News and Analysis
Report: Consumer Expectations for Brands Higher than Ever in Age of Convenience
With the omnichannel age upon us, the impact of bad customer experiences is unprecedented. The main fear for businesses should no longer be a standoff between the worker behind the customer service desk and the angry customer who failed to get his discount; it should be the rant that hits social and is shared or liked a slew of times, dragging digital reputations through the mud.
Walmart Tests Out the “Future of Retail” in Long Island Store
There’s no time for the future of retail like the present. That is the motto at Walmart’s Intelligent Retail Lab, a live experiment in AI-driven shopping experiences that is now open to the public at a Walmart Neighborhood Market in Levittown, NY.
Facebook Expects Record-Setting FTC Fine for Privacy Violations
Five billion would be a record for FTC punishment of a tech company and would signal harsher scrutiny to come for an industry that has accrued unparalleled wealth and power with little regulatory oversight. Facebook’s fine comes after a saga of instances in which it failed to protect user data. Most damningly, the company vowed to shore up its data protection practices in 2011 and can now be accused of failing to uphold that promise.
Commentary
How Automotive Marketing Is Evolving in the Digital Age
Car dealerships are an appealing target for hyperlocal media and suppliers of digital marketing technology and services. They’re relatively big spenders compared with many local businesses, and they’re adopting digital marketing faster than most.
How Local Businesses Can Survive and Thrive in the Age of RankBrain
A great site with proper titles, tags and meta descriptions alongside good and relevant ad copy, and an intelligent approach to drive the maximum number of relevant clicks, is the best defense for the local business against the self-awareness of the RankBrain machine.
As Local’s Complexity Grows, What Does It Take to Build a Sustainable Agency Business?
“There are two paths for consultants or small agencies today,” writes David Mihm. “Either be a generalist who’s aware of all the major channels, and the kinds of businesses that are good fits for those channels, or develop an incredibly deep focus in a particular channel, and make a name for yourself as the go-to resource within that channel.”
Latest Posts
5 Geofencing Tools for Customer Acquisition
Marketers increasingly are using geofencing and proximity marketing to send push notifications to existing customers located at specific events or landmarks. However, this technology still isn’t being used to its full potential as a new customer acquisition tool. Here are five examples of platforms that marketers can use to deliver offers to nearby mobile users, with the ultimate goal of promoting new customer acquisition.
On-Demand and Deep Linking Becoming More Deeply Linked
The worlds of on-demand and deep-linking took another step closer when ride-sharing giant Uber announced a new mechanism for app developers to incorporate a button for users to request an Uber driver. Expect to see more of this kind of app integration among on-demand services, giving the market leaders greater scale and distribution.
Street Fight Daily: Yahoo’s Advertising Woes, Starbucks Launches Delivery Service with Postmates
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Yahoo Struggles as an Afterthought to Advertisers (New York Times)… Starbucks Launches Delivery Service in Partnership with Postmates (TechCrunch)… On-Demand and Deep Linking Becoming More Deeply Linked (Street Fight)…
How Multi-location Brands Can Keep Up with the Push for On-Demand
In the era of UberRUSH, Postmates, DoorDash, and others, every business with an in-house delivery fleet is feeling the pressure to provide the same kind of on-demand delivery experience. The driving force behind the demand for on-demand is time, or the perceived lack thereof. Consumers have shown they will pay a premium to save it.
Mobile-mentum Continues into Cyber Monday
Cyber Monday was one for the record books. U.S. shoppers spent nearly $3 billion through digital channels, making it the single largest online sales day in history, according to Adobe, and continuing a string of firsts this holiday season. Mobile continued to display strong momentum from the holiday weekend in driving website traffic and sales.
Street Fight Daily: Yahoo to Discuss Selling Internet Business, Google’s New Pinterest-Like Feature
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Yahoo Board to Weigh Sale of Internet Business (Wall Street Journal)… Google Turns Image Search into Pinterest with New ‘Collections’ Feature (TechCrunch)… Uber Teams with Enterprise to Let Drivers Rent Cars for Ride-Sharing (Denver Business Journal)…
Case Study: Restaurant Increases Visit Frequency with Mobile Ordering Option
Cold-calling techniques have a notoriously low success rate for hyperlocal vendors trying to onboard new merchants, but it was an unsolicited drop-in that led to The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen’s successful three-year relationship with ChowNow, an online ordering system and marketing platform for restaurants.
Local News Media on Ad Blockers: ‘We’re Not Hemorrhaging Revenue’
Ad blocking on mobile has been in the spotlight since Apple launched its iOS 9 operating system in September. “The loss from ad blockers appears to be more of an opportunity loss for publishers than an actual revenue loss,” said Thomas Sly, E. W. Scripps Co. vp of digital revenue and chair of the Local Media Consortium committee established to respond to the ad-blocking threat.
Street Fight Daily: Social Networks Struggle with Ecommerce, Nextdoor’s ‘Neighborhood Favorites’
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Social Networks Face Obstacles in Road to Ecommerce Domination (Gigaom)… Nextdoor’s ‘Neighborhood Favorites’ Gets Closer to a Business Model (Local Onliner)… Millennials’ Growing Distrust of Plastic Cards Paves Way for Digital Payments (Marketing Land)…
Raise Report: Deliveroo, Placester, Shiftgig Rake in Fresh Funding
Every two weeks we round up some of the biggest fundraises taking place in hyperlocal marketing, commerce, and tech. In this edition, new investments include rounds for Deliveroo, Placester, and Shiftgig.
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AI Won’t Fix Advertising – It May Scale Its Chaotic Nature