There is no denying the power of meeting face-to-face. Often the most efficient way to do this is at live events. According to a Demand Gen Report, 76% of 150 B2B marketers said that live events offered the best top-funnel engagement opportunity. But the embrace of live events isn’t just for the top of the funnel. A majority…
Google, Facebook, Pinterest, Yelp, Amazon and others are pushing to increase ad revenues and reach more local businesses. Two prevailing strategies are expanding agency and other reseller relationships and simplifying self-serve ad buying. From the reseller side, we’ve seen announcement after announcement highlighting a new program or feature that supports more advanced marketers who want…
When I first started writing about “local,” a long time ago, it was almost exclusively a small business concept. Brands and national retailers didn’t “identify” with the term. The “local online ecosystem” simply didn’t apply to them — in their minds. Never mind that the vast majority of products and services were (and still are) purchased…
Only halfway through 2018 and the local and location-based marketing space looks much different than it did six months ago. From various high-profile deals and acquisitions, to major headlines from Facebook and Google, to GDPR, the local space continues to evolve and transform. To help you get a sense of the pulse among local marketers, we’ve…
Last year, an unusual retail deal got worked out in which Amazon set up return centers in some 81 Kohl’s stores in Chicago and LA. Everyone in the retail world was shocked. Why would Kohl’s help the enemy with an arrangement like this? Surprisingly the deal benefited both companies. Of course, Amazon got a better…
The great location marketing roll-up is in full swing. In recent months, we’ve seen a flurry of merger/acquisition activity from location marketing vendors (including mine) across North America. Significant M&A activity has ranged from Snapchat’s acquisition of Placed to Gannett/ReachLocal acquiring SweetIQ. The location marketing roll-up is more than a story of vendors increasing scale….
Square is buying website creator Weebly. Weebly has free and paid website products. The transaction is valued at $365 million, comprised of a mix of cash and Square stock. Square said in its press release that it will now be able to offer “one cohesive solution to start or grow an omnichannel business”: Today, it…
Yesterday, The Infatuation, a restaurant discovery platform, announced it is set to purchase the popular restaurant review platform, Zagat, from Google. This acquisition will broaden The Infatuation’s profile and add to its vast network of restaurant reviews and guides and will introduce Zagat data to its “highly engaged, millennial audience.” From a search perspective, restaurants are…
The local marketing space has seen several “deals” in the past few weeks spanning everything from acquisitions to partnerships to tech integrations. These deals are broad in scope that seek to support many areas of the local space including SMB websites, call tracking, keyword optimization and more. Here are summaries from the various partnerships: Mono…
GoDaddy is set to acquire social media marketing company Main Street Hub for $125 million. Main Street Hub, which focuses on marketing automation, CRM, social media, and reputation management, helps GoDaddy broaden its already vast cloud platform. The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of 2018. Current Main Street Hub co-CEOs and…
