Soapbox: Don’t kick SMBs to the curbside – for many, it’s their new lifeline
While technologies to enable curbside pick-up have been around for years, local business require solutions that work without IT support and infrastructure.
Contributor
Bill Dinan's latest articles
Soapbox: SMBs increased exposure from remote work requires a different data security approach
Privacy settings may not be aligned with the usual office devices at-home so hardware and internet providers should be providing updated security strategies.
Soapbox: Rethinking SaaS product access for SMBs during the COVID-19 crisis
With local businesses re-inventing themselves and looking for solutions to support that, SaaS providers must adapt.
Soapbox: The 80/20 rule is a fallacy, customer-driven product innovation drives revenue
The small business SaaS sector is long overdue for a growth model that focuses on what its customers actually need.
3 major technology plays ahead for local commerce in 2020
We will see a shift into self-service SaaS solutions for small business, a widespread roll-out of cashier-less retail and a local ad play from Uber.
3 local commerce trends to make a big impact in 2020
We will see a shift into self-service SaaS solutions for small business, a widespread roll-out of cashier-less retail and a local ad play from Uber.
Soapbox: Are we falling in love with technology or building what SMBs need?
Alleviating the burden with dozens of point solutions, a SaaS solution could deliver a one-stop-shop to help small businesses.
Mobile Fanatics: Where Social, Video And Calls Intersect
As mobile goes front and center with call analytics, columnist Bill Dinan urges marketers not to ignore other media channels like social and video.
Boost Ad Performance With Click-To-Call In 2015
If you're not tracking incoming phone calls to your business, columnist Bill Dinan explains why you should focus on this metric this year.
How Offline Became The Next Big Digital Thing (Hint: It Involves Your Smartphone)
Columnist Bill Dinan offers insights into how mobile is helping to drive offline conversions, and how you can harness it to best effect.
Tips For Tackling The Online-Offline Attribution Challenge
Learn how customer-tracking and cross-screen performance metrics result in attribution insights that drive more conversions and better ROI.
Last-Mile Local Marketing With Mobile: An #LSA14 Retrospective
Mobile devices are our own personal Sherpas — or, as Woz said in his popular keynote, “your most trusted advisor in the world.” Marketers are soaking up real-time info based on our location-based needs so they can reach relevant consumers’ hands whenever and wherever — ideally in the Last Mile of the purchase cycle. This […]
Count Incoming Calls Right To Maximize Cross-Platform Marketing Returns
Calls are in — in a big way. The adoption of mobile and ease of satisfying a near-immediate search need with a quick phone call have fueled the universal acceptance of calls as a key engagement and conversion indicator. All direct response advertisers — regardless of size or sophistication — understand and appreciate the value […]
Calls Are A Timeless Performance Metric
Consumers’ research and purchase patterns have been changing rapidly, keeping marketers on their toes as they modify multimedia ad programs to meet their latest needs. Despite this evolving state of media engagement, the phone call remains a “go to” consumer response across multiple media — and thus represents a strong conversion indicator for many local […]
Call-Through Rate: Key Mobile Ad Performance Metric
With as many as 60 percent of all mobile local searches leading to consumer action within the day (depending on the category), mobile consumers are ready to connect with businesses. While calls are a de facto consumer response for smartphones (it is, after all, a phone), only a small number of mobile marketers are tracking […]
DNI – What Mobile Search Marketers Need To Know About Online-Offline Attribution
With the rise in mobile marketing, measuring the online-offline attribution of a mobile search campaign has only increased in complexity. Most marketers today are making valiant efforts to track all secondary actions – from phone calls and driving directions to map and reservations look ups – but tracking a call back to the specific mobile […]
Evolution Of Display Ad Strategies For Mobile Monetization
There was a time when the worlds of search and display advertising were completely separate, given the emphasis on click-driven search ads versus branding-focused display ads. Then mobile happened — consumers shifted from desktops to smartphones and tablets as their primary “action” devices for researching and making purchases, which brought a whole new set of […]
4 Tips For Capitalizing On Untapped Mobile Conversions
Mobile devices have increasingly become the go-to resource for consumers looking to make a near-term buying decision. In fact, our recent xAd-Telmetrics Mobile Path to Purchase Study showed that more than 60 percent of mobile searchers ultimately make a purchase, many within hours or the same day. Because mobile consumers are further along in the […]
Mobile Users: Consumers Are Buying, But Behavior Varies By Vertical
Mobile is hot and shows no sign of moving off marketers’ priority list. Not only is there an enormous, diverse mobile audience that includes tweens to great grandmas, but advertisers of all sizes are growing comfortable with mobile — because they are always on their own smartphones or tablets, as well. New research further validates […]
The Rise Of Local Mobile Pay-Per-Call – 3 Tips For SMBs
Local mobile pay-per-call advertising has kicked into high gear in 2012 — in fact, we recently reported 30 times the number of mobile pay-per-call ads in Q1 2012, when compared to Q1 2011. Since mobile devices are not only search tools but phones at their core, mobile pay per call is a natural ad model […]
Capture Mobile-Driven Actions For Targeted Ad Results
As mobile adoption continues to skyrocket and consumers rely more heavily on smartphones and tablets to research and immediately act on purchases, there is a broadened opportunity to help businesses track and monetize consumers’ forward movement in the buying cycle. To capitalize on this opportunity, marketers must harness the valuable feedback offered through the action-driven nature of mobile […]