Case Study: Reliability in New Scheduling Platform Helps Chicago Salon Maintain Buzz
Online scheduling platforms are supposed to save merchants time by automating client bookings, cancellations, reminders, and even payment collection. But when merchants stop trusting their own scheduling platforms, and start verifying individual bookings for accuracy, the benefits of online-only systems go out the window. For an exclusive Chicago salon, switching things up helped maintain buzz and business.
Street Fight Daily: Facebook’s New Retail Features, Local Mobile Ad Spend to Reach $6.5 Billion by 2019
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Facebook Woos Retailers and Shoppers Alike with New Features (Gigaom)… Mobile Spend by Local Advertisers Forecast to Hit $6.5B by 2019 (MediaPost)… Security, Data Breaches Slow Down Mobile Payments Adoption (eMarketer)…
Street Fight Daily: More Google Searches on Mobile Than Desktop, Twitter’s New Video Ad Model
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Mobile Searches Surpass Desktop Searches at Google (TechCrunch)… Video Ads Could Become Twitter’s Biggest Cash Cow Yet (The Next Web)… DuckDuckGo CEO Calls out Google and Says It’s a ‘Myth You Need to Track People to Make Money’ (Business Insider)…
Online Reviews Providing Insights That Help Brands Compete
The evidence is in. Reviews on social media have a material impact on the capital investments made by nationwide brands. The key is strength in numbers: A national brand will be more likely to have the critical mass of reviews required in order to move beyond anecdotal evidence and glean statistically significant results.
Report: Getting the Most out of Hyperlocal Social Media Marketing
A new report from Street Fight Insights found that many local businesses don’t feel they’re getting return on their social media efforts. That’s in spite of the fact that two-thirds of them are using social media for marketing, and many plan to increase their efforts. Companies in the connected local economy value chain looking to best serve merchants should supply them with tools and services to measure the impact and efficiency of their social media marketing programs.
Street Fight Daily: The Future of Search, Button’s Big Mobile Commerce Partnerships
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Looking Ahead: The New Search Landscape (Search Engine Land)… Mobile Startup Button Inks Airbnb, Ticketmaster Deals to Link Bookings to Other Apps (Recode)… Microsoft’s New Windows Phone App Lets You Recommend Home Maintenance Services to Friends (The Next Web)…
Street Fight Daily: Facebook Wants Your TV Ad Budget, Are Ad Blockers ‘Highway Robbers?’
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Why Sheryl Sandberg Says Big Brands Should Spend Their TV Ad Budgets on Facebook (Adweek)… Ad Blocking Companies Are Like Highway Robbers, IAB Says (Wall Street Journal)… Instacart Hires Its First CFO (TechCrunch)…
Case Study: Coffee Shop Leverages Dayparting to Perk Up Afternoon Lull
Walk into any coffee shop in the late afternoon and you probably won’t have a problem finding an open table. That afternoon lull can be tough to overcome. At Sunshine Coffee Roasters in Northern California, owner Mike Doherty’s approach adds a shot of technology to established customer outreach tactics. He relies on his cloud-based POS system, ShopKeep, for the majority of his promotional work and business management.
Street Fight Daily: Goldman Sachs’ Advertising Report, App Search Company Tests Mobile Ads
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Goldman Sachs: Online Advertising About to Be ‘Fundamentally Restructured’ by Apple, Google, and Facebook (Business Insider)… App Search Engine Quixey Now Taking a Crack at Mobile Ads (Recode)… Shopify Partners with U.S. Postal Service to Woo More Retailers (Reuters)…
Street Fight Daily: Groupon Will Cut 1,100 Jobs, LivingSocial is Planning a Comeback
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Groupon to Cut 1,100 Jobs, Pull Out of 7 Countries (Chicago Tribune)… The Resurrection of LivingSocial (DCInno)… The Commoditization of Ad Tech — How the Cross-Device Landscape is Going to Get Worse Before It Gets Better (Medium)…
Street Fight Daily: Starbucks Launches Mobile Ordering, a Recap of Google’s Local Search Updates
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Never Wait in Line Again: Starbucks Rolls Out Mobile Ordering Nationwide (Mashable)… The New Google Local Search Display (Search Engine Land)… Postmates Unveils Revamped Platform, Announces 4 Million Deliveries (TechCrunch)…
Did Apple Just Solve Deep Linking?
One of the coolest things to come out Apple’s September product event was 3D Touch, which lets users indicate levels of intent based on how hard they press apps and links. Beyond the gadgetry of 3D Touch, one thing hasn’t been said: This is essentially deep linking, an area that will be a key battleground in local. 3D Touch could preempt the deep linking dilemma by peeking deep within other apps — a lighter and more elegant solution I’m calling “deep previewing.”
Street Fight Daily: Understanding the Decline of Search, Ad Blocking App Creator’s Second Thoughts
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google’s Search Business Might Not Be as Water-Tight as People Think (Business Insider)…The Creator of the iPhone’s Top-Selling Ad Blocker Pulled His App off the Market (AdWeek)… Target Wants to Turn Minneapolis into a Mini-Silicon Valley (Fortune)…
Street Fight Daily: Shopify Seizes on Facebook Updates, 56% of Millennials Expect Same-Day Shipping
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Shopify Opens Door for More Shopping on Facebook (Marketing Land)… If You Don’t Offer Same-Day Shipping, You’re Pissing Off 56 Percent of Millennials (Recode)… The Web-Tracking Tipping Point (TechCrunch)…
Street Fight Daily: Facebook’s Sandberg on SMBs, Etsy Will Try Same-Day Delivery
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Sheryl Sandberg: Facebook Pages Are Mobile Presence for Small Businesses (Wall Street Journal)… Etsy Will Test Same-Day Delivery Option in New York City (Recode)… Google, Twitter, and Publishers Seek Faster Web (New York Times)…
ironSource’s Cunningham: You Need Every Data Set at Your Disposal to Compete with Facebook and Google
“In today’s ecosystem, there’s no fooling around anymore. You have some serious players taking 80 or 90 percent of the share, and the only way that you’re ever going to compete is with scale, targeting, a large user base, and product capabilities that can command real budgets,” said ironSource head of mobile and global brand partnerships Chris Cunningham about ad-tech consolidation.
Street Fight Daily: Google Introduces Android Pay, Foursquare Wants to ‘Fake’ Beacon Tech
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Android Pay Is Finally Here (Huffington Post)… Dennis Crowley Explains Foursquare’s New ‘Magic Trick’ (Business Insider)… Uber’s Chinese Rival Quietly Backs Its U.S. Rival Lyft (Wall Street Journal)…
Street Fight Daily: Google Will Test Grocery Delivery, How Facebook’s Pages Update Affects SMBs
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Becomes a Rival to Amazon to Deliver Your Fresh Fruits and Veggies (Mashable)… Facebook Update Means More Shopping Pages Are on the Way (Recode)… Amazon Launches a Food Delivery Service Via Prime Now, Starting in Seattle (TechCrunch)…
Connecting the Local-Mobile Economy, One Step at a Time
Hyperlocal, mobile, on-demand contextual commerce enabled by buy buttons within mobile apps — that’s the new string of buzzwords making the rounds at industry conferences. The market reality: It’s going to take a while for this string to play out in the connected local economy. A key reason is that even as mobile disrupts search, most marketers and merchants can’t expect to get their own app on a majority of users’ home screens.