News and Analysis

Street Fight Daily: A Glossary for SEO, Why Brands Favor Hybrid In-House Marketing

TODAY’S LOCAL HEADLINES… The Small Business Owner’s Guide to Conquering SEO: The Glossary… Why Brands Favor Hybrid In-House Marketing… MediaMath Has $180 Million to Spend on Acquisitions—What’s Next?…

Google Announces Machine Learning-Based Ads Designed for Foot Traffic, Attribution, Personalization

Google announced on Tuesday a suite of new machine learning-backed ad tools that promise to keep its brand partners happy at a time when digital advertising faces unprecedented brand safety concerns. Among the tools is one explicitly designed to maximize foot traffic.

Street Fight Daily: Google Announces Huge Local Ad News, How Apple Can Use Maps Rebuild to Compete in Local

CUTTING-EDGE POSSIBILITIES AND POWER PLAYS IN LOCAL… Google Announces Machine Learning-Based Ads Designed for Foot Traffic, Attribution, Personalization… 10 Ways Apple Can Rebuild Maps to Become an Innovator in Local…

Commentary

How Local Sites Can Win the War on Fake Reviews

This week Edmunds, the auto and car dealer review site, announced that it had settled a lawsuit it had filed against Humankind, a firm accused of submitting fake reviews for a fee to about a dozen review sites on behalf of businesses. Humankind was accused of creating fake user accounts and attempting to submit glowing reviews of their clients’ car dealerships. Here are some methods for to your site or app that will catch a high percentage of fake reviews…

What Will It Take to Bring All Businesses Online?

Many small businesses are claiming their Google and Bing listings, interacting with reviewers on Yelp, and using social sites like Facebook and Twitter. Inside the local bubble, it might seem as though the importance of these activities has been long established. Surely only a business stuck in the stone age would ignore the statistics we all know and love about searches with local intent, the explosion of mobile, and the critical need to be well represented in Google search results. How, then, are we to take a report showing that 52% of SMBs still don’t have a website?

Joe Trippi: Local TV’s Biennial Political Cash Bonanza Is Going to Fall Off a Cliff

In an recent interview, the presidential campaign guru told Street Fight that while it would be business as usual for broadcasters next year, 2016 would likely see the beginning of the end of TV’s dominance in political advertising: “There’s a growing number of people who get it,” he said, “that there’s a better way to deliver a more targeted and relevant message without having to buy all that broadcast reach. It’s going to come. … It’s just a matter of time and innovation.”

Latest Posts

Street Fight Daily: xAd Raises $50 Million, iWatch to Include Payments

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technologyLocation Is Everything, As Mobile Ad Startup xAd Raises $50M Led By IVP (TechCrunch)… Apple Watch to Allow Mobile Payments (Wall Street Journal)… Interpublic Invests in Mobile Measurement Company Placed (MediaPost)…

Booker Eyes New Markets, More Capital

Sixteen months ago, Bain Capital’s venture wing made a $27 million bet on Booker. Now, the company says its gearing up to raise another big round in order help propel it into a number of new appointment and class-based verticals and hold off a bevy of increasingly well-capitalized competitors…

7 Ways Loyalty Programs Can Increase Social Media Exposure

More than one-in-three small businesses now has a loyalty program in place, but that doesn’t mean that local merchants are always taking full advantage of the benefits that these hyperlocal marketing platforms can provide. Here are seven ways that businesses can use existing digital loyalty programs to help increase reach on social networks…

Street Fight Daily: Comcast Reviving Everyblock, DeliveryHero Raises $350M

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technologyComcast Bets on Hyperlocal by Reviving EveryBlock (Washington Post)… Delivery Hero, Hungry For Growth, Orders Up Another $350M In Funding (TechCrunch)… Nokia Plans to Unfurl New Mobile Map App (Wall Street Journal)…

YP Hooks Up With Goodzer to Add Services Data to Search

YP has announced a new partnership with Goodzer that will populate the company’s local search product with information about service provider offerings from the startup. It’s the latest in a series of moves by the yellow pages carve-out to rejuvenate its local search product and draw users away from Yelp and Google, as pressure continues to mount on the listings model…

As IPOs Near, Tech Takes Another Crack at Small Business

A handful of upcoming IPOs will add fuel to an already-competitive small business marketing and technology industry. But the fundamental question is how these companies slow an already rapid rate of commoditization, and “build a moat” around their businesses to hold back the next wave of startups looking to grab market share in their wake…

Street Fight Daily: Baidu Bets on Local, Court Says Yelp Doesn’t Extort

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technologyBaidu Boosts Location-based Platform With New Services, $10M Investment (Reuters)… Yelp Escapes Extortion Lawsuit Unscathed, Except For Its Reputation (Engadget)… Airbnb Under Fire for ‘Secret’ Plan to Release Users’ information (New York Post)…

6 Strategies for Creating an Effective Email Newsletter

Crafting the perfect email newsletter is both an art and a science, however there are simple things that business owners can do to ensure that the digital messages they send out aren’t being overlooked or discarded. Here are six strategies that small business owners should utilize when putting together their email marketing campaigns…

How a Pivot and Rebrand Set Aussie Company Local Measure Back on Course

Nine months ago, the Australian-based Roamz ditched its consumer business, rebranding as Local Measure to focus on a social analytics product for brands. Within five weeks of its launch, the startup signed up more than 200 companies, including Australian airline Qantas. Street Fight caught up with Local Measure VP Americas Ian Michael Farkas to talk about the company’s new direction and the company’s plan to aggressively expand across the U.S…

Street Fight Daily: Apple Partnering With Amex, Square Feeling Squeezed

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technologyApple Partnering With American Express On New iPhone Payments System (Recode)… Square Feeling Squeezed From All Sides (New York Times)… As Relaunch Hype Subsides, Will Foursquare Survive? (VentureBeat)…