News and Analysis
Boosted by Fresh Funding, PebblePost Gives Snail Mail a Programmatic Upgrade
Programmatic in the digital world promises marketers the right person and message at the right time and price. “We’re taking that technology, and then applying it not to re-serving digital ads through a DSP, but serving ads into a consumer’s mailbox,” said PebblePost Chief Growth Officer Geoff Dodge.
Street Fight Daily: Adobe Reportedly in Talks to Buy Marketo, Walmart Rebrands E-Commerce Effort
TODAY IN LOCAL & DIGITAL MARKETING AND MEDIA… Adobe in Talks to Buy Marketing Software Firm Marketo… Boosted by Fresh Funding, PebblePost Gives Snail Mail a Programmatic Upgrade… Walmart Goes After City Folk with Rebrand of Jet.com…
Street Fight Daily: Some Marketers Troubled as Google Automation Mounts, How Brands Can Localize
TODAY IN LOCAL & DIGITAL MARKETING AND MEDIA… As Response Display Becomes Default, Some Marketers Push Back on Automation… How Brands Can Create Personalized Experiences for Each Local Market… Amazon Is Stuffing Its Search Results Pages with Ads…
Commentary
Interconnectivity and the Mobile Mind Shift
We hear a lot these days about the massive transition in consumer attention from desktop to mobile devices. That transition is an undeniable reality, but it would be a mistake to assume that it’s just about mobile devices themselves. What the smartphone has done is to enable a change in mental attitude when it comes to the use and consumption of online services…
5 Tips for the Aspiring Hyperlocal Publisher
Although the business — and consumption — of journalism continues to evolve, its health certainly seems much more robust than it was five years ago. This is particularly true at a hyperlocal level. Yet at the same time some constants remain. In particular, issues around funding — and sustainability — continue to remain one of the sector’s biggest challenges…
Why Mobile Marketing Isn’t a Fit for Every SMB
Small businesses are being bombarded by marketing programs that promise to deliver calls, customers, and sales right from a prospect’s cell phone. But the facts on the ground indicate that mobile marketing is, at best, a mixed bag so far for most small businesses…
Latest Posts
CEO Says Yelp Is at ‘Peak Desktop’ — Is It Also Nearing Peak Growth?
Yelp posted its first-ever annual profit Thursday, but sluggish user growth sent shares of the reviews company tumbling in after-hours trading. As much as Yelp may want to rid itself of its dependency on Google, the search giant has provided a critical platform for it to grow its user base…
Grubhub Has Made Its Biggest Move Since the Seamless Merger
In the most important move since its merger with Seamless, Grubhub has acquired two delivery companies in an effort to build its own delivery network. The move marks a transition in strategy…
Marchex: Marketers Spent $4B on Mobile Search Ads To Drive Calls In 2014
Mobile advertising technology company Marchex is trying to close the massive attribution gap for marketers who spent $4 billion in 2014 to drive phone calls through click-to-call ads — yet had no way to know which keywords produced the calls…
Marketers Know Even More About Offline Behavior Than You Think
An explosion of cloud-connected devices is spawning a new dataset of offline behaviors — what we called local data — that could help local marketers, sellers and economies better compete with the ecommerce industry…
Street Fight Daily: Twitter Courts Small Business, Apple Eyes Search
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Twitter Seeks To Prove Value For Smaller Advertisers (AdExchanger)… Apple May Be About To Take On Google With Its Own Search Engine (Cult of Mac)… Groupon in Talks to Sell Majority Stake in Ticket Monster (Wall Street Journal)…
Study: Mobile’s Data Problem Is Getting Worse
In the mobile advertising industry, where data is harder to come by, location data has emerged as a pricey asset. But a new report from Thinknear suggests that the quality of the location data on major exchanges is actually on the decline…
How Bad Local Data Leads to Bad Calls — And Frustrated Customers
In a pay-per-call campaign, quality and accuracy are king. Bad data results in dead-end leads for marketers, and keeps businesses from reaching the true targets of their campaigns. Here are some techniques for optimizing pay-per-call success…
PlaceIQ Opens Up Mobile Advertising Data to Agencies
For years, mobile advertising firms have promised brands an opportunity to target their customers in the real world. Now mobile advertising startup PlaceIQ wants to help marketers better understand that behavior before a campaign starts and how it changes after the run is finished…
Street Fight Daily: Yahoo Spins Off Small Business, Groupon Founder’s New Startup
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Yahoo To Spin Off Small Business Unit With Alibaba Stake (Quartz)… Groupon Founder’s New App Offers Awesome GPS Walking Tours (Wired)… Gannett: More Digital Acquisitions (NetNewsCheck)…
How Mobile Has Reshaped Google’s Product Strategy For SMBs
James Croom, the head of marketing for Google My Business, spoke with Street Fight recently about why he believes small business adoption of the web has been slower than expected, and what he’s learned about building products for merchants..
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Meta Is Automating Ads, But Brands Still Face a Bigger Problem