News and Analysis

Square Announces SDK, Opening Its Platform Directly to Developers for First Time

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Recognizing and looking to capitalize on the fact that some businesses may have needs its own software does not exhaust, Square announced on Thursday the release of the Square Reader SDK, which will allow developers serving brands and SMBs around the world to redesign the check-out experience in exactly the right way for their specific businesses.

Prime Day Powers Industry-Wide Boost in Mobile App Downloads for Retailers

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Amazon’s mid-July Prime Day powered not only sales at local businesses and direct purchases on Amazon’s rival retailer sites but also spikes in mobile app downloads for those retailers, according to data released today by mobile app marketing company Liftoff.

After Downgrading Publishers, Facebook Explores New Ways to Boost Them

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We all remember the seemingly apocalyptic early 2018 announcement that Facebook would downgrade publishers in favor of foregrounding posts from users’ family and friends. Less discussed are the various changes Facebook has made since that announcement to give publishers on its platform a fighting chance.

Commentary

How to Maintain a Rational Social Marketing Strategy in a Confusing Landscape

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Small business owners may find themselves perplexed by the variety of opportunities to engage socially with consumers. Of course, it would be premature to suggest that any SMB needs an Ello marketing strategy. But there’s an advantage to be gained in keeping your marketing strategy attuned to the groups actively pursuing interests relevant to your business…

Is Apple Pay Fixing a Problem Consumers Don’t Have?

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Paying with a credit card isn’t broken. So mobile payments have to offer something greater than reducing my wallet by the atomic weight of a credit card. We’re talking tangible benefits like skipping store lines, saving time, or monetary rewards. Without these benefits, I don’t see how the masses will be compelled to change such an entrenched habit…

Selling to Small Businesses: Getting Your Pitch Past the Gatekeepers

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Having better conversations with gatekeepers is one way to improve the sales process. Most inquiring sales reps tend to ask a gatekeeper when the decision maker will be available and then quickly end the sales call. This is a waste of a great opportunity to gather valuable intel. A gatekeeper can be your unwitting scout, giving you the information you need to better serve your prospective client…

Latest Posts

Report: Digital Now Represents 40% of Local Advertising Market

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A new report released by Borrell Associates suggests that digital advertising will continue to be responsible for nearly all growth in local advertising in 2015. By the end of the year, the report estimates local digital advertising spending will hit $47.8 billion…

Big Possibilities for Brands With New Facebook Targeting Tool

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In October, Facebook launched a long awaited feature for many small business marketers: the ability to reach people nearby. Now big brands are finding ways to to leverage the new Facebook Local Awareness ads — and do so at scale…

LBMA Podcast: Snapchat for Business, Iconeme CEO

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On the show: Panasonic reinvents the retail shelf; the Locr platform; Moovit closes $50m to help public transportation; Deehubs makes us all vandals; Softcard deflating?; Uber Cargo launches in Hong Kong; RetailNext and StepsAway; Path Talk pretty; Je Suis Charlie app…

Street Fight Daily: Starbucks Dominates Mobile, Icahn Eyes Gannett

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…Starbucks’ Mobile Payments Jolt (PYMNTS)… Corporate Raider Carl Icahn Sets His Sights On Gannett (Poynter)… Mobile Moves in on Grocery Shopping (MediaPost)…

YP Now Lets You Target Mobile Ads Based on Desktop Searches

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The company has announced a new partnership with Tapad that will allow marketers to use the company’s desktop search data to targets ads to the the same user on their mobile device. The move should help open the impressions in the firm’s mobile ad network to the billions of dollars spent on retargeting campaigns…

Why Call Tracking Works Across a Variety of Local Marketing Contexts

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Call tracking and analytics can be implemented across any media channel — although online search, directories and context-based marketing are especially important avenues. The key is to include a tracking component to measure and capture post-call, offline information and behavior in order to identify real advertising value…

Dallas Morning News Bets Ranch on Its Local/Hyperlocal Strategy

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For the Dallas Morning News, local and hyperlocal — increasingly digital but with a continuing and strong print presence — define the future of the 130-year-old A. H. Belo Corp. newspaper. To find out more about what the DMN is doing to plan for the local digital future, we talked recently with several executives in charge of that strategy…

Street Fight Daily: Uber Paves Way to IPO, GM Sells Ads In Cars

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technologyUber Closes $1.6 Billion in Financing (New York Times)… GM Is Beaming Advertisements Into Your Car (Fast Company)… Sensory Marketing Is the Next Frontier in Mobile Advertising (AdAge)…

How Google Wallet’s Ex-Product Lead Plans To Tell Retailers What You Buy

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The company offers retailers a chance to link the mountain of data, available about consumers online, to the growing, but relatively opaque, credit card data collected by retailers in stores. Marc Freed-Finnegan, the company’s chief executive, spoke to Street Fight recently about the shift toward a more intelligent brick-and-mortar retail experience…

Survey Highlights the Challenges of Marketing to Smaller SMBs

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The evidence suggests that marketers who can tell a simple and compelling story tying ROI to hard evidence will stand the greatest chance of winning SMB confidence. The trick is doing this at sufficient scale to be profitable…