Commentary
Mobile Is Huge — But Two Key Elements Could Slow Its Growth
We in the media think we’re in the information business, when the reality is that we’re very much in the advertising business, and advertising is in disruption right now. In their effort to influence and produce results, marketers are simply unable to demonstrate even a modicum of restraint when it comes to the line between useful and nuisance.
Is Content King in Local Too?
In the pantheon of buzzwords overtaking pitch decks and CMO-speak, “content marketing” is the new darling. The term has legitimate grounding to be fair, but like “long tail” and “web 2.0” in days past, its overuse precedes it. Content marketing also isn’t anything new — it’s been done for years, albeit under the ethically challenged “advertorial” rubric among other flavors. Now it’s new, improved, and hitched to en vogue terms like “native.”
Calculating the ROI of Local Search Campaigns
How can we calculate just how much return a given business can expect on the investment of time, money, or both into a local search campaign? For many business owners, it’s that type of dollars and cents calculation that will drive them to decide whether or not to move forward with a campaign. Other metrics are important but ultimately secondary to the bottom line…
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Street Fight Daily: FiveStars Raises $26M, Postal Service Eyes Grocery Delivery
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Fivestars Raises $26m to Build Up its Digital Loyalty Program (GigaOm)… Postal Service Seeks to Extend Grocery Deliveries (Wall Street Journal)… The Newsonomics of Auctioning Off Digital First’s Newspapers (Nieman Journalism Lab)…
Will Local Media Consortium Save Lee From Knife’s Edge?
Lee Enterprises is meeting its Chapter 11 debt obligations, recently stretched out debt payments at lower interest, and has cut expenses by $285 million — albeit at cost to editorial quality at the local and community levels. But with the company likely having done much of the cost cutting available, the pressure is on to keep increasing digital ad revenues…
5 Local Marketplaces for Housecleaners
Marketplaces aimed at providing consumers with easy ways to quickly find and book local housecleaners and home services providers are heating up, with frontrunners like Handy and Homejoy enjoying major investments from well-known venture firms like Revolution (led by AOL co-founder Steve Case and Groupon chairman Ted Leonisis), Google Ventures, and Redpoint Ventures. Here are […]
Street Fight Daily: Pro.com Raises Another $14M, Uber Talks to Regulators
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Bezos-Backed Pro.com Raises Another $14 Million to Help Renovate Your Home (Businessweek)… Uber Open to ‘Debate’ With European Regulators Over Ride-Sharing Rules (Wall Street Journal)… Bringing Tablets To Restaurant Tables Nationwide Nets E la Carte $35 Million (TechCrunch)…
In Navigating Supply and Demand, Groupon Hopes for New Life
During a presentation at BIA/Kelsey’s Leading in Local event in New Orleans Tuesday, Dan Roarty, vice president of local commerce at Groupon, positioned the company’s deal marketplace as one part of a much more ambitious effort to create a platform that connects local supply and local demand well-beyond the confines of an email blast…
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…
Street Fight Daily: Clinkle Finally Launches, Ron Johnson’s New Startup
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Clinkle Finally Launches Its Payments Service (But Not The One Originally Promised) (GigaOm)… Former Apple Exec, J.C. Penney CEO to Launch Delivery Startup (Business Insider)… Macy’s Aims to Become Retail Tech Powerhouse With Latest Moves (Fortune)…
Yellow Pages Publisher Acquires LocalVox
TBC Holdings, the parent company of The Berry Company, announced earlier today the purchase of NYC-based LocalVox Media. LocalVox, which provides a wide range of marketing software platforms designed specifically for local and hyperlocal marketing, sees the deal as an opportunity to become the go-to app for hyperlocal marketers from coast to coast…
Five Lessons Google Learned About Selling to Small Businesses
For Google, the shift to mobile presents an opportunity to learn from mistakes made during the desktop internet boom. James Croom, head of marketing for the project, has spent five years in the company’s small business team. He said Monday that the company’s new Google My Business project builds on some learnings from the company’s Get Your Business Online effort launched in 2009 to drive business across the world to build websites…
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