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
B2C, B2B and CX: It’s Change or Else in the New Local Marketplace (February 23, 2018)
LSA Insider: “Customer experience (CX) is a marketing buzzword, but it’s also a real thing. Often CMOs hype their CX, but the experience “on the ground” fails to live up to the ambitious rhetoric.”
How Traditional Retailers Can Thrive in an Online World (February 27, 2018)
LSA Insider: “Although 80% of purchases are still expected to happen in-store by 2020, there’s growing uncertainty among retailers large and small about how to keep up with consumers in an increasingly digital shopping environment.”
Why You Shouldn’t Panic About Unofficial Google Updates (February 28, 2018)
Search Engine Journal: “Is Google purposely hiding what they are doing in order to protect their algorithm?”
Strategy & Tactics
Six steps to improving your local search strategy (February 28, 2018)
Search Engine Watch: “The competition between online and brick-and-mortar stores is heating up, and local search optimization can become a decisive factor in how a site ranks locally.”
Improve Your Location Marketing Game With Customer Reviews (February 27, 2018)
Adweek: “Brands, your mandate is clear: Customer reviews are integral to building trust, and the more reviews there are circulating, the better for your brand.”
6 smart e-commerce lessons to boost local business (February 26, 2018)
Search Engine Land: “With more and more people window shopping on a small screen, contributor Wesley Young shares six ways to use online tactics to drive customers to an offline store.”
Stats & Studies
Study: Websites Are Most Used Channel When Researching Products (February 28, 2018)
LSA Insider: “On average, consumers spend nearly a third of their day engaging with digital content via various devices including smartphones, laptops, tablets, etc.
Mobile Advertising Will Drive 75% Of All Digital Ad Spend In 2018: Here’s What’s Changing (February 23, 2018)
Forbes: “You could fairly convincingly argue that mobile ad spending is the one absolutely key driver of consumer technology innovation and creation today.”
Study: 11 voice search ranking factors analyzed (February 28, 2018)
Search Engine Land: “Backlinko has done an extensive analysis of “voice search ranking factors” and identified 11 variables tied to appearing in Google Home results.”
Industry News
Facebook Simplifying Ad Management Tools for ‘Everyone’ (February 26, 2018)
LSA Insider: “In an effort to simplify the advertising experience, Facebook announced that it is combining its two primary ad tools: Power Editor and Ads Manager.”
Placed Insights Provides Free Access to Location Intelligence (March 1, 2018)
LSA Insider: “Mobile location data was originally discussed in the limited context of real-time geofencing. Over the past several years, however, location has become a versatile tool for all kinds of uses.”
Facebook Expands Small Business Hiring Tool to 40+ Countries (March 1, 2018)
LSA Insider: “To help small businesses with the hiring process, Facebook announced its “Jobs” tool connected with Facebook Pages roughly a year ago in the U.S. and Canada.”
Member News
Yext Launches New Preferred Partner Program (March 1, 2018)
Cision: “The Preferred Partner Program makes it easy for agencies to offer Yext’s Digital Knowledge Management technology as part of a holistic marketing solution for their clients, gaining access to tiered benefits to fuel agency growth.”
DialogTech Names New CEO Amid Third Year of Double-Digit Growth (February 27, 2018)
Dialogtech: “Leading marketing technology firm elevates Doug Kofoid to CEO; Founder and CEO Irv Shapiro assumes Executive Chairman role.”
SIM Partners Acquired by Reputation.com (February 28, 2018)
SIM Partners: “The acquisition accelerates the roadmap for Reputation.com’s market-leading Online Reputation Management (ORM) platform by integrating SIM Partners’s Velocity, the award-winning, local marketing automation software.”
