News and Analysis
Report: 34% of Ad Impressions Placed on Low-Quality Sites
Reputable brands have pushed back hard against having their ads appear alongside content that goes against their values—for example, advertising running alongside articles or videos about how to complete the Tide PODS challenge—but Gartner L2’s research shows that the pushback hasn’t been effective enough, and the industry still has work to do.
Street Fight Daily: Facebook Releases Slew of Local Features, Here Challenges Google Maps
TODAY IN LOCAL & DIGITAL MARKETING… Facebook Announces Slew of Changes to Boost Local Businesses… Here Attacks Google Maps with New Freemium Website Plan… Alexa Users Are Reportedly Not Buying Anything with Their Voice…
5 Things to Know About Amazon’s Fast-Growing Ad Biz
Search “Amazon advertising,” and the first webpage you’ll find comes from the e-commerce giant itself. The pitch? In a phrase: “Reach millions of customers who find, discover, and buy at Amazon.” It doesn’t get much more compelling than that. Here are five things you need to know about the most legitimate challenge to Google and Facebook’s digital ad dominance.
Commentary
Apple’s Next Trick: Making the Retail POS Disappear
The idea is to enable shoppers to conduct roving transactions throughout retail stores by scanning items with their iPhones, paying on the spot via iTunes then going on their way. No checkout aisles, no gum-snapping shopgirl, no 15 items or less. It creates a world where the mobile device is the POS…
Consolidation Watch — Where to Look for Deals in Local Tech
The first half of 2013 saw total investment activity, which includes both M&A and private financing, grow from a year earlier, as the number of deals stayed flat but total reported deal value jumped from $5.2 billion to $7.2 billion over the same period. Expect to see more deals — both large and small — in the local space as big firms search for a foothold in the industry and host of maturing startups look for the exit…
Is Guest Blogging Dead? Focus on These Link Building Strategies Instead
While guest blogging used to be a respected link building practice – and still might be okay in some instances – it is now often considered a violation of Google’s quality guidelines. And in the future, Google could penalize websites that accept guest posts if Google believes the business is attempting to gain links without truly earning them. Instead of placing all of your eggs in the guest blogging basket, it is best to focus on authentic link building. Here’s how…
Latest Posts
30A.com Is More Than a Website — It’s a ‘Brand’ for the Laid Back
Mike Ragsdale’s 30A.com, serving the Gulf Coast beach communities of Santa Rosa in Northwest Florida, is much more than a website. It’s an “international brand” that includes a digital radio station and a retail operation that sells everything from to T-shirts to beach chairs to beer…
Street Fight Daily: Google Redesigns Maps, Walmart Searches Inside
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…… Google Maps gets better integration with Uber and OpenTable (Mashable)… Walmart Brings Product Search To The In-Store Experience (Search Engine Land)… Amazon Tries Out Taxi Deliveries In California Cities (CNBC)…
In Building Local Marketplaces, a Choice of Chicken or Egg
The success of Uber and Airbnb have spawned a deluge of startups that have replicated the on-demand marketplace model across a range of verticals. But developing marketplaces locally requires a deft approach to scale that balances a network’s need for liquidity with a startup’s desire for growth…
Investors Bet on Rethinking Old Categories — Not Creating New Ones
During a panel at Street Fight Summit in New York Tuesday, Tige Savage, managing partner at Revolution Ventures, and Dave Ambrose, managing director at Steadfast Venture Capital joined Guardian’s east coast tech editor Dominic Rushe to discuss the growing opportunities — and future challenges — in rethinking traditionally local businesses…
Is Your MVP a Minimum Viable Channel?
“Just because you have product/market fit, don’t raise money until you have validated your channel,” said Closely CEO Perry Evans. “We might have been able to be a successful business — but we shouldn’t have been a business that took venture capital. We couldn’t produce the return the VCs needed.”
Five Hyperlocal Startups to Watch
At the Street Fight Summit on Tuesday afternoon, startup investor and mentor Laurel Touby quizzed five founders about their plans for world domination and developing a viable business model to support it. Here’s what we learned…
Street Fight Daily: Groupon’s Wine Label, Porch Keeps Growing
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…… Groupon Uncorks Its Own Wine Label (Chicago Business Journal)… Can Porch.com Become LinkedIn For Your House? (Fortune)… For Location-Tracking Startup, a Data-Privacy Odyssey (Wall Street Journal)…
The Rise of Marketing Automation in Local’s Next Act
Marketing automation isn’t just for the biggest companies in the world anymore. Thanks to companies like Booker, Signpost, Shopkeep, and others, small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) have access to the data and the tools to reach their customers in smart, efficient ways while minimizing the hassle on the backend…
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…
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)…
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