Commentary
Phone Leads for Local Businesses: The Unsexy Cousin of the Click
We’re seeing tech and media worlds finally come around to what we’ve been saying for years: phone calls are what businesses want. That’s especially true in high-value categories like professional services, autos, travel and insurance. Clicks and impressions, despite a sexier image, aren’t as valued in lots of cases…
Is Newspapers’ Falling Knife Finally Starting to Rise?
Wall Street thinks the long-term decline of newspaper revenues may be near bottom as print losses are close to being outweighed by consumer and digital revenue increases. With Warren Buffet and Jeff Bezos buying into the industry as a long-term play, the broader financial markets are following suit. The newspaper industry is getting some of its most positive signs in years…
Google’s Local Social Conundrum
Google’s attempt at ushering in the Facebook-ization of search, local and otherwise, depends on a major shift in perception and engagement. It may be difficult to bring about such a shift with a “build it and they will come” approach — given the current volume of content, the emphasis on social turns Google’s rich local result set into a desert.
Latest Posts
Street Fight Daily: Starwood’s Keyless Entry, Square’s Brand Strategy
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…Starwood’s Keyless Entry Takes Self-Service To A New Level (GigaOm)… Square Looks to Expand its Reach Through Deals With Major Brands (The Street)… PlaceIQ Preps For Next Step, Hires Experian’s Nadya Kohl (AdExchanger)…
For Apple Pay to Thrive, Small Businesses Must Adopt
For a mobile wallet to really impact consumer behavior, its acceptance has to be ubiquitous — not just in the Targets and Macy’s of this world, but in our local bodegas, mom-and-pop shops, independent coffee shops and food trucks. You might think these businesses are a less important slice of the pie than the big-box retailers, but you’d be wrong…
Selling to SMBs: ‘Layering the Question’ to Get the Answers You Need
Sales reps should always want as much additional information about the decision-making process as they can get, because they can use that information to show value to other customers. By asking the client questions, you can obtain information about the client’s pain points, which will help you to highlight relevant benefits offered by your company…
Street Fight Daily: Starbucks’ Delivery Plans, Groupon Eyes Partners in Asia
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…Strong Brew: Starbucks Ceo Promises To Compete On Mobile Payments, Reveals On-demand Delivery Plans (Pando)… Groupon Hires Advisers To Find Partners For Asia Businessesn (Bloomberg)… Why Online Retailers Continue To Open Brick-And-Mortar Stores (TechCrunch)…
Suburban Nashville ‘Indie’ Thrives Amid Gannett Revamp at Tennessean
Five years after she co-founded an independent community news site in metro Nashville’s most affluent suburb, Kelly Gilfillan is now running — and growing — her company by herself. Gilfillan tells Street Fight how she competes with a $5.4 billion media corporation as she pursues her “indie” entrepreneurial course…
Groupon’s Local Business Bounces Back — But Is It Too Little Too Late?
Groupon beat market expectations in the third quarter, stabilizing a troubled international segment and accelerating the company’s core North American local business after three quarters of decline. But the company’s quickly growing ecommerce business continues to overshadow the small gains of the local segment…
LBMA Podcast: Interviews With Aisle411, GameStop, and Mapquest
On the show: Our wrap from RetailLoco in Chicago, plus top stories of the week — including Vistar Media’s cross-screen ad platform; John Lewis testing the Oculus Rift; The Bluesmart suitcase; AboutPlace going into beta; Whirlpool partnering with Gigwalk; and Prizm’s contextual music device…
At GrubHub, a Delicate Balance Between Search and Commerce
Next Tuesday, Grubhub’s president Jonathan Zabusky will join us for a fireside chat at Street Fight Summit in New York. We caught up with Zabusky, who served as chief executive at Seamless prior to the merger, to talk about the state of the company and the evolving local commerce opportunity…
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