News and Analysis

Location Data Industry Gets Huge Wake-Up Call on Monday

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Platforms, brands, and vendors benefiting from the reams of location data used to hit consumers with highly targeted ads should be paying attention to a change suggested by Google and Facebook’s appearances before government authorities, a New York Times exposé out Monday, and most importantly the impending arrival of GDPR-like legislation in the United States: 2019 will be the year privacy actually matters, posing a potentially devastating threat to the status quo of the location-based data and marketing industries.

How to Better Connect with Consumers via Mobile Coupons

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Dan Slavin: It’s not just smartphone use that is growing—the number of people totally dependent on these devices to access the internet is rising as well. Both segments are projected to continue to show strong growth. Yet some marketers and retailers are struggling with attracting these users with offers and coupons.

Consumers’ Reliance on Online Reviews, Evolving Rapidly, Is Reshaping Local Search

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Recommendations gradually exchanged in person are now flooding webpages, most notably Google’s SERPs. Twenty-seven percent of consumers are now reading reviews of local businesses every day, marking a staggering jump from just 12% in 2017, according to a recent report.

Commentary

Lesson From Yodle’s Acquisition: Scaling SMB Performance Marketing Isn’t So Easy

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While the acquisition is likely welcome news for Yodle’s backers and Web.com’s shareholders, the resounding message for SMB performance marketing vendors is one of caution. The real problem facing large performance marketing vendors like Yodle is that of customer retention.

The Physical Web: How a New Type of Beacon Is Disrupting Proximity Marketing

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The newer Eddystone-URL is truly disruptive. This web approach, also called the Physical Web, follows the unstoppable trend toward lessening friction, and will ultimately be the dominant beacon technology. Marketers should be aware of this trend.

Is Apple Quietly Assembling an SMB Trojan Horse?

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Apple is co-promoting Square’s NFC reader for SMBs. and selling the readers in Apple Stores. The $49 reader accepts Apple Pay, which significantly lowers the barrier for SMBs to get in the game. The move should boost Apple Pay, but there also may be much bigger ambitions to lock in market share in new areas.

Latest Posts

Street Culture: YP Hits ‘Refresh’ Button on Employee Connections

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Changing a deep-seated corporate culture takes time. Just ask YP, where renewed internal communications, education and community-building efforts have paid off in a big way.

Street Fight Daily: Google Will Test Grocery Delivery, How Facebook’s Pages Update Affects SMBs

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Becomes a Rival to Amazon to Deliver Your Fresh Fruits and Veggies (Mashable)… Facebook Update Means More Shopping Pages Are on the Way (Recode)… Amazon Launches a Food Delivery Service Via Prime Now, Starting in Seattle (TechCrunch)…

The Not-So-Low-Hanging Fruit: Why the Local Market Remains Elusive

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“The great challenge of winning the local market boils down to balancing sufficient reach and scale with specificity,” writes Noah Elkin, who is joining Street Fight today as managing editor. “It turns out thinking globally and acting locally isn’t always easy — as a consumer or a marketer.”

M&A Report: A Long, Hard Look at Loyalty Programs

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Loyalty encompasses more than just promotions and punchcards. Tech companies that connect the data dots and create meaningful, accurate consumer personas that explain why we as consumers are loyal to a brand (not a promotion) should be able to parlay that information into new revenue per customer.

Case Study: Bay Area Café Opts for Full-Service Social Management

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Keeping on top of the endless stream of reviews posted on Yelp, Facebook, Twitter, and TripAdvisor each day can be time-consuming for a busy small business owner. Responding to negative reviews can be emotionally draining, as well, so Brian Wilson decided to take another route.

Street Fight Daily: Uber’s Big E-commerce Push, Amazon’s Restaurants Division Hires Staff

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Report: Uber to Begin E-commerce Deliveries Soon (The Next Web)… Amazon Hiring Staff for New Restaurant Division in Seattle, New York (Recode)… Once-Troubled Hyperlocal News Brand Patch Expands to Austin; Here’s the How and Why (Austin Business Journal)…

How Local Marketers Can Harness the Internet of Things

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The Internet of Things (IoT) is rapidly finding its way into more and more aspects of our lives — and that’s good news for local marketers. This evolving market is expected to grow to $1.7 trillion by 2020.

Raise Report: Grand Rounds, iZettle, Yummly Secure Fresh Funding

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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 new funding for Narvar, Pronto, Zirx and Databox.

LBMA Podcast: WeChat Partners With Uniqlo, Square Teams Up With Apple

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On the show: Kagulu tells everyone the value of your car; Verizon makes dumb cars a little smarter; and Shazam your vodka. Plus industry news about United Airlines, Macy’s Blue Bite and the Gap.

Street Fight Daily: AOL Buys Millennial Media, Facebook Serves As Forum to Buy and Sell Goods

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… AOL Buys Mobile Marketer Millennial Media for Roughly $240 Million (Marketing Land)… Facebook Advances Bazaar Ambitions (Wall Street Journal)… A New App With 2 Million Users Just Raised $100 Million to Take On eBay (Fortune)…