For the past year and a half, we have been answering questions about and consulting with our clients on sales transformation and consultative selling (see here, here and here). One of the key aspects of many of the questions we…
The deal-a-day phenomenon pioneered by Groupon has spawned direct attacks on the model from a wide variety of companies. Newspapers, social sites and others are all going at it. But how about gift card providers? Adility founder Thomas Cornelius, a…
One of the hottest topics across the tech media and blogosphere (besides iPad and Facebook updates) continues to be social location based services. It was a big theme at Twitter's seminal Chirp event, Foursquare's escalating valuation, and continued speculation over…
In a general session at YPA 2010 this morning, BIA/Kelsey's Charles Laughlin moderated an advertiser panel that featured two advertisers as well as two publisher representatives. The advertiser representatives were local Las Vegas personal injury attorney, George Bochanis, and Shannon…
In a general session at YPA 2010 this morning, BIA/Kelsey's Charles Laughlin moderated an advertiser panel that featured two advertisers as well as two publisher representatives. The advertiser representatives were local Las Vegas personal injury attorney, George Bochanis, and Shannon…
Groupon has added $135 million to its war chest, and now has raised a total of $165 million to fend off competitors in the deal-a-day space it has pioneered. The investment gives Groupon a valuation in excess of $1 billion.…
Daily deals are one of the hottest new areas for local advertising and promotions, with Groupon, Living Social and more than 150 other players rolling out their own versions. At least two companies, Click-N-Shout and Deal Current, are targeting local…
Daily deals are one of the hottest new areas for local advertising and promotions, with Groupon, Living Social and more than 150 other players rolling out their own versions. At least two companies, Click-N-Shout and Deal Current, are targeting local…
I like the “For Dummies” series a lot -- more than 1,700 different Dummies books have been published since 1991. But it never occurred to me that there could be a volume geared toward local online advertising. It occurred to…
McClatchy Co., the third-largest newspaper entity with 30 newspapers in 29 markets, including The Miami Herald and The Sacramento Bee, will aggressively target SMBs in each of its markets via an extended deal with WebVisible. The deal, per release, “will…
The San Diego Union-Tribune and the upstart San Diego News Network are launching competing “Daily Deal” products, with Facebook and Twitter accompaniments, and will try to eat into the lead in the local market that has been assumed by Groupon…
Clickable has announced that it will add support for Facebook advertising that allows its Pro users to directly compare social and search results. The effort follows initiatives by rival “search resellers” like ReachLocal, Yodle and Orange Soda to broaden their…
The Berry Co., the SMB sales giant with 260,000 SMB clients, has partnered with Yodle for Web site creation and search engine marketing and optimization. The deal gives Yodle access to Berry’s 42-state reach and 885 print publications. Yodle, which…
One of the last sessions at Marketplaces 2010 focused on what local niche or media sites can do to better leverage opportunities to grow revenues. Sitting on the panel were Tony Lee of Adicio, Ken Kalb from Analog Analytics and…
Coupons are hot in a down economy, and printable online coupons -- and even mobile coupons -- are gaining share in the coupon business. But local SMBs aren’t always in on the game, as coupon sites frequently gravitate toward one-stop…
I had the opportunity to speak with Michael Pastko, CEO of Coupious a Boulder, Colorado-based mobile coupon platform. Coupious got its start when Pastko and his partner leveraged their experience at Purdue University to launch a Coupious iPhone application in…
Citysearch announced today that it has shifted its ad model for small businesses, moving from the cost-per-click model that it pioneered several years ago to a new model that will drive consumers directly to their own Web sites. The new…
On Thursday's earnings call, DexOne (ex-R.H. Donnelley) leaders cautiously projected that the rate of decline in ad sales would improve in 2010, from being down 20 percent in 2009 to down between 12 percent and 15 percent this year. The…
Philadelphia-based 7Mainstreet cofounder Andy Leff got the idea for his company about four years ago while driving to the grocery store. "I was listening to something on the radio about the success MySpace was having with helping rock bands promote…
Self-serve ads will bring the SMB masses to the Web. But they haven’t made much of a dent in SMB advertising at this point. That hasn’t stopped a rush of new self-serve products coming out, several married to social media…
