News and Analysis
FreshLime CEO Talks Data-Powered Marketing for Local Businesses
FreshLime founder and CEO Jay Bean recently reconnected with us to discuss ways small, local, service-oriented businesses can use automation to see better returns on campaigns—even with limited resources.
Street Fight Daily: Mixed Numbers on Future of M-Commerce, Uber Expands Its Vision
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Fewer Surveyed Consumers Indicate Buying on Mobile Phones in 2017 than in 2016… Uber CEO Outlines Expanded Mobility Plans… Walmart Joins Forces With Postmates to Combat Amazon…
A Major Domain Sale Suggests Primacy of Search in Future of MarTech
With search now driving more website traffic than social, John Pollard of Donuts Inc. believes the acquisition of Vacation.Rentals is representative of the importance of not only keywords but also domain names for businesses hoping to capture customers’ attention via SEO.
Commentary
Giving National Campaigns a Local Edge
By developing a highly-customized local digital advertising strategy that complements existing campaigns, retailers and brands can consistently and effectively drive sales that help to increase revenue and create a more personal relationship with customers…
Tribune Hands Off TribLocal to Data-Rich Journatic
Old-media Tribune Company’s decision to invest in new-media startup Journatic, and let the fast growing content production company take over operations – but not ownership – of its TribLocal hyperlocal network, isn’t just about cost-cutting. Journatic has the resources and — just as important — the vision to use data to drive editorial content, all the way down to the neighborhood level…
Prescription for Patch: Become an All-in-One SMB Marketing Solution
There is a real opportunity to offer businesses a service that bundles together as many online promotional vehicles as possible into a simple, low-cost package that makes it easy for them to communicate with their customers. If Patch decided to go this route, the company would be well-positioned to make the service work. Unlike other local start-ups, it has the resources to build this kind of integrated system…
Latest Posts
Why HouseCall Thinks Taxi Apps Are Just The Tip Of The Iceberg
Last year, four engineers from Qualcomm, who were responsible for the company’s location sensor product Gimbal, left the company to start HouseCall, a system that helps users find and book local providers who service home-related projects like plumbing or audio/visual installation. The company has built a similar marketplace model as Seamless in the food delivery sector, providing enterprise software for free to merchants and then selling leads generated by its consumer product…
5 Platforms For Location Data Analysis
Location data analysis platforms track the spatial behavior of consumers based on previous ad exposures. Although competing platforms work slightly differently from one another, each with its own features and limitations, the overall effect is that marketers can finally determine whether mobile ad exposures are actually luring customers inside their physical stores. Here are five examples of platforms that marketers can use for location data analysis…
Street Fight Daily: Cox Buys Back Stake In AutoTrader, LivingSocial Sells Groupon Stock
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.… Cox to Buy Back Stake in AutoTrader (Wall Street Journal)… LivingSocial Selling its Groupon Stock (Chicago Tribune)… No Mention of Patch in AOL Chief Executive’s End-of-Year Memo (Romenesko)…
How Community News Sites Can Get the Most Out of Facebook
To get specific about how publishers can maximize their presence on the biggest social media platform, I went to Jake Batsell, who is writing a forthcoming book on audience engagement. Here’s what he told me, based on more than a hundred interviews and visits to many old and new media community news operations…
Openings and New Hires at Whitepages, Advance Digital, LocalBlox & Topix
Every two weeks, Search Influence’s Kelly Benish — who knows practically everyone in hyperlocal — covers some of the latest job changes taking place in this dynamic industry. In this week’s edition, new hires and jobs at AT&T, VendAsta, LinkedIn, AOL, and more…
LBMA Podcast: 10,000 Predictions for 2014
In this week’s episode, hosts Rob Woodbridge and Asif Khan take a look back at their 2013 predictions and forecast what is to come in 2014 including the companies we feel will flare and falter…
Street Fight Daily: Groupon’s Big Acquisition Closes, Shopify Revamps iOS App
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.… Groupon Finalizes $260 Million Deal for Ticket Monster, LivingSocial’s Korean Business (Recode)… Uber Driver Hits, Kills Six-year-old Girl. Is “Not our Problem” Still an Appropriate Response? (Pando)… Shopify Revamps Its iOS App With A Focus On Payments And Store Management (TechCrunch)…
Google’s Local Social Conundrum
Google’s attempt at ushering in the Facebook-ization of search, local and otherwise, depends on a major shift in perception and engagement. It may be difficult to bring about such a shift with a “build it and they will come” approach — given the current volume of content, the emphasis on social turns Google’s rich local result set into a desert.
5 Ways to Help SMBs Measure the Value of a Hyperlocal Campaign
Nearly half of merchants surveyed in Street Fight’s “2013 Report on the State of the Local Merchant” said uncertainty about results was the single largest obstacle preventing them from investing more in hyperlocal channels. When vendors make it easier for merchants to evaluate the performance of their products, they increase the chances that satisfied clients will stick around for a longer period of time. Here are five strategies vendors can use to help clients quantify the value of hyperlocal…
Street Fight Daily: Yelp Hits The Hill, Google Kills Another Local App
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.… Yelp Lobbying on Patent, Copyright Reform (The Hill)… Google to Discontinue Schemer, the Goal-Sharing Service That Time Forgot (VentureBeat)… AP New Year’s Eve Photos Appear on Digital Billboards (Poynter)…
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Meta Is Automating Ads, But Brands Still Face a Bigger Problem