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
Why Local Listings Are a Critical Part of the Customer Experience (April 23, 2018)
LSA Insider: “At LSA18, Walgreens, U-Haul and Toyota will discuss the evolution of local search, customer expectations and the digital challenges that national-local brands face.”
Is Employee Morale the X Factor in ‘Customer Experience’? (April 24, 2018)
LSA Insider: “The core principle of the customer experience is putting the customer/consumer at the center of the organization’s thinking and processes.”
Is The Space For Local Digital Marketing Services Expanding — Or Consolidating? (April 23, 2018)
GeoMarketing: “Over the past few years, a rush of digital marketing services platforms have followed the lead of Facebook, Google, and others racing for what was once a largely untapped pool of ad spending by regional brands, major franchise operators, and SMBs.”
Strategy & Tactics
How marketers can find and convey true brand purpose (April 24, 2018)
Marketing Dive: “Positioning around a functional or emotional benefit isn’t enough anymore, with purpose instead emerging as the heartbeat of modern brands and as a key ingredient in what makes a brand become — and stay — relevant.”
Google: Predictions Vs. Suggestions For Paid Search (April 23, 2018)
MediaPost: “Google turned over a new leaf on Friday. In a blog post, the company explains the reason for rethinking the use of the word “autocomplete” to provide search “predictions” rather than suggestions.”
Study: Privacy concerns could weigh heavily on mobile ad targeting (April 23, 2018)
Mobile Marketer: “A key strength of mobile marketing is the ability to target individual devices with Mobile IDs, but data privacy is becoming a significant concern for mobile users following high-profile data breaches or unauthorized sharing of personal data.”
Stats & Studies
New Report: The Future of SMB Websites as ‘Local Data Hubs’ (April 26, 2018)
LSA Insider: “Small business websites are extremely important to the consumer path the purchase. Recent LSA data found that 71% of US consumers used a company website in the past month to obtain local business information.”
Study: Top 7 Uses of Voice Assistants for Shopping (April 25, 2018)
LSA Insider: “Voice assistants have become increasingly popular for consumers seeking to complete a variety of tasks throughout their purchasing journey.”
Study: Majority reject ads on smart speakers (April 23, 2018)
Search Engine Land: “A new online survey of US adults from NetElixir found that the majority of respondents don’t want ads on virtual assistants or in voice search results.”
Industry News
Amazon: 100M Prime Members, More than 300K SMBs Selling on Platform (April 20, 2018)
LSA Insider: “Prime may be the most successful loyalty program ever devised. It has resulted in higher spending and greater shopping frequency among members.”
Facebook: 6 Key Stats about the Size of Its (SMB) Business (April 26, 2018)
LSA Insider: “Yesterday Facebook announced first quarter revenues of $11.97, the majority of which ($11.8 billion) was advertising-related. The company reported that it has 2.2 billion monthly active users and 1.4 billion daily active users.”
Google confirms rolling out a broad core search algorithm update earlier this week (April 20, 2018)
Search Engine Land: “Google has confirmed the rumors that there was a Google search algorithm update that took place on Monday.”
Member News
Verve™ Hires Mobile Industry Veteran Mark Fruehan to Lead Enterprise Platform Initiatives (April 19, 2018)
Verve: “As EVP, Enterprise Platforms, Fruehan will lead the growth of several key components of Verve’s business including programmatic solutions and the integration of emerging sensor-powered opportunities.”
DAC Group Launches New Reseller Partner Division ConvergenSEE™ (April 25, 2018)
DAC Group: “DAC Group, the leading digital agency focused on location-based solutions and hyper-local marketing for enterprise brands is proud to announce the formal launch of ConvergenSEE, our white-label reseller partnership division.”
