News and Analysis
Street Fight Daily: QSRs Innovative With Mobile Apps, MINDBODY to Acquire Booker
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Fast-Food Brands Are Making Slick Mobile Apps to Stay Ahead of the Competition… YouTube Debuts Search-Based Video Ad Targeting… American Online Shoppers Are More Impatient Than Ever, All Thanks to Amazon….
Commentary
Why Loyalty Programs Are Broken — And How to Fix Them
The customer loyalty vertical is red-hot. Startups from Silicon Valley to Chicago are working hard to innovate in this area, and, in so doing, are revolutionizing the way brick-and-mortar businesses do business. But startups need to look beyond the simple punch-card model and expand their loyalty products to include features that will effectively influence customer behavior…
The Five Fundamentals of Deals Success for Local Media Companies
Many local media companies have not structured their daily deals programs appropriately or put the necessary resources behind them. While there is no silver bullet to guaranteed deals success, we have used our experience working with more than 400 local media companies to develop a model that breaks down the five most important factors to creating a successful deals program…
Latest Posts
Why Ecommerce Companies Are Eyeing Brick-and-Mortar Retail
Over the past year, a string of ecommerce firms have invested in brick-and-mortar locations in an attempt to cash in on local markets that still account for over 90% of retail spending in the U.S. Manish Chandra, the founder the online fashion marketplace Poshmark, says physical locations will play an important part in ecommerce strategies moving forward…
5 Hyperlocal Scheduling Platforms for the Healthcare Industry
Hyperlocal vendors are changing the way consumers navigate the healthcare industry, offering tools for finding local providers who are covered by specific insurance plans. Not only do these platforms benefit patients by providing a streamlined way to secure appointments with qualified local physicians, but they also benefit healthcare professionals by filling empty appointment slots and decreasing the percentage of no-show patients…
Street Fight Daily: Icahn Calls For PayPal Split, Groupon Boosts Hotel Product
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.… Could Square be Collateral Damage in Carl Icahn’s War on Ebay? (Quartz)… Groupon Adds 20,000 Properties To Its Hotel Feature (Skift)… Tokyo Launches Cab-Calling Mobile App (Wall Street Journal)…
Let’s Simplify and Strengthen Business Listing Verification
Verification is a great idea in theory and, once you navigate the tangled process, it even works well for most business owners in practice. However, there is very little consistency across publishers as to how the process should work or what the result should be, and there is plenty of evidence that the supposed lockdown of business data via owner verification doesn’t always operate as it should…
Case Study: Pizza Chain Uses Customer Data For Targeted Offers
At Patxi’s Pizza, a pizza chain with 12 locations in California and Colorado, marketing manager Jordana Heinke uses the purchasing data she gathers through her company’s mobile loyalty program to send highly-targeted offers to her most frequent customers. “We can immediately see changes happening with volume of interest and redemption if we change a reward,” Heinke says…
Street Fight Daily: Comcast Resurrects Everyblock, iOS in the Car
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.… Hyperlocal Website EveryBlock to be Resurrected (Chicago Tribune)… Developer activates Apple’s upcoming iOS in the Car system, shows different interface (9to5Mac)… After Rebranding, YP Names Allison Checchi CMO (Adage)…
With Perfect Information, Does ‘Awareness’ Becomes Obsolete?
In a world in which information is finite and often inaccessible, the ability for a business to be top of mind — to carve out a little spot in a consumer’s memory — was a powerful competitive advantage, and one that drove the way businesses sold goods and services to local consumers. But thanks to the rapid adoptions of mobile devices by consumers and the emergence of inexpensive cloud-based operations software, that’s changing…
Street Fight Daily: Mobile Driving Yelp’s International Growth, Mobile Ads to Hit $18B
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.… Yelp’s Stoppelman Says Mobile Boom to Aid International Growth (Bloomberg)… Mobile Ad Market Spending To Hit $18BN In 2014, Rising To ~$42BN By 2017, Says Gartner (TechCrunch)… Bike-sharing Faces Bankruptcy: Cities Withhold Money as Bixi Struggles (GigaOm)…
7 Strategies For Local Merchants Using Big Data Services
One of the biggest misconceptions about big data is that it’s only relevant for large businesses. In reality, big data services are often just as useful for local merchants on Main Street as they are for global retail chains and CPG brands. Here are seven strategies for local merchants looking to take better advantage of big data services…
Streets Ahead: GBP Data Glitch, Google Supercharges Search, Instagram Tests Insights