News and Analysis
Google Testing Restaurant Booking, Foreshadowing Ever Tighter Grip on Local Commerce
The news is an important signal that local-commerce options like Reserve with Google will get sleeker and more dominant in the years to come. And it calls to mind a crucial local-search debate: Will Google SERPs and the many options for engagement with local brick-and-mortars on them effectively supplant the local business website as the crucial interface for interacting with customers?
Cannabis Retailer Uses Tech to Boost Employee Morale
Old-school companies hosted picnics and holiday parties to keep their employees happy, but tech-focused startups in the cannabis industry are taking a decidedly more sophisticated approach.
6 Lead-Generation Platforms for Local Businesses
More than a quarter of consumers say they use the internet to find local businesses every day, and yet a whopping 29% of small businesses still don’t have websites. Here are six examples of lead-generation platforms that small businesses are using right now.
Commentary
DEBATE: The Marketing of SMB Marketing Solutions
Speculation over the best model for providing and marketing SMB solutions — do-it-yourself (DIY), do-it-for-me (DIFM), or the middle-ground option, do-it-with-me (DIFM) — has been swirling for years. Columns from two Street Fight contributors indicate that while technology is part of the current problem, it’s undoubtedly part of the solution as well.
SMBs and Self-Service: Are We There Yet?
The question of whether or when SMBs are going to self-provision online marketing has been a topic of intense debate for at least a decade. Signs now point to the emergence of solutions simple enough to make self-service viable within three to five years. Ultimately, rather than a do-it-yourself vs. do-it-for-me dichotomy, we’re likely to see an increasingly stratified local market that looks a lot like a three-cabin airplane seating chart.
The Price of Free Listings
When the Yellow Pages directory came out once a year, if your business’ phone number was printed incorrectly, you were in trouble. It was the same with local business listings on the internet, except that instead of one or two books, there were thousands of websites carrying your bad data. This added up to a serious headache for multi-location brands and a serious opportunity for solutions providers that could bring order to the free business listings chaos. Here’s a look at how listings management has evolved.
Latest Posts
Why All Brands Need to Prepare for the Localization of Marketing
In order to fully appreciate the significance of localized marketing, we first need to understand the dominant forms of marketing that preceded it. There have been three major technological disruptions over the past century that fundamentally changed the marketing landscape.
On the Road: The Future of On-Demand Delivery Is in Motion
Figuring out how to consistently and quickly deliver services to a driver when the destination is unsure means a provider needs to develop a mesh network of always-in-motion providers of services and also serve customers in a place they are unaccustomed to doing business.
Street Fight Daily: BBC’s Hyperlocal News Push, HotelTonight App Introduces Local Concierge
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… BBC Seeks to Forge Working Links With Hyperlocal News Sites (The Guardian)… Mobile App Company HotelTonight Launching Personal Concierge Feature (Wall Street Journal)… Google Upgrades Mobile Browser Display to Allow Reviews (Blumenthals.com)…
ShopKeep Working to Reduce SMBs’ Vulnerability to Credit Card Hacks
What can be done to protect both small businesses and their customers’ credit card information from hackers? We caught up with Norm Merritt, president and CEO of ShopKeep to talk about how software and cloud-based solutions protect local businesses.
6 Vendors Bringing Hyperlocal Tech to Medical Offices
A changing healthcare landscape is leading many physicians to rethink the way they market their practices, and this is creating new opportunities for hyperlocal vendors. Here are six examples of platforms that use hyperlocal technology to help local medical professionals acquire new patients.
Sponsored Post: Building an Integrated Local Digital Strategy
Merchants like Brendan Madigan, owner of Alpenglow Sports in Tahoe City, Calif., say local listing management is an important component in their larger digital marketing strategies: “So many people want to contact your business … and if you’re late to the party, you’re just shooting yourself in the foot.”
Street Fight Daily: YP Transitions to Mobile and Display Ads, Alibaba’s Advantage
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Is YP’s Search Data Strong Enough to Win More Local Digital Ad Dollars? (Adweek)… Why Amazon Should Fear Alibaba (Forbes)… Uber Is Now Testing “Suggested Pickup Points” (TechCrunch)…
Why Selling to Partners and Resellers Is Never a Straight Path
Media companies are constantly bombarded by digital product and ad tech platform companies vying for consideration. Getting the attention of reseller and partner decision makers requires a clear understanding of their business challenges.
Beacons Reaching Millennial Moms — But Are They Motivating Them to Buy?
A new report from beacon proximity platform inMarket indicates that millennial moms in the U.S are getting the beacon message — literally — with more than 38 percent (or 3.4 million out of 9 million) actively using beacon-enabled apps every month.
Street Fight Daily: Yelp’s Struggles Continue, New App Bizibid Wants to Boost Local Economies
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Yelp Traffic Could Decline for the First Time Ever After Google Changed its Search Algorithm (Business Insider)… What Would Happen If Uber, Priceline, and Craigslist Had a Baby? (New York Observer)… Microsoft’s Tossup App Makes it Easier to Meet Your Friends for Lunch (The Verge)…
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Meta Is Automating Ads, But Brands Still Face a Bigger Problem