News and Analysis

Survey: Marketers Toss Out Valuable Location Data

What if seemingly inconsequential data—and location data, in particular—could actually be re-harnessed and used to provide additional revenue-generating opportunities for brands? That’s the concept behind a new report out from the global geolocation data and services provider Digital Element.

Are Holiday Campaigns Launching Too Late in the Season?

Black Friday has historically been seen as the official kickoff to the holiday shopping season, but new research from the data solutions company Lotame and the digital intelligence firm Jumpshot indicates that consumer interest actually peaks almost one month earlier. Retailers that wait until late fall to launch their holiday campaigns could be missing out on sales.

Street Fight Daily: Google’s Mobile-First Indexing, Simpli.fi Launches Nationwide Solution

TODAY IN LOCAL & DIGITAL MARKETING AND MEDIA… Ready or Not, Google’s Mobile-First Indexing Is Here… Are Holiday Campaigns Launching Too Late in the Season?… Localized Programmatic Platform Simpli.fi Goes National…

Commentary

Can Home Services Really Be Uber-ed?

Homeowners don’t “Uber” a $15,000 window replacement job. They don’t contract for a new sunroom on their mobile phone. And they don’t sign on for a $30,000 kitchen remodel without spending hours of real time with a designer and salesperson…

Where Does Local Search Fit in a World of Apps?

Where is Google’s place in a world where the browser is no longer the front door? On the desktop, trillions of web pages compel an index and a friendly entry point. But an app-heavy mobile environment — already siloed into neat little buckets — doesn’t beg for a core search engine…

Studies Find More SMBs Want to Manage Their Own Social Media

There is compelling evidence that SMBs’ understanding and aptitude for social media is growing. More importantly, it seems that a significant number of SMBs want and may be ready to take the reins of their social media marketing.

Latest Posts

Yelp Learns the Hard Way: Small Talk Matters When Selling to SMBs

Yelp is off to a rocky start in 2015. Sluggish user growth and a botched sales reorganizations led to a massive sell-off Wednesday evening.

GrubHub CEO Thinks Data — Not Content — Is the Future of Restaurant Discovery

Investors sold off shares of GrubHub Thursday on slimmer profits, but the rest of the metrics look solid. Meanwhile, CEO Matt Maloney says the company wants to put its data about hundreds of millions of orders to work to help pick your next meal.

The Secret to Nextdoor’s Billion-Dollar Valuation: Friction

By making the on-boarding process more difficult, Nextdoor was able to ensure the local social network had a quality that was much more important, says Dan Clancy, VP of product and engineering.

5 Predictive Analytics Tools for SMBs

The idea of using predictive analytics for small business marketing is still in its infancy. But the market is growing as small business owners become more comfortable integrating these technologies into their business practices. Here are five vendors with predictive analytics tools that SMBs can use…

Street Fight Daily: Uber Plans Delivery Platform, Foursquare’s Brain Drain

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Uber Is Quietly Testing A Massive Merchant Delivery Program (TechCrunch)… Foursquare Has a New Problem: Employees are Checking Out (Mashable)… Most Shoppers Happy to Share Location Data with Retailers, But Want More Regulation on How It is Used (Internet Retailing)…

Signpost Raises $20.5M to Bring CRM to Brick-and-Mortar

For years, startups have talked about creating a central database for a brick-and-mortar business’s customer activity. Now, a handful of investors are betting that the New York-based Signpost has the answer.

How Vendors Can Persuade SMBs to Adopt Mobile Payments

If hyperlocal vendors are going to continue growing their networks of merchants willing to accept mobile payments, they’re going to have to find ways to get small business owners excited about the concept. Here are nine strategies for doing just that…

Sponsored Post: 3 Ways Retail Brands Are Using Technology To Beef Up In-Store Experiences

This post is sponsored by Worldwide Business Research/Future Stores. The retail industry is in the midst of a significant shift brought about the advent of new digital capabilities and the ascendance of multichannel e-commerce platforms. The proliferation of desktop, mobile, and in-store shopping channels has transformed the way consumers interact with brands, creating a more […]

Street Fight Daily: Pinterest Opens Up, Best Buy Embraces Apple Pay

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Pinterest Woos Big Brands With Its New API (Recode)… Apple Pay Will Hit Best Buy Stores in 2015 (New York Times)… Kroger Acquires Dunnhumby Data Assets From Tesco, Forges New Venture (AdExchanger)…

Programmatic Advertising Is Zooming In on Local — Will News Sites Be Ready?

The new Borrell Associates projections for the growth of programmatic ad revenue in local digital publishing are, in a word, big…