Here is today’s roundup of news related to local marketing and advertising, local media, technology, local commerce, consumer behavior and more.
LSA Forecast19: Is the SMB World Moving from SaaS to SaaT? (June 11, 2019)
LSA Insider: “The Local Search Association presented its 2019 forecast for the small business software industry at this week’s LOCALOGY ENGAGE: SaaS/SMB conference that suggests the future will be less about software as a service (SaaS) and more about software as a transaction (SaaT).”
H&R Block Jumps into SaaS with Wave Financial Acquisition (June 11, 2019)
LSA Insider: “The convergence of traditional and cloud account continued today with H&R Block’s C$537 million ($US405 million) acquisition of Wave, a Toronto-based SMB-focused cloud accounting software company with an estimated 400,000 customers and annual revenues of C$50 million ($US38 million).”
Survey: Voice Assistant Adoption Lags, Especially on Android (June 11, 2019)
LSA Insider: “A new survey from SUMO Heavy pushes back on some of the hype surrounding voice search and virtual assistants. It also suggests that, despite the aggressive promotion of Google Assistant, most of the voice search activity is happening on iPhones and not Android. The survey had just over 1,000 respondents and was conducted online in April.”
LOCALOGY ENGAGE 19: AI’s Impact on the B2B Customer Journey (June 11, 2019)
LSA Insider: “AI is a buzzword that shows up in nearly every piece of marketing collateral or press release. However, for most people working in technology, it’s still something of a black box. Demystifying AI and the role it can play in B2B customer acquisition and retention was the big topic that data scientist Dalia Asterbadi tackled at the LOCALOGY ENGAGE: SaaS/SMB event in Washington, D.C.”
Study Shows, Once Again, Clicks Are Not Customers (June 10, 2019)
LSA Insider: “Despite all the sophistication now available in analytics and customer journey analysis, a substantial number of marketers are still focused on clicks — including last-click attribution. And while clicks can be a helpful directional metric, it’s usually a mistake to focus on CTR as a primary KPI.”
Facebook ads aren’t what they used to be, so it’s time for smarter social ad buying (June 11, 2019)
Search Engine Land: “In a flooded social landscape, Wenograd argues that the most successful brands will be the ones that integrate robust paid strategies and prioritize high-quality creative.”
