Commentary
How to Maintain a Rational Social Marketing Strategy in a Confusing Landscape
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?
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
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
How Hyperlocal Tech Is Reviving Brick-and-Mortar Sales
Retailers have a plethora of customer data and technologies at their disposal which can be effectively combined to personalize the brick-and-mortar shopping experience. By tapping into the rich analytics and capabilities of these cross-functional offerings, they can be well positioned to regain market share..
Street Fight Daily: Facebook Ditches Clicks, Village Voice On The Block
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Here’s How Facebook Plans to Help Brands Find Out When Their Ads Actually Worked (AdWeek)… Village Voice Parent Company Will Explore Sale Of Papers (Poynter)… Apple Maps Connect For Small Businesses Expands Beyond The U.S. (9to5Mac)…
As SMB Investment in Digital Increases, So Does the Need for Better Performance Metrics
With all the noise in local marketing, how can SMBs reliably answer the ROI question? How can they increase the signal-to-noise ratio in their marketing metrics even as they increase their investments in online marketing? A good place to start is by focusing on one metric, above all else: Lead Acquisition Cost…
Street Fight Daily: Beacons Retarget Ads, Mobile Wallets Eye Loyalty
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…Now Advertisers Can Use Beacons To Make The Shoes You Were Looking At Inside A Physical Store Follow You Around The Internet (Business Insider)… The Next Step for the Mobile Wallet? Loyalty Programs (Wall Street Journal)… Let’s Stop Laughing At Groupon (Fortune)…
Why Instacart’s $2 Billion Valuation Doesn’t Spell Bubble
No story has rekindled concerns about valuations like the ascent of Instacart, a local logistics firm whose recently raised $220 million at a $2 billion dollar valuation. We caught up with Instacart’s Nilam Ganenthiran to talk about how a delivery network could reshape the competitive landscape of local grocery markets…
Local Marketing a Rising Priority for National Brands
A new research microstudy commissioned by leading local marketing platform Balihoo and Gatepoint Research found that national brands across a variety of industries understand that driving consumers to locations or local agents is critical to their overall marketing strategy — and that local marketing efforts outperform national campaigns…
6 Ways SMBs Can Use Mobile to Reach Targeted Audiences
Whether or not a mobile campaign proves successful for a small business hinges less on the content of the campaign than on whether the right audience is being targeted. In many cases, it’s up to hyperlocal vendors to educate SMB clients about the possibilities in mobile audience targeting. Here are six takeaways that vendors should focus on in those discussions…
Street Fight Daily: Expedia Buys Travelocity, Private Equity Eyes Digital First
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Expedia Buys Travelocity, Merging Two of the Web’s Biggest Travel Sites… Cerberus, Apollo Bidding for Digital First Media (Capital New York)… For Digital, SMBs Need Somebody—and Money—to Lean On (eMarketer)…
Beyond Likes: Win Hearts with Emotional Marketing