in 2016, but Uber Will Continue to Thrive…Why? (Recode)… Apple Steps Back From Its iAd Advertising Business (BuzzFeed)… How Mobile Apps Stack Up Against Mobile Browsers (eMarketer)…
Vistaprint Launches Local Listings, Providing a Broader Service for SMBs
Vistaprint, which provides print and digital marketing products for small business owners, announced today that it is launching a presence management tool which SMBs can use to update information about their business on over 100 local directories.
How Can Local Merchants Ensure That Digital Searchers Know They’re Open?
Knowing your hours of operation is one of the first searches that customers undertake as they navigate their options when they look for things to do and places to go. Being available to potential customers means managing your store hours as a dynamic and scale-able data asset.
Street Fight Daily: How Google and Apple Dominate the Web, Self-Driving Lyfts Are Coming
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… The Web Giants Are Raising the Performance Bar on Everyone (ReadWrite)… GM to Launch Self-Driving Lyft Fleet in Austin, Texas (Mashable)… How Local Governments Are Using Technology to Serve Citizens Better (Harvard Business Review)…
How Brick-and-Mortar Merchants Can Win at Local Search
A battle is being waged online, as independent merchants struggle for top billing in local search results. We asked six experts in the local search industry for their best strategies for “winning” local search. Here’s what they said.
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Google’s New AI Search Rules Create a Challenge for MULO Brands