News and Analysis
Happy Returns Expands Into College Market
Startup Happy Returns, based in Santa Monica and founded by alums from HauteLook and NordstromRack.com, offers a way for shoppers to return e-commerce purchases at real-world kiosks. Beginning this fall, Happy Returns will be setting up kiosks—which it calls “Return Bars”—at five campuses around the country to capitalize on the returns generated by back-to-college online shopping.
Commentary
Getting Down to the Basics of Local Search Marketing
Small businesses can sometimes find out at their peril just how important it is to take control of how they are represented online. As professionals, we want to make sure businesses understand that our expertise has value, but not at the expense of scaring or confusing them. Instead we would do well to promote the idea that local search is accessible to all…
Latest Posts
Street Fight Daily: Google’s New Call Unit, Main Street Hub Raises $20M
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…Pay-Per-Call: Google Introduces “Call-Only” AdWords Units (Local Search Insider)… Main Street Hub Lands $20M To Bring Social Media Marketing To Small Business (TechCrunch)… Digital First — What Then? (Medium)…
5 Tools for Publishing Product Inventory on Social Media
Small business owners are pulling out all the stops to drive traffic to their social media pages, but many aren’t giving enough thought as to what happens once people have agreed to “like” or “follow” their businesses online. Here are five tools that businesses can try to spur further engagement…
Street Fight Daily: Bing’s New Ordering Service, Google Revives Wallet
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…Bing Now Lets You Order Food And Book Hotels Directly From Search Results (The Next Web)… To Revive Wallet, Google Tries to Wrangle Unruly Partners (Wall Street Journal)… Uber Valued At $41 Billion As Revenue Growth Powers Expanded Funding Round (MarketWatch)…
Borrell on Local News: Inform, but Help Businesses Thrive
“We can certainly view people who frequent hyperlocal news sites as ‘readers’ who are there for the content. But once we begin to realize that they are likely to be buy something that day, tomorrow, or next week, then we begin understanding the real value of that audience,” says the CEO of Borrell Associates…
7 Strategies for Improving Mobile Coupon Redemption Rates
As smartphone use continues to soar, the landscape for promotions and offers is shifting. Despite the push to digitize coupons and phase out printed materials, mobile coupon redemption rates remain surprisingly low. Here are seven strategies for improving performance that marketers should consider…
Street Fight Daily: Samsung Buys Apple Pay Competitor, Google’s New Food Site
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…Samsung Just Bought a Company to Help It Compete With Apple Pay (Time)… Google May Have Foodie Social Site Named ‘Tablescape’ In The Works (Slash Gear)… Uber Is Launching A Food Delivery Service In Spain (Business Insider)…
The Road Ahead: What Autonomous Cars Teach Us About Marketing Automation