Here is this week’s roundup of the top news items related to local marketing and advertising, local media, technology, local commerce, consumer behavior and more.
Insight & Commentary
Meet The Voice Marketer: Who Will Tell The Story Of Marketing’s Next Chapter? (February 21, 2018)
Forbes: “When it comes to voice search, how do brands become a digital voice assistant’s top pick at the end of a query?”
4 Ways Google’s Speed Update May Change Your Agency’s Offerings (February 20, 2018)
LSA Insider: “Whenever Google announces a new ranking factor, it’s important for digital marketing professionals to try to determine how much this factor will change how they can best serve their clients.”
Why entities may power the future of location-based data (February 20, 2018)
Search Engine Land: “Businesses with physical locations need to strengthen their entities, says Columnist Adam Dorfman — doing so helps Google track customers and strengthen your findability.”
Strategy & Tactics
How to Get Your SEO Keyword Strategy Right: Basic & Advanced Tips (February 21, 2018)
Search Engine Journal: “A modern keyword strategy can no longer just take into account the words users type into a search box.”
The rise of personal searches: How can content marketers take advantage? (February 16, 2018)
Search Engine Watch: “Providing personalized content will not always be easy, and at times users may need encouragement to spend a little longer on a page to find the personalized answer they are looking for.”
Digital Tactics To Love (February 20, 2018)
MediaPost: “According to a report by MDG Advertising, committing to specific digital tactics can be difficult for marketers.”
Stats & Studies
Study: Mobile Searches for ‘Should I’ & ‘For Me’ Have Grown Considerably (February 21, 2018)
LSA Insider: “According to a recent Think with Google report, over the last two years, mobile searches for “should I” and “for me” have grown 80 and 60 percent respectively.”
Study: 66% of Virtual Assistant Owners Say They Are Using Smartphones Less (February 20, 2018)
LSA Insider: “Based on new data from Accenture, it appears virtual assistant usage is resulting in less time spent with smartphones.”
Yelp Local Data Reveals Neighborhood Changes in Real Time (February 22, 2018)
LSA Insider: “According to a new analysis from Harvard Business School, location and local business data from digital platforms, like Yelp, offer powerful insights when it comes to ‘shedding light on the evolution of neighborhoods.’”
Industry News
Global Small Business IT Spending to Top $186 Billion in 2018 (February 19, 2018)
LSA Insider: “A new forecast from technology research firm IDC, projects that SMB IT spending will hit $600 billion in 2018 and reach nearly $700 billion by 2021 – growing at nearly 5% a year.”
Google’s AI-Driven Ad Units Preview the Future of Digital Marketing (February 21, 2018)
LSA Insider: “Yesterday Google introduced “Auto Ads” for publishers. This is an AdSense ad unit — not an ad for automobiles — that is largely automated, hence “auto.””
Getting to Know the New Google Search Console (February 21, 2018)
Business 2 Community: “While the new version of search console is in beta, the added features are definitely worth checking out.”
Member News
DialogTech Launches Easily Deployable AI Call Scoring Solution for Marketing and Sales (February 22, 2018)
DialogTech: “New Conversation Insights™ Pro makes it easy for any business that values inbound calls to harness the power of AI to analyze and score conversations for insights to immediately improve marketing and sales performance.”
iProspect CMO Belle Lenz: How Smaller Brands Can Develop A Voice Strategy (February 22, 2018)
GeoMarketing: “It’s all about creating a “useful and personalized experience that isn’t only transactional, but also delivers a great user experience consumers can’t get from a simple search or engaging online,” says Lenz.”
