Uberall Study 75 Percent of UK Christmas Shoppers Using Their Smartphones to Search for Stores Near Me

Uberall Study: 75 Percent of UK Christmas Shoppers Using Their Smartphones to Search for Stores ‘Near Me’

Only a Quarter Have Left an Online Review of a Store During This Year’s Holiday Season

Uberall, the location marketing solution for businesses competing to attract and win local bricks-and-mortar customers, announced the results of its holiday ‘near me’ survey, to assess how often shoppers conduct searches such as ‘perfume shop near me’ or ‘pizza restaurant near me.’  Uberall polled more than 1,000 smartphone users – half from the US and half from the UK – between 7 and 11 December 2018 to understand their ‘near me’ preferences and behaviour over the holiday season to date.

Three-quarters of UK shoppers have conducted a ‘near me’ holiday search

Seventy-five percent of the UK shoppers included in the poll said they have already used a ‘near me’ search from their mobile device over the holiday season, or believe they will before the New Year.

These types of search were even more prevalent in the US where 83 percent of shoppers indicated they have already searched – or intend to search – ‘near me’ this holiday period.

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“Christmas shoppers are searching for stores and items ‘on the fly’, using their smartphones to research options in their immediate vicinity,” said Daniel Mathew, vice president, UK at Uberall. “The popularity of ‘near me’ searches amongst British shoppers presents a fantastic opportunity for brands to entice more customers. If retailers can ensure their branches show up in these local searches, they can attract more shoppers to their doors and take more money through their tills during this crucial holiday season.”

Almost two-thirds of UK Christmas shoppers searching for restaurants ‘near me’

Almost two-thirds (66 percent) of the UK respondents said they were also likely to conduct a ‘near me’ search for local fast-food outlets and restaurants while out Christmas shopping. In the US the figure was even higher, at 77 percent.

When asked how likely a shopper was to conduct a ‘near me’ search for the nearest bank or cash machine/ATM while shopping this holiday period, 46 percent of UK shoppers said they would (54 percent in the US).

“Christmas shopping has a ripple effect on other local businesses, particularly restaurants and banks. These businesses can also benefit from the proliferation of ‘near me’ searches. Much like with retailers, if they can make sure their details appear at or close to the top of local search results, they can drum up extra custom.”

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Brits more likely to buy directly from via their smartphone

When UK shoppers were asked how they would use their smartphones to help them shop during this Christmas, the top 5 responses were:

·         82 percent said they would buy an item directly via their mobile device

·         80 percent would use their phone to compare prices

·         74 percent would research products on their phone

·         71 percent would use their device to check opening times

·         48 percent would use their phone to search for coupons, offers and deals

“The UK public’s love affair with their mobile phones seems to get stronger every year,” said Mathew. “Whether it’s finding stores, buying gifts, comparing prices or sniffing out bargains, it all happens over mobile. Physical stores that nail their mobile strategies will be best placed to attract customers this holiday season and well into the future.”

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Just 26 percent of UK shoppers have left an online review of a store this Christmas

While UK consumers are keen to use their phones to look for information and inspiration, they are not as enthusiastic about leaving reviews that could be useful for their fellow shoppers.

The study found that slightly over a quarter (26 percent) of UK shoppers have left a review of a shop across sites such as Yelp, Facebook, Google, Foursquare, Instagram and others. US consumers are slightly more likely to share their opinions online, with 30 percent stating they had left a review.

“These low engagement figures could be a slight cause for concern for the UK high street,” continued Mathew. “Online reviews have a major influence on prospective customers; indeed, Moz estimates that 68 percent of customers admit that reviews make a difference to their purchasing decisions. Brands need to find ways to encourage their existing customers to share their experience online. Rather than leaving this to chance, this should be formalised in their overall marketing strategies.”

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LaterPay Powers Salon and Pueblo Pulp with Inaugural US Partnerships

Salon and Pueblo Pulp Monetize Content via an Ad-Free Model, Subscriptions and Contributions Powered by LaterPay

LaterPay, a technology company offering an industry-first, patented payment infrastructure designed to offer users immediate, frictionless access to content or services without requiring upfront registration or payment, announced US partnerships with both Salon and Pueblo Pulp .

Salon.com, the flagship property of Salon Media Group, Inc., partnered with LaterPay to release a revamped ad-free version of its website. After testing various monetization strategies, Salon and LaterPay landed on a user-centric model that allows Salon to generate reader revenue without offering premium content. The recently implemented model enables readers to select an editorial environment that suits their preferences. Users are able to opt for a free, ad-supported model or an ad-free, reader-supported model. LaterPay’s payments infrastructure allows Salon’s US readers to make one-click time pass purchases for the new ad-free version of the website, in increments of one hour, one week, one month or one year. Designed as a low-friction approach that enables users to enjoy an ad-free experience with access to unlimited Salon content, LaterPay’s infrastructure also allows readers to delay registration and payment until they reach a $5 threshold.

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“In the first month, we have generated hundreds of subscribers to the ad-free offer without any promotion,” said Jordan Hoffner, CEO at Salon. “LaterPay’s ad-free subscriptions solution has been simple to install and operate, allowing us to be up and running within days. From crypto-mining to LaterPay’s reader revenue solutions, Salon continues to push for greater innovation within digital content monetization.”

Pueblo Pulp, an independent newspaper serving the Southern Rockies and Western Plains, partnered with LaterPay for their yearly and monthly subscriptions, as well as weekly passes and single article purchases. They have also implemented LaterPay’s Contributions Button, which allows Pueblo users to make frictionless, one-click donations, in increments of $3, $5, $10 and $25, to support quality journalism on The PULP’s website. The results from the LaterPay offers have been eye-opening for the local Colorado publication.

“Partnering with LaterPay has allowed us to transition to a digital daily with a frictionless system for our audience – something we have wanted to do for a long time. And we are already generating more revenue now then we would have with ads,” stated John Rodriguez, Publisher at Pueblo Pulp. “LaterPay has worked with us to offer our readers the freedom to choose their PULP experience, and the response has been eye-opening. From yearly and monthly subscriptions, to weekly passes, single article purchases and contributions, LaterPay allows us to offer our readers a variety of content consumption options that they are widely receptive to.”

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LaterPay works with publishers as a collaborating partner, with the ability to test multiple monetization strategies, as well as consult on optimization of a website for conversions. By using LaterPay’s solution, digital publishers and service providers can simultaneously expand existing subscription models, increase paying customer bases and improve user experience.

“We are very excited, and pleasantly surprised, by the early numbers being generated from both Salon’s new ad-free website and Pueblo Pulp’s implementation of our Button and subscription solutions,” said Cosmin Ene, founder and CEO of LaterPay. “We’ve been excited to see that publishers can generate this level of reader revenue by offering a great user experience, and without having to offer premium content. We want to help publishers understand that there are multiple revenue streams available to them, and that they don’t have to cannibalize their ad revenue to implement another monetization strategy.”

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75% of People Say Paid Search Ads Make It Easier to Find Information

People Mostly Click on Google Text Ads That Directly Answer Their Search Query, but Branded Search Engine Marketing Ads Also Have an Impact on Amazon and YouTube

Three-fourths of people (75%) say paid search ads make it easier to find the information they search for on a website or search engine, according to a new survey from Clutch, the leading B2B research, ratings, and reviews company.

Most people easily recognize paid search ads: 77% are confident in their ability to identify paid search ads such as pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.

Because people can recognize paid search ads, it’s important for businesses to produce ads that are useful and relevant to their audiences.

The most common reason why people click on a paid search ad is if it directly responds to the information they are searching for online (33%).

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Google Text Ads Earn the Most Clicks

People click on the search ads they see the most: text ads on Google.

People are more likely to click on text ads (49%) than shopping/product listing ads (31%) or video ads (19%).

In addition, 63% of people click on Google ads, four times as many people who click on search ads on any other search engine – Amazon (14%), YouTube (9%), and Bing (6%).

People respond differently to Amazon and YouTube paid search ads than they do to Google search ads.

The most likely reason people click on a search ad on Amazon and YouTube is because it mentions a brand they are familiar with (33%).

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“On Amazon, I do find it interesting that people click brands they are familiar with,” said Sherman Stanberry, managing partner of Lyfe Marketing, a digital marketing company in Atlanta. “I think it could be a good advertising play for larger or more recognizable brands.”

Paid Search Advertising on Multiple Sites Can Improve Search Ad Engagement

People’s preferred paid search ad formats correspond to the sites they use.

  • More than half of people (55%) who click on Google search ads prefer text ads.
  • Those who click on Amazon advertisements favor shopping/product listing ads (50%).
  • Those who click on YouTube advertisements favor video ads (36%).

Businesses that create video and shopping/product listing ads (PLAs) can engage with potential customers on Amazon and YouTube.

Businesses also benefit from including Bing as part of their search engine marketing strategy, as it has a higher click-through rate for paid search ads than Google.

Clutch surveyed 506 people who have clicked on a paid search ad in the past month.

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Formstack Acquires QuickTapSurvey, Further Develops Offline and Mobile Capabilities

Formstack Acquires QuickTapSurvey, Further Develops Offline and Mobile Capabilities

Leader in Data Capture and Workflows Grows International Footprint and Customer Base

Formstack, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company with a mission to transform the way people collect data and put it to work, announces the acquisition of Toronto-based QuickTapSurvey, a leading provider of mobile and offline surveys.

With the acquisition, Formstack is doubling down on its investment in the mobile forms category and plans to combine the best features of the QuickTapSurvey and Formstack products into one, full-service offering for mobile offline data capture on the Formstack platform. QuickTapSurvey will remain a standalone mobile surveys product and will benefit from additional capabilities through the Formstack platform, including workflow automation, HIPAA compliance and more than 40 native integrations, such as Salesforce, MailChimp and WebMerge.

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“We sometimes take for granted the availability of internet access in all locations; many of our customers have had no choice but to collect data on paper because they work in underserved rural areas,” said Chris Byers, CEO of Formstack. “QuickTapSurvey has given aid workers in Eastern Congo access to the same technology as sales reps in New York. We look forward to developing the next generation of data capture tools together.”

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Launched in 2011 by Tishan Mills and Ravin Shah, QuickTapSurvey services more than 180,000 customers in 175 countries. Major clients include Adidas, Philip Morris International, Heineken, Aramark and the Smithsonian Institution.

Formstack’s acquisition of QuickTapSurvey follows its acquisition of Fast Forms in 2017 and the launch of Formstack Go, an offline data capture app for iOS and Android.

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Former L’Oréal Data Executive Joins Captify to Accelerate Global Search Data Strategy and Acquisition

Search Intelligence Leader Adds Aruna Paramasivam as Its Global Vice President of Data & Publisher Partnerships to Enable Publishers to Take Back Control of Data & Monetization Strategies and Audience Relationships

Captify, the global leader in Search Intelligence, announced the appointment of Aruna Paramasivam as Global Vice President of Data & Publisher Partnerships. Paramasivam brings over two decades of data and partner management experience to this role. She will own Captify’s global data acquisition and monetization strategy. This strategy will also give publishers access to deep insights from on-site search, which highlight exactly what their audiences are looking for in real-time. This critical foresight will empower publishers to pre-empt trends before they even happen informing content creation, audience engagement strategies or new monetization streams on their own platforms.

In addition, Captify’s Publisher facing technology solutions such as voice, audio, and visual search tools will allow consumers to engage with publisher content however they dictate.

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With the company averaging 100% year-over-year growth, and over 200% growth in US territory expansion, Paramasivam’s appointment highlights the momentum the company is experiencing as it continues to challenge Google and amass the highest quality of search data in the industry.

Prior to joining Captify, Paramasivam was Head of Data Acquisition & Partnerships at L’Oréal, the world’s largest cosmetics company. In this role, Paramasivan was responsible for efficient and ongoing data acquisition and partnerships strategy for ROI-driven consumer marketing across mass and luxury brands. Over the course of her career, she has also held positions as the Head of Audience Partnerships at MediaMath and has led up Audience Platform Implementation efforts at Yahoo! and Interclick prior to that.

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“The role of data has changed. We’ve witnessed publishers, marketers and brands seeking data and insights that truly drive business outcomes, not just a story. Search and specifically, onsite search has the power to do that, ultimately creating a more relevant and valuable sitewide experience for the end consumer,” said Aruna Paramasivam, Global VP of Data & Publisher Partnerships at Captify. “As the largest global independent holder of consumer search data, Captify is in an incredibly unique position to leverage search to inform strategies that will attract eyeballs and engage audiences in today’s competitive climate. Over the coming months, I plan to build upon Captify’s already existing roster of premium publishers, and discover new ways to bring their data capabilities to the next level.”

“Over the past seven years, we have built robust relationships with top publishers across the world, gaining insight into their challenges and business objectives. Aruna has been at the forefront of the data industry, helping brands and publishers extract the true value from their data and will continue to do that for publishers with the most powerful dataset in advertising, onsite search. Captify’s solutions coupled with Aruna’s vision will set publishers up for a future they can control,” said Dominic Joseph, CEO & Co-founder at Captify. “This strategic hire will continue to propel Captify on its current growth trajectory, empowering brands and publishers globally to develop and execute strategies through Search Intelligence.”

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Research Reveals Employees Switch Apps Over 1,100 Times a Day

Research Reveals Employees Switch Apps Over 1,100 Times a Day

Pega studies 5 million hours of desktop activity, finds “virtual swivel chair” effect can bring productivity to a standstill

 Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ: PEGA), the software company empowering digital transformation at the world’s leading enterprises, today announced new research that reveals how ineffective software and poor processes are hindering productivity for many workers. In a study of live desktop activity, the results showed employees are forced to switch between up to 35 job-critical applications nearly once a minute – or more than 1,100 times every day –  adding unnecessary complexity that reduces efficiency and frustrates workers.

Pega analyzed nearly 5 million hours of desktop activity of operational support employees – who primarily perform routine back office, data entry, or contact center tasks – at Global 2000 companies from January to September 2018. The data revealed two main areas blocking employees from achieving optimal productivity and job satisfaction:

Inefficient applications and processes: Businesses typically provide operational support workers with a number of ‘structured applications’ that are specifically designed to help them speed through core tasks with minimal typing and scrolling. However, the study found workers are saddled with too many of these disconnected apps, leading to poor processes, increased errors, and wasted actions that could otherwise be automated:

  • On average, workers perform 134 ‘copy and paste’ actions each day – highlighting how often employees must switch between applications using same data to complete a task.
  • Employees commit 845 keying errors per day or once out of every 14 key strokes, which shows the potential to automate more of their workflow to reduce manual mistakes.
  • Only 28 percent of active work time is spent in structured applications versus free-form software like spreadsheets or word processing apps, suggesting that structured applications aren’t adequate enough to do the job alone.

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Distractions from core work: From digital distractions to extraneous activities, there are many events over the course of the day that take workers’ attention away from productive tasks:

  • Workers check their email 10 times per hour, or once every six minutes, throughout the course of their day.
  • Employees spend 13 percent of their time in email, of which only 23 percent is spent on value-generating work.
  • People who work longer shifts typically make nine percent more errors than those on shorter shifts, demonstrating how attention spans drift over a long work day.

The study also reveals several other interesting dynamics, including:

  • Employees make the most mistakes on Tuesdays, which had 22 percent more errors per employee vs. Friday, the least error prone day of the week.
  • Error rates are 50 percent higher when working in unstructured applications such as email, the application where the most errors occur.
  • Workers multitasking between 30 applications or more in a single shift have a 28 percent higher error rate than those using fewer apps.

For more details on the study and to learn strategies for overcoming workplace inefficiencies and improving employee satisfaction through digital process automation, download the ebook ‘Demystifying the Desktop” at www.pega.com/demystifying-desktop.

Quotes & Commentary:

“Many organizations instinctively try to solve process issues and improve employee productivity by throwing more software at the problem without truly understanding the root cause of their inefficiencies,” said Don Schuerman, CTO, Pegasystems. “Business leaders must step back and analyze their business processes to ensure they enable employees to do their best work while providing customers with the best possible experience. By streamlining these processes and eliminating repetitive tasks, companies can give employees the right tools they need to succeed and be happier in their jobs.”

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AdStage Launches AdStage Join, the First MarTech Solution to Automatically Link Ad, Web, and Sales Data

AdStage Launches AdStage Join, the First MarTech Solution to Automatically Link Ad, Web, and Sales Data

Marketers Can Instantly Optimize Ad Campaigns Based on Actual Sales

AdStage, a leading marketing technology company with $900MM+ in annual ad spend under management, announces the release of AdStage Join, which automatically connects ad data from leading networks like Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn to Google Analytics and Salesforce. The technology allows marketers to instantly optimize ad campaigns based on actual sales, setting a new standard for ROI measurement. With companies increasing marketing and sales alignment, AdStage Join enables paid marketing campaigns to align with sales goals. AdStage Join launches December 4, 2018.

3Q Digital’s CEO, David Rodnitzky stated, “Optimizing paid marketing campaigns based on sales data was a painful challenge until AdStage Join. We can now automate the connection of ad data to Salesforce, saving us countless hours in spreadsheets, and providing us with critical information that we can put to use for our clients immediately.”

Marketers often optimize paid campaigns on top-of-the-funnel metrics, but the vast majority of those interactions don’t result in paying customers. The lead generation marketers who do want to incorporate sales data often turn to spreadsheets. But using spreadsheets for large data sets is time-consuming, error-prone, and requires manual updating.

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Mandy Fitzberger, Director of Paid Media at Atypical Digital, stated, “Shortening the path to bottom line impact from paid marketing efforts with AdStage Join is a huge win for our clients as well as for us as an agency.”

Used with AdStage’s other products, Join aims to fundamentally change the way marketers analyze and optimize ad campaigns. AdStage has hundreds of B2B/lead generation paid marketers using its platform.

“If you’re spending a million dollars on paid marketing, you want to know how the money translates into sales pipeline and bankable business revenue. You simply can’t calculate that from clicks and impressions,” said Sahil Jain, AdStage’s CEO and Co-founder.

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ZoomInfo Enriches Its Company Information with New Real-Time Firmographic Data

ZoomInfo Enriches Its Company Information with New Real-Time Firmographic Data

Company Newsfeed and Hierarchies Provide Users with Deep Company Data That Drives Sales Efficacy

Zoom Information, Inc., the leading growth acceleration platform for sales and marketing teams, announced the availability of several new features, including Company Hierarchies and Company Newsfeeds. The new features refine the user’s knowledge of their key targeted profiles and strengthen their understanding of customer portfolios.

ZoomInfo’s Company Newsfeed gathers hundreds of articles bringing users up-to-date information relating to their targeted accounts. As soon as new articles are collected and curated, users may access them through the ZoomInfo platform. Company Newsfeed provides sales and go-to-market teams with a deeper understanding of their prospect companies, improving efficiency throughout their daily workflow.

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Company Hierarchies transform ZoomInfo’s data to give users a clearer picture of a company’s portfolio, including parent companies, subsidiaries and acquisitions. This is particularly important for larger enterprises that may include these units within their broader organization.

“Sales and go-to-market teams need a deep understanding of their customers and prospects – and the companies that they work for,” Hila Nir, Chief Marketing and Product Officer, ZoomInfo, said. “With today’s new features, ZoomInfo is enriching its firmographic data with detailed and real-time information that will help teams find that next lead and target it more effectively.”

ZoomInfo also announced the availability of custom mapping for Microsoft Dynamics, SalesLoft and Outreach and field-by-field updates for ReachOut, its Chrome extension. The integrations enable sales professionals to export custom data directly from ZoomInfo into those platforms, increasing sales efficiencies and reducing the time spent on manual processes. Outreach and SalesLoft customers can export directly into Sequences and Cadences, respectively, integrating ZoomInfo data directly into customer and prospect communications.

With field-by-field updates, customers using customer relationship management and sales management platforms that integrate with ZoomInfo can now choose what fields to update without cutting and pasting from the ReachOut extension.

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New NVIDIA Research Creates Interactive Worlds with AI

Invention Has Potential to Create Virtual Worlds for Gaming, Automotive, Robotics, VR

Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems, NVIDIA introduced groundbreaking AI research that enables developers for the first time to render entirely synthetic, interactive 3D environments using a model trained on real-world videos.

Company researchers used a neural network to render synthetic 3D environments in real time. Currently, every object in a virtual world needs to be modeled individually, which is expensive and time consuming. In contrast, the NVIDIA research uses models automatically learned from real video to render objects such as buildings, trees and vehicles.

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The technology offers the potential to quickly create virtual worlds for gaming, automotive, architecture, robotics or virtual reality. The network can, for example, generate interactive scenes based on real-world locations or show consumers dancing like their favorite pop stars.

“NVIDIA has been inventing new ways to generate interactive graphics for 25 years, and this is the first time we can do so with a neural network,” said Bryan Catanzaro, vice president of Applied Deep Learning Research at NVIDIA, who led the team developing this work. “Neural networks — specifically generative models — will change how graphics are created. This will enable developers to create new scenes at a fraction of the traditional cost.”

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The result of the research is a simple driving game that allows participants to navigate an urban scene. All content is rendered interactively using a neural network that transforms sketches of a 3D world produced by a traditional graphics engine into video. This interactive demo will be shown at the NeurIPS 2018 conference in Montreal.

The generative neural network learned to model the appearance of the world, including lighting, materials and their dynamics. Since the scene is fully synthetically generated, it can be easily edited to remove, modify or add objects.

“The capability to model and recreate the dynamics of our visual world is essential to building intelligent agents,” the researchers wrote in their paper. “Apart from purely scientific interests, learning to synthesize continuous visual experiences has a wide range of applications in computer vision, robotics, and computer graphics,” the researchers explained.

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