News and Analysis
Street Fight Daily: Google Introduces ‘Ad Strength’ Metric, What Brand Marketers See in AI
TODAY IN LOCAL & DIGITAL MARKETING… Google Introduces ‘Ad Strength,’ New Metric to Assess Relevance of Ad Copy… Survey: Multi-Location Brands Warm to AI, See It as Most Useful for Email… Tech Industry Pursues a Federal Privacy Law on Its Own Terms…
As ‘Near Me’ Searches Spread on Mobile, Consumers Trade Loyalty for Convenience
Location marketing is changing the way people shop in the real world, potentially decreasing the role loyalty plays in purchasing decisions as consumers prioritize convenience. According to the results of a new study commissioned by the location marketing platform Uberall, 82% of shoppers have done a “near me” search on their smartphones.
Street Fight Daily: Facebook’s Latest Shot at Local, Mobile Search Habits May Undermine Loyalty
TODAY IN LOCAL & DIGITAL MARKETING… Facebook Takes a Stab at Local—Again… As ‘Near Me’ Searches Spread on Mobile, Consumers Trade Loyalty for Convenience… Google Might Be Hiding the Fact That Its Own Reviews Are Shoddy…
Commentary
How the Local Web Is Helping Neighbors Connect and Build Community
We are at the cusp of being able to solve the “last mile” problem, largely because with mobile devices we are nearing 100% access and interoperability. There are three key areas where we can make a big difference, right in our local community, with the types of information available to enrich our local lives: government; commerce and community…
Why ‘Google My Business’ Helps, But Doesn’t Fix, Local for SMBs
The company’s redesign of its SMB portal replaces both the old Google Places for Business interface and the equivalent within Google+, and consolidates several features into a friendlier interface. The features for the most part are not new, but the update does a good job of tying together the claiming and profile management process with Google+ sharing…
Mobile’s Increasingly Strong Influence in Consumer Purchase Decisions
The third annual installment of the xAd/Telmetrics Mobile Path-to-Purchase study shows that mobile is a powerful force throughout the consumer purchase cycle. Consumers are spending more research time on their mobile devices than on their PCs, and more than one-third of mobile users use their devices exclusively to research purchases…
Latest Posts
New Report Suggests Brands Remain Ambivalent About Local Search
A new Forrester report suggests that a large swath of national marketers still struggle to understand the role of local search in a national marketing strategy. The complexity of the local search industry, the report argues, has created unnecessary barriers for large marketers to invest in both paid and organic search initiatives…
Changelane Offers an Oil Change in an App
Bringing a car in for a tune-up or oil change is hardly on anyone’s list of favorite things to do. Changelane, a Minneapolis–based startup, aims to take the pain out of car maintenance by bringing mechanics, or technicians as Changelane calls them, to car owners…
Street Fight Daily: Yelp’s New Business App, Foursquare on the iPad
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…… Yelp Introduces New App For Business Owners With Push Notifications (Marketing Land)… Foursquare’s iPad App Is Finally Here (Mashable)… Uber Responds to Senator Franken’s Privacy Concerns (New York Times)…
Social Studies: Are ‘Follows’ and ‘Likes’ Right for All SMBs?
Social media simply isn’t right for the vast majority of local businesses. Even with its extremely low out-of-pocket-costs, social marketing takes a tremendous amount of ongoing effort and diligence to have any hope of generating what a local business would consider to be results…
Handicapping 2015’s Mobile-Local Happenings: 5 Areas to Watch
At the crest of a new year, several trends signal what we can expect to see in mobile and location-based media. Next year we’ll see the mobile ad market continue to grow, we’ll see local continue to be Uber-fied, and we’ll see mobile social sharing go local as well…
Street Fight Daily: Facebook Dumps Bing, Consolidation in Ad Tech
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Facebook Dumps Bing, Will Introduce Its Own Search Tool (TechCrunch)… 2014 Was an M&A Bonanza for the Ad Tech World (Wall Street Journal)… Tech’s Push To “Disrupt” Workers Is A Legal & Social Timebomb (GigaOm)…
Case Study: How a Hardware Store Measures Hyperlocal Marketing Success
From flash sales and local delivery, to social promotions, email marketing, text message customer service, and even print newsletters, Cole Hardware uses it all. The San Francisco hardware store takes a more-is-more approach to hyperlocal marketing…
Communicating With Mobile Consumers in the ‘Experience Age’
In 2015, the customer experience will be more critical than ever before, as consumers’ attention spans continue to shorten. Brands must engage consumers in the most personal, relevant and timely fashion to grab their attention…
LBMA Podcast: Snapchat’s Geofilters, Vistar Media CEO
On the show: Barclay’s Bank enlists beacons to help customers with disabilities; Girl Scouts launch their cookie-finder app; Proxama + Exterion bring beacons to the bus; Location Guard for FireFox;Target + Google’s Art Copy & code program…
Street Fight Daily: Comcast Expands Everyblock, Bing Books With TripAdvisor
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…… Comcast Expands Reach Of Hyperlocal Info Service (Multichannel)… Bing Rolls Out International Hotel Booking Feature & Updates Mobile Search Results (Search Engine Land)… Patent Fulfilled: Apple’s new iOS 8 Location-Based Passbook (Patently Apple)…
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