The Leading in Local: SMB Digital Marketing event in Austin Sept. 11-13 is now mostly completed -- and it is looking really, really good. Many of the industry’s top executives have committed to participating, including leaders from top new media…
Can coupons be reimagined to spur more consumer engagement? That’s what DataSphere is working on. The Seattle-based company sells and hosts marketing solutions to more than 20,000 SMBs under local TV and newspaper brands owned by Gannett, Belo, Raycom, Meredith…
One of the more common debates in SMB digital marketing revolves around the DIY vs. DIFM dilemma. Is it realistic for a service provider to hand over its tech platform to a small merchant, or is high-level "done for you"…
Apple finally made some moves into the local mapping wars last week with the purchase of Locationary, which helps find business locations, and HopStop, which provides transit maps and travel suggestions. We'll go out on a limb and predict that…
Sometimes there is no substitute for dropping in on industry leaders to exchange ideas and specifically, to find out how their efforts relate to yours. That's what our friends at The Local Media Association have been doing the last few…
The transition from one-off daily deals to an 'always on' loyalty/rewards platform that keeps merchants in the fold has been a Holy Grail of sorts for the deals companies. This was the case for Groupon Rewards, which launched in May…
Traditional media's rush into digital marketing services as an incremental revenue source is in full swing, with Hearst LocalEdge, GateHouse Media's Propel, Digital First's AdTaxi and GannettLocal among those taking aggressive stakes in the opportunity. Now smaller publishers are seeking…
Fast, efficient service leads has been a goal of numerous companies since the commercialization of the Internet. Richard Rosen and his team at FastCall411 pioneered the space seven or eight years ago, although their service was initially limited to hiring…
ReachLocal is now largely focused on providing integrated marketing solutions, including search, retargeting, promotions and process management. As part of this effort, it has also introduced three new brands: ReachCommerce, a process management service; RealLocal Edge, a lead conversion service;…
The daily deals business isn't dead, but it isn't growing either. At this point, they aren't the anchor for SMB digital solutions that had been hoped. The question is whether more sustainable loyalty and rewards programs - many putting their…
You want vision? LevelUp CEO Seth Priebatsch says his loyalty/transaction marketing company will emerge as a partner for SMBs -- think authentication; orders and refunds; and analytics -- in the same way that Facebook Connect is a partner for media…
Is email still the anchor for customer engagement, given the rise of mobile, social media, texting, websites and big data? With people joking that they don’t even know what email is, you have to wonder. ExactTarget, which specializes in email…
Late last week I had the chance to talk to Telmetrics president and newly minted LSA chairman Bill Dinan about the newest installment of the influential Path to Purchase (PtoP) series. This one zeroes in on the travel vertical and specifically…
Yesterday, BIA/Kelsey issued its annual Global Yellow Pages Forecast, which predicts the industry worldwide would erode at a 4.1% CAGR through 2017. While this forecast may seem bleak, this pace of erosion marks an improvement over the prior five year.…
As traditional local media players begin to lose some of their prominence, the search for alternative local sales channels has become increasingly important. The channel currently being explored: payment processors, which normally focus on selling Point of Sales systems. Processors…
We’re all ready for the next big turning point in local: and to us, it all begins and ends with the SMB market. Just this week, Facebook announced its one millionth SMB advertiser. We’ll be diving deep into digital marketing…
BIA/Kelsey has just released Media Ad View Plus. For those unfamiliar, it builds on our forecast data (example) among other sources, to calculate local media ad spending by category across U.S. ad markets. The starting point is the $132.5 billion…
Digital media services provider vSplash has made inroads with both newspaper and directory/local search organizations with its BuzzBoard sales productivity tool. vSplash is widely known for its website production capabilities, as well as its voluminous data on small-business digital presence,…
With the exception of efforts like AOL’s Patch and New England’s GoLocal24, “Hyperlocal” has really moved away from its initial focus on neighborhood journalism to more of a focus on geo-targeted advertising and commerce. Redefined this way, there’s a lot…
Last month I presented to the International Franchise Association "Fran Camp" conference in Atlanta. To capture and prepare for the presentation, I recorded some of the slides and audio which you can see in the video embedded below. The point…
