Commentary
Should Local Publishers Really Try to Morph Into Marketers?
Publishers can make the transition from a publishing company to a marketing solutions company. But to do so is not just about developing a new product offering — it’s a change in the industry they are in. That doesn’t mean they can’t still have a newsroom or produce content. But it does mean content won’t be the focus…
Reputation Management: Making the Connection with Small Businesses
Now that everyone has a timeline of online activities going back several years — one that family members, prospective employers, and potential life partners are looking at and judging us by — we have all become public figures to an extent, and at the same time we’ve had to transform ourselves into hall monitors of our own online activities. So why hasn’t reputation management become a de facto part of every small business marketing plan?
Latest Posts
As Seamless Nears IPO, Search and Commerce Continue on Collision Course
Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that GrubHub Seamless had made a confidential filing for an initial public offering. The move puts the food ordering giant on a collision course with Yelp and Google as the three firms look to wrangle local consumers who increasingly expect to search, compare and buy in a single keystroke…
5 Self-Serve Deals Platforms for SMBs
Groupon has generated significant press thanks to the recent rollout of its self-serve Deal Builder, which local merchants can use to create limited-time promotions for themselves. However, the daily deals giant is hardly the only vendor offering this type of service to SMBs. For years, a number of hyperlocal vendors have been providing self-service solutions to SMBs…
Street Fight Daily: Location Analytics CEO Arrested, Mobile Commerce Heats Up
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.… Former Motionloft CEO Jon Mills Arrested By The FBI (TechCrunch)… Rapid Growth of Mobile Commerce Fuels Rash of Competing Solutions (Financial Times)… MasterCard Dives Deeper Into Mobile With In-app Payments, C-SAM Acquisition (GigaOm)…
Mobile App GoSpotCheck Helps Brands Track Effectiveness of In-Store Marketing
In-store marketing is a big business for retailers, but traditionally brands have had no way of knowing the effectiveness of the strategy until the display is packed away, and the campaign is finished. Enter GoSpotCheck, a Denver-based startup that has developed a mobile app that helps retail companies collect and share inventory and sales information in real time, and check with the promotion they paid for is up and running.
LBMA Podcast: Mobile Mixed Founder Talks SMS Marketing
Welcome to This Week in Location Based Marketing, a weekly video podcast from the Location Based Marketing Association. Top stories of the week include Sears offering curbside pickup; Virgin America’s new in-air social network; augmented reality on the bus; the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago’s interactive billboard; Localytics brings in $17M in funding; and Yahoo! partners with Yelp…
Street Fight Daily: Seamless Files for IPO, Norstrom’s Local Sales Slump
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.… GrubHub Seamless Joins the Tech IPO Crush (Wall Street Journal)… Sales at Nordstrom’s Department Stores Continue to Shrink (Wall Street Journal)… Are Companies Tracking us, or Merely “Observing” us? (Pando)…
Groupon Revenues Up, But Even Growth Disappoints the Market
Groupon reported stronger-than-expected earnings for the holiday quarter, but shares of the daily deal giant tanked in after hours trading due in part to poor first quarter guidance and concerns over declining margins. The company grew revenue by 18% from a year earlier, but it also saw double digit declines in margins decreased by as its less profitable ecommerce business continued to account for a larger portion of the wider revenue mix…
Reuters’ Salmon: Facebook and Twitter Don’t Replace Community Journalism
We all know that Facebook, Twitter and other social media are transforming news in major ways. But Reuters blogger Felix Salmon says social media — especially Facebook — aren’t just changing news as we have known it, but creating an entirely new news product that is defined by “personalization.” I went to Salmon to find out if there’s a place for community news sites in this world of personalized information…
Case Study: Hospitality Group Replaces Direct Marketing with Hyperlocal Campaigns
As mobile marketing picks up steam and consumers get more comfortable downloading branded apps on their smartphones, Wind Creek Hospitality marketing VP Michael Perhaes is becoming less reliant on direct marketing techniques for customer retention and acquisition. Although Wind Creek’s mobile apps are still new, Perhaes is already seeing response rates that are much higher than those he has achieved through email marketing alone…
Street Fight Daily: Visa, Mastercard Back NFC, Skyhook Finds an Exit
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.… MasterCard, Visa back smartphone payment (Financial Times)… In Mobile Location Tie-Up, Skyhook Wireless Sold to TruePosition (Recode)… Why the Web’s Biggest Players are Gobbling up Location-based Apps (Digiday)…
Beyond Likes: Win Hearts with Emotional Marketing