WebProNews

Tag: Local

  • Facebook Gives You 8 Ways To Use Local Awareness Ads

    It’s been about a year since Facebook announced Local Awareness Ads, which let businesses find new customers by showing ads to groups of people who are near that business’ neighborhood. The ads can be set up using Ads Manager or Power Editor.

    The company has a new blog post telling businesses about the different ways they can and should be using the ads (there are 8 in all). In a nutshell, these are to: encourage people to shop in store; increase local brand awareness; help specific stores meet their sales targets; tell people about new store locations and grand openings; get the right people to your event; tell people in the area about things happening now; build buzz by rallying local communities; and spread the word about local promotions.

    For encouraging people to shop in store, Facebook shares an example of how UGG Australia encouraged people to visit specific stores, using local awareness ads to get people who live in San Francisco as well as tourists to “Wlk, Skip or Dance to 437 Sutter Street,” and including a “Get Directions” call-to-action button. They saw a 3X return on ad spend.

    Facebook also gives the example of El School of Professional Makeup using the ads to increase local brand awareness using the “Call Now” call-to-action to get people to learn more about the school. The school says it saw a 100 percent increase in local leads and is spending $40K less per month and getting a 50% increase in sales.

    Check out the post for specific examples of each of the 8 aforementioned objectives.

    You can find an overview on creating local awareness ads here. You can also learn more about Facebook’s new “Send Message” call-to-action button for local awareness ads here.

    Images via Facebook

  • Etsy Local Now Available On Android, iOS

    Etsy Local Now Available On Android, iOS

    Late last year, Etsy launched the Etsy Local pilot program, which enabled select shoppers to get push notifications from the Etsy Android or iOS app that alerted them when an Etsy seller is selling at a local event.

    “Etsy Local push notifications are a new way for Etsy sellers and buyers to connect locally and in-person,” a spokesperson for Etsy told us at the time. “It connects sellers participating in fairs and markets to shoppers in their area; shoppers can meet and buy from sellers in-person, supporting both the Etsy community and their own local economies.”

    The company just announced that the feature is now getting a proper launch on both operating systems. A spokesperson tell us in an email:

    Etsy is committed to finding ways to bring the online world together with offline shopping experiences, creating even more meaningful connections between buyers and sellers. And now, with Etsy Local for mobile, people can shop just around the corner! Through the Etsy app for iOS and Android, shoppers can now more easily discover nearby stores that feature their favorite sellers, and connect in-person when a seller is at a market or an in-store event.

    Etsy Local not only allows shoppers to discover great boutiques and markets in their local area to shop vintage and handmade, but also view recommended stores and events in their area that are tailored to their tastes based on the types of shops and sellers they have previously engaged with. The Etsy Local experience also incorporates a newer member of the Etsy community – retailers – and encourages buyers to shop from them, supporting their local communities.

    When you open the Local tab fro the app, recommended nearby retailers and events (tailored to user tastes) will appear. They’re based on shops and sellers you’ve previously engaged with through favoriting, purchasing, and browsing. You can find the feature from the Home page and click on a map or listing to see more info, like hours of operation, available items, etc.

    Another cool part about the feature is that you can use it when you’re traveling to find shopping destinations.

    Naturally, the feature will benefit sellers who sell offline as the feature should up their visibility a great deal.

    Etsy talks more about the feature in a blog post here.

    Image via Etsy

  • Yahoo: We’re Still Using Yelp Reviews [Updated]

    Yahoo: We’re Still Using Yelp Reviews [Updated]

    Update 2: Blumenthal points to another response from Yahoo on reddit:

    “Thanks for pointing this out! I work for Yahoo, and I’ve reported this to our Yahoo Local team*. They’ll be taking a look at this for sure. Yahoo Local doesn’t use the Yelp API, rather we have a data feed from them that we merge into this feed. They’ll be examining this to see if and what the problem may be. Thanks again for pointing this out to us!

    Update: A spokesperson for Yahoo tells us the company is not running any tests that would remove Yelp’s content, and that it’s possible that the listings I tried just didn’t have listings with Yelp reviews (presumably same with Blumenthal’s).

    As a matter of fact, Blumenthal noted in the comments of his own post that he is now seeing some Yelp listings. False alarm apparently.

    Early last year, Yahoo and Yelp announced a partnership in which Yahoo would begin showing Yelp reviews in its local search results. Some businesses were frustrated with the move claiming Yahoo had trashed “years of positive feedback from customers” in favor of Yelp’s reviews, which have of course been controversial on their own.

    That didn’t stop the partnership from carrying on. Yahoo would go on to feature Yelp reviews for all kinds of local search results. While we haven’t yet heard anything about it from the companies, it looks like Yahoo is no longer using Yelp reviews, and is once again using its own local content.

    Screen Shot 2015-08-04 at 12.09.54 PM

    This was pointed out by local search watcher Mike Blumenthal, who wrote in a brief blog post, “It appears that Yahoo is no longer serving up Yelp reviews. Drop maps, change their name and poof. Your old Yahoo reviews are back.”

    Yahoo announced the closure of maps.yahoo.com in June, by the way. It noted at the time, “However, in the context of Yahoo search and on several other Yahoo properties including Flickr, we will continue to support maps. We made this decision to better align resources to Yahoo’s priorities as our business has evolved since we first launched Yahoo Maps eight years ago.”

    That announcement made no mention of ditching Yelp.

    We’ve reached out to Yahoo for content, and will update accordingly.

    Images via Yahoo

  • Google Shows More Local Business Results Than Bing Or Yahoo

    Google Shows More Local Business Results Than Bing Or Yahoo

    According to a new report from local search marketing company BrightLocal, Google is more generous to local businesses than other search engines. Google, it says, displays more local pack results than Yahoo or bing, and is most confident inn the quality of its local data compared to Yahoo or Bing.

    Still, local businesses are being squeezed out of organic positions by large sites, it finds. Search terms with a “Geo-modifier” return “much more” local results.

    BrightLocal carried out a series of searches on Google, Bing and Yahoo for a range of keywords covering 7 different types of local businesses in various locations. They analyzed local pack results, large website organic results, and local business website organic results. They also analyzed geo-modified terms versus non-geo terms (such as “plumber chicago” vs. “plumber”) and generic terms versus longtail terms versus product/service terms (“plumber” vs. “emergency 24hr plumber” vs “radiator repair”).

    Here’s the chart showing how Google is showing more local pack results for generic terms:

    local-pack

    The edge goes to Yahoo for long tail terms:

    longtail

    For product/services, Google once again takes the cake:

    Product-Search-Terms

    As does it with generic keywords + location, long tail + location, and product + location:

    Keyword-Location

    longtail-Location

    product-Location

    You can find the full report here for more analysis on each element of this as well as a look at leisure-based business keywords and how the search engines show results for these.

    Images via BrightLocal

  • Google Makes It Easier For People To Review Businesses On Mobile Devices

    Google has made it easier for people to review businesses using their mobile devices. A tweak to Google’s functionality in mobile browsers has made the process simpler, and that could lead to more reviews for businesses.

    We’ve seen Yelp become increasingly mobile as mobile unique visitors grew 29% year-over-year while desktop visitors declined. This was two years after the company finally added review functionality to its mobile apps. There’s no reason to think that more reviews won’t start coming from mobile devices for Google listings as well.

    Mike Blumenthal, who keeps a close eye on Google’s local business search efforts, explains how Google has made things easier (h/t: Search Engine Roundtable):

    Leaving a review for a business on Google via a mobile has long been a pain. However starting in early May on Android 5 and gradually working its way across Google’s & Apple’s mobile browsers, users can once again leave a review for a business using almost any mobile browser. This includes Safari and Chrome for iPhone as well as the mobile browsers for Android 4 and 5.
     
    Since 2012 when the mobile web version of G+ had its review link removed, the only way to leave a review was to use the Google Map App or to do an ugly work around using G+ local search. With the advent of this search display update users can once again leave mobile reviews across both major platforms and browsers by simply searching for the business, selecting the more info button in the Knowledge panel, scrolling down to the rate and review area and selecting a star rating. Thus one of the easiest ways to get a customer to leave you a review is to just ask them to search for you on Google and either click the “write a review” link on the desktop or select the more info button on mobile.

    This comes as Google is under tight regulatory scrutiny for allegedly favoring its own content in search results. A recent study commissioned by Yelp slammed Google for doing just that, claiming that the search engine is “reducing social welfare” with “lower quality results”.

    If Google is going to make it easier for people to use mobile reviews, that’s more content competing with the likes of Yelp. It also opens the doors for more potential reviews of varying quality.

    Image via YouTube

  • Did Google’s Attempt To Fix Racist Results Screw Over Businesses?

    It looks like Google Maps vandalism and Google’s way of addressing it may have led to a massive rankings shift in local search results, which can obviously have a major impact on businesses.

    Have you noticed any drastic changes in local search results? Let us know in the comments.

    Last week, news came out that Google Maps had been tampered with to lead users to the White House and other locations when a user searched for certain racist queries. As soon as this was pointed out in a Washington Post article, Google released a statement.

    “Some inappropriate results are surfacing in Google Maps that should not be, and we apologize for any offense this may have caused. Our teams are working to fix this issue quickly,” it said.

    Not long after that, Google said:

    “We were deeply upset by this issue, and we are fixing it now. We apologize this has taken some time to resolve, and want to share more about what we are doing to correct the problem. At Google, we work hard to bring people the information they are looking for, including information about the physical world through Google Maps. Our ranking systems are designed to return results that match a person’s query. For Maps, this means using content about businesses and other public places from across the web. But this week, we heard about a failure in our system—loud and clear. Certain offensive search terms were triggering unexpected maps results, typically because people had used the offensive term in online discussions of the place. This surfaced inappropriate results that users likely weren’t looking for.”

    “Our team has been working hard to fix this issue. Building upon a key algorithmic change we developed for Google Search, we’ve started to update our ranking system to address the majority of these searches—this will gradually roll out globally and we’ll continue to refine our systems over time. Simply put, you shouldn’t see these kinds of results in Google Maps, and we’re taking steps to make sure you don’t.”

    As previously reported, That “key algorithmic change” involved tackling Googlebombs – the practice of making sites rank for certain, often derogatory searches by linking to the site behind “obscure or meaningless queries.” The most famous Google bomb involved George W. Bush’s page ranking for “miserable failure”.

    Google fixed the Google bomb issue a long time ago didn’t it? How could this have happened? Here’s how industry veteran Danny Sullivan explained it in a post last week:

    To understand more, say Google knows about a local sporting goods store. The owner of that store might explain in the description it provides to Google Maps that it sells baseball, football and hockey equipment. It also sells other sporting equipment, but if these things aren’t also listed in its description or on its associated web site, the store might not be deemed relevant for those things.

    With the Pigeon Update, Google sought to correct this. Imagine that some customer of the site wrote a blog post saying that the store was a great place to get skiing equipment. Google, seeing the business named in that post, might effectively add this information to the business listing, making it relevant for skiing equipment. To our understanding, there doesn’t even have to be a link to the business site or listing in Google Maps. Using a business name alone might be enough to create the connection.

    It appears Google’s fix ended up creating a new problem, at least for many businesses who had gotten used to their local result rankings. As Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Roundtable points out, there has been a lot of talk in local search forums about changes that have led to “massive ranking” shifts. He attributes this to the Googlebomb fix, as most discussion of the changes began right after Google’s apology.

    Here’s a sample of what Google Local Specialist Linda Buquet said in a post at Local Search Forum. “Results seem to be more national organic and less localized. PLUS even if you set location to where you client is, the organic results you see are all for the actual location you are searching from and you don’t get results that are localized to the search location setting. PLUS packs are smaller and more scattered if you don’t use a GEO modifier. Just all kinds of changes!…the majority of consumers search without GEO. So most consumers are going to be seeing theses smaller pack/less localized results.”

    Local search guy Mike Blumenthal talks more about the “screwy” location results here.

    It’s entirely possible that Google will get everything back in order, but as we’ve seen with many updates in the past, that can often take a lot of time, and Google is probably more concerned about the vandalism that led to all of this more than some shuffled rankings for the time being. This has been tremendously pad PR for the company, not only due to the highly offensive, racist nature of the most recent case, but also the fact that it is only the latest example in a string of attacks on Google Maps. That’s simply not good for the reputation of such an important product.

    Unfortunately, businesses have little they can do to recover their listings until Google makes changes on its end.

    To be clear, it’s not a sure thing that the Googlebomb fix is actually what caused the “massive” changes in local results. It’s a theory that’s out there, mainly due to the timing and the location-related nature of both things.

    Buquet said in a Google+ comment last night, “I mentioned that at 1st too, but this does not seem related now that I think more about it. They were going to Google bomb it. But Chiropractor and Dentist are not terms they would Google bomb. And the whole layout is different for non-GEO terms, which does not seem to jive with the White House deal.”

    Ultimately, the actual cause doesn’t necessarily matter to businesses who have to deal with the blow Google has dealt with. It seems like things acre screwed up enough that it will need to come down to a fix on Google’s end. Will it happen? In another Google+ post last week, the issue of location settings was brought up, and Google’s John Mueller said that nothing had changed, and that they “use a bunch of factors for geotargeting,” but after others (including Blumenthal) chimed in, Mueller said he’d double check”.

    What are your thoughts on the issue? Discuss.

    Image via Cezary p, Wikimedia Commons

  • Is This Facebook’s Most Small Business-Friendly Offering Yet?

    Facebook announced the launch of its local awareness ads last fall. These enable local business advertisers to target Facebook users based on their location. If a person is near the business, Facebook can advertise to them. Now, the adds have a new feature that will enable the user to interact directly with the business.

    “Local awareness ads are built to be more cost-effective than traditional advertising channels like newspaper while offering more precise targeting and greater reach,” the company explained upon launch. “We think they’re the best way for local businesses to reach people near them, and the best way for people who use Facebook to discover more useful things in their area.”

    When the ads were released, they came with a “Get Directions” button option.

    “After creating an ad, a Page owner can simply enter their business’s address and the radius around which they’d like to reach, and Facebook will use that information in order to create an audience comprised of people who live in that area, or were recently near the business,” a spokesperson for Facebook explained in an email at the time. “For more precise targeting, marketers can also choose the age and gender of their audience. And with convenient call-to-action options such as ‘Get Directions’ or ‘Like Page,’ business owners are able to easily prompt ad engagement.”

    Now there’s another interaction option: Call Now.

    “Our new local awareness objective is the first Facebook ad objective created explicitly for local businesses like yours,” Facebook tells businesses on its landing page. “Ads can be created right from your Page, in just a few minutes. And by adding a ‘Call Now’ button, customers can call you right from your ad in News Feed. Use it today to get more sales, new customers and great results.”

    When a person clicks the button in an ad, the phone automatically dials the business.

    Facebook says local awareness ads are optimized to let you reach the most amount of people for the least amount of money. You can see the results of the ads right on your Page in the notifications panel, where you can see metrics like people reached and clicks. You can specifically see Call Now clicks.

    Recent research from BrightLocal found that business consider phone calls to be the most valued success metric of their online marketing efforts, compared to web traffic, search rankings, and significantly over customers actually walking through the door or inquiring via their website.

    On why businesses value phone calls so highly compared to these other metrics, BrightLocal CEO Myles Anderson told WebProNews, “Firstly there are many local businesses that don’t cater to walk-in customers (e.g. gardeners, plumbers, accountants, therapists, mobile-masseuses) but they all have a phone,” Anderson says. “Secondly, calls convert better than online enquiries. Customers are more engaged (they’ve taken the time to call) and a business has a greater opportunity to understand the customer’s need and propose the best solution for them. Thirdly, speaking to a customer on the phone is often cheaper than dealing with customers in-location. So if you can pre-qualify/pre-sell a customer on the phone then it’s a lower cost per sale.”

    We recently talked about how Facebook is actually doing quite a few things that can benefit small businesses and what they can get out of the social network. The new Call Now button could perhaps be one of the most beneficial yet.

    Via AdWeek

  • Yelp Talks About Its Efforts In Ad Sales

    Yelp Talks About Its Efforts In Ad Sales

    Yelp released its Q1 earnings report on Wednesday, disappointing investors and sending its share price downward. The company did emphasize its rapid mobile growth. Another big focus of the company’s earnings call was on its salesforce.

    On its previous earnings call, Yelp had talked about beefing up its sales staff, saying it planned to increase sales headcount by 40% this year, with growth coming mostly in the U.S. despite its international growth efforts.

    “Many of those folks [salespeople] tend to come to us either straight out of college or within a few years thereafter, but we take all comers and there’s all different kinds of folks,” said COO and Director Geoff Donaker at the time.

    Sales headcount in the first quarter grew roughly 25% year-over-year.

    On Wednesday’s call, CFO Rob Krolik said they implemented a territory change within their sales organization at the beginning of the year in an effort to reach more local businesses, and this had had a negative impact on sales productivity. The change was reversed in March, however, and productivity has begun to recover. He also said Yelp intends to grow the sales team focused on national, mid-market, and franchise businesses.

    Donaker further explained that every year for the last five or six years Yelp has reassigned territories at the beginning of the year, but this year for the first time, hey took geography out of the equation because they wanted to make sure they got leads in to the hands of reps more quickly. They figured out, however, that geography was more important than they thought.

    They figured this out by the end of February, noting the “truisms of local sports teams, scores, and weather and when you’re talking to two different clients right after the other turned out to be pretty important.” They reassigned territories based on geography, and immediately started seeing improvement in March and into April.

    The company’s brand advertising revenue was down 11% year-over-year. It attributes this to the shift to programmatic advertising and the “industry’s desire to have advertising products that are disruptive to the consumer experience.”

    40% of Yelp’s local advertising revenues in Q1 came from CPC advertisers, which was up from 32% in Q4.

    “This rapid shift to performance-based advertising has occurred faster than expected and we’re still relatively early in the development of our CPC product,” said CEO Jeremy Stoppelman. “We’re investing additional resources to scale functionality and expect CPC to remain a promising area of growth for our local advertising business.”

    Asked about how long it would take to roll out new pricing, Donaker said it wouldn’t take long and that it’s something they can do any time. He said it’s even already happening with parts of the salesforce selling “entry level” products to local businesses, which can start with smaller prices if they choose. These can be as low as as $25 or $50 a month for certain products.

    “That’s not typical but it is a product that is available today on a self-serve basis and increasingly available in full service as well,” he said.

    “What still needs to happen from a CPC perspective…kind of auction based pricing for us is no longer new, we’ve been doing this for a couple years now,” he later said. “It’s something that obviously there is a lot of expertise out in the marketplace and now with 90,000 advertisers and even more than that in terms of locations, there’s just a lot to be done to continue to make sure we’re doing the best we can for all our advertisers from the self and full serve perspective.”

    One analyst asked Donaker why Yelp isn’t building out its self-service ad business versus adding salesforce.

    He responded, “It’s growing quite fast as our full serve channel. We feel good about our 55% revenue growth overall and I think at the end of the day while we will continue to invest in our self-serve channel, what we continue to find in the marketplace is that local business owners actually want to talk to us on the phone. They want to be handheld through that experience. Whether they ultimately choose to do some of that work on a self-provisioning basis which we think of as sort of assisted self-serve or from a pure and full self-serve which is of course where we do all the setup for them. These are in many cases not marketing experts. They’re folks out running their businesses every day and they actually want to speak to somebody on the phone who can actually walk them through it.”

    This is, of course, where so many businesses have complained about their experiences with Yelp. There’s a documentary about that in the works, which surprisingly didn’t come up in the conversation on the conference call, despite making plenty of headlines in the media last month.

    Yelp maintained that the company will continue to hire more salespeople, and while additions were lighter than expected during the first quarter, Yelp expects to maintain that 40% increase for the year.

    The company also said it’s expanding the list of partners it’s working with in the programmatic field, where it’s already seen “fairly large growth”.

    Image via Yelp

  • Is Facebook More Small Business-Friendly Than You Thought?

    Facebook is dedicating more resources to trying to stay in the good graces of small businesses, even after it has continually made changes to its News Feed algorithm over the past year and a half, which have largely been detrimental to them.

    Do you think Facebook can still be a valuable asset to small businesses despite the organic reach issue? Let us know in the comments.

    According to the company, there are 40 million small businesses using Facebook, and last year, it enabled $227 billion of economic impact and 4.5 million jobs globally.

    Its latest small business efforts involve a new series of educational events and live chat support for advertisers.

    “Boost Your Business”

    First off, Facebook announced the 2015 Boost Your Business program, which is made up of a series of half-day and 2-hour pop up events, which will educate small businesses on best practices and the “latest marketing strategies and tools”.

    The company has partnered with famed Facebook marketing consultant Mari Smith, MailChimp, Shopify, Visa, and Zenefits to help with the events. Facebook’s own director of small business Jonathan Czaja will also be in attendance.

    The half-day events feature a small business panel and Q&A session moderated by Smith, a small business networking center in which attendees can speak with panelists, a “learn-how zone” with educational videos, Facebook/partner counters where attendees can speak with industry experts, two Facebook learning tracks (one on growing online sales and one on driving in-store sales), and partner sessions which attendees can choose from hosted by MailChimp, Shopify, and Visa. These events will also feature a keynote speech from Czaja.

    The half-day events cost $25 per ticket, and include a $50 Facebook ad coupon on arrival.

    The two-hour pop-up events include a network expo with small business organizations, the chance to meet business leaders and decision makers from the community, presentations of Facebook best practices, local small business panels, and the chance to win one of three $500 ad credit giveaways.

    Facebook describes Mari Smith as “one of the worlds most influential and knowledgeable new media thought leaders and one of Facebook’s top marketing experts.”

    She recently spoke with WebProNews about how businesses can utilize some of Facebook’s newer features in what could be a semi-preview of the types of things she’ll discuss at the events.

    In light of the organic reach blow Facebook has dealt to Facebook pages, we asked Smith at the time if she still sees Facebook as a viable platform for marketing a small business (especially one with a low marketing budget).

    She said, “Yes – I would recommend that low budget be allocated to what are called ‘dark posts.’ That is, ads in the News Feed that look like a Page wall post, but don’t actually appear on the Page. With very granular targeting to reach the exact target market, small businesses can do exceptionally well using Facebook. In addition, making use of custom audiences is a must. This is where a business can upload its own email database, or segments thereof, and place ads in the News Feed to that target group. Plus, using website custom audiences helps a business to retarget its website visitors with Facebook ads.”

    “Facebook recently introduced a new ad feature called ‘Conversion Lift Measurement’ to help advertisers track better ROI, especially offline sales,” she added. “Although the new metric is only available to select large advertisers, this is great news for small businesses when the feature eventually becomes available.”

    More on Conversion Lift Management here.

    “In addition, we’ll soon see the rollout of Facebook’s ‘Atlas’ advertising product that allows retargeting and tracking via mobile devices,” Smith said. “Retargeting typically works via cookies; however, cookies don’t work on mobile. The way Atlas works, is advertisers can then place ads to remarket to visitors whether they view on desktop, mobile or tablet. In other words, reaching the exact audience no matter what device they’re on.”

    “Page owners may wish to try out the new organic Interest Targeting feature to see if that helps create a greater reach,” she continued. “Prior to publishing a piece of content, admins can pre-select subsets of their fanbase. Another recent change is the ability to create a Post End Date – this stops a post from showing in News Feed at the specific time/date that you wish. Handy for, as Facebook states, ‘a publisher can use this to remove yesterday’s weather report from News Feed.’”

    We talked more about these features in an article here.

    Smith will only be appearing at the four half-day events in San Diego, Minneapolis, Nashville, and Boston. She had this to say on her website with regards to the event series:

    I’ve been a raving evangelist of the power of Facebook – specifically for business use – since I first joined the platform on May 4th, 2007. My 8th anniversary of being on Facebook (my ‘Faceversary’!) is coming up. This is truly the perfect timing for me to work directly with Facebook to support the deeper education of small and medium sized businesses – something I’m very passionate about, having lead numerous Facebook marketing live and virtual trainings for many years.

    As you know, there’s been innumerable changes to Facebook’s business pages, ads and News Feed algorithm over the years. What works for businesses in today’s Facebook world is very different to what worked even last year.

    I have long believed that the best antidote to lackluster results on Facebook is education. And, not just training on how to use the Facebook (ad) products; but a full-on integrated online marketing approach that includes optimized landing pages, lead generation, email marketing and customer relationship and retention strategies.

    Boost Your Business isn’t Facebook’s only new effort to educate businesses about getting more out of Facebook. About a month ago, Facebook announced BluePrint, a program that trains marketers on how to create better campaigns that “drive business results”.

    It’s kind of like a Khan Academy for Facebook marketing, and includes 40 learning paths/modules that can be accessed from desktop or mobile. They’re available to anyone with a Facebook account. Here’s a look at the different courses.

    Online Chat Support

    As mentioned earlier, Facebook is also launching online chat support for small business advertisers. They can access this by clicking “Get Help” on the Facebook for Business website. They can chat and screen share with a trained Ads Specialists and get “quick” answers to their Facebook advertising questions, according to the company.

    The feature will roll out in the US, UK, and Ireland for now, and will be made available to additional countries later in the year. Facebook says it will also test mobile chat and phone support this year.

    According to TechCrunch, Czaja says Facebook has “hundreds of reps” handling email and chat support, and that the company intends to grow that number “dramatically” in the coming years.

    Facebook Wants Businesses To Do More

    Facebook doesn’t just want to educate businesses and give them more tools. They also want businesses to “make themselves useful” as the Wall Street Journal reports. From that:

    Now, Facebook wants businesses to beef up their offerings, said vice president of small business Dan Levy. That could mean helping users book flights, get directions or schedule an appointment with a plumber. “We’re in the process of making a lot of updates to pages,” Levy said. “Increasingly the utility of pages for people and businesses is something that’s really important.”

    Some big businesses use their Facebook pages this way. Southwest Airlines LUV -3.47%, for example, has a “book now” button on its Facebook page that sends users to its website. Retailer J. Crew’s page links to its ecommerce site.

    Facebook is certainly forcing businesses and marketers to get more creative.

    “For brands who have put all their efforts into developing and growing a community on Facebook, the decline of organic reach feels like being denied access to their own fans. Brands now have to work harder to reach their target audiences, or, they simply have to cough up the money,” Moment.me CEO Dovev Goldstein recently told WebProNews. “For big brands with deep pockets, this might be less of a problem, but for small to medium businesses, this new development can seem to pose a big barrier to making social media work for them.”

    “While it might seem unfair to brands who have spent time and money growing their likes on Facebook, for social media marketers themselves, this development simply forces them to get more creative and clever in how they use the social medium as a way to promote their brand’s story,” he said. “Yes, the decline in organic reach does mean that social media marketing will have to be conducted differently, but it can also be looked at as a new opportunity to redefine how brands communicate in this space. Small businesses in particular have an opportunity to shine here. They can use their relatively small size to be hyper-targeted in their outreach, going after individual users as opposed to posting a promotional post designed to pull in more quantity over quality.”

    Is Video the Answer?

    Is video the answer to all of small businesses’ Facebook problems? Probably not, but all signs point to it being a pretty big help.

    The company has been constantly pushing video all year since its January announcement that video posts per person has increased 75% globally and 94% in the US. Numerous studies have since surfaced finding Facebook video to be a large focus of marketers and an effective tool. Video has trumped photos as the post format of choice for the best organic reach.

    “I think all marketers have the opportunity to do video, and that’s pretty exciting, including SMBs who would never be able to hire a film crew and buy a TV ad,” said Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg during the company’s earnings call last week. “We’re seeing those put videos in. Over 1 million SMBs have posted videos and done really small ad buys around them. And that’s pretty cool because I don’t think there are probably 1 million advertisers who have bought TV ads in that same period of time.”

    A study from Visible Measures found that Facebook is more effective than YouTube for driving immediate growth in video viewership, though YouTube still dominates as the video’s life goes on.

    Organic Reach Picture Worsens, But Ad Effectiveness Gets Better

    In terms of organic reach in general, Facebook is still making algorithm changes that are most likely unfavorable for Pages. As recently as last week, Facebook announced yet more changes, one of which will show some people more content from their friends and less from Pages.

    On the paid side of things, however, the effectiveness of Facebook ads appears to only be getting better. We recently looked at a report from Nanigans, which found that click-through rates increased 17% quarter-over-quarter and about 260% year-over-year as advertisers have embraced different types of ad formats like video and multi-product ads.

    We also looked at a report fro Kinetic Social finding click-through rates to be up 266% year-over-year with the average CTR across all Facebook campaigns continuing to rise. Here’s what CTR looked like by ad type, placement and vertical:

    Facebook is Giving Businesses More Tools

    You can hate on Facebook for the organic reach thing all you want, but there’s no question that the company has released a multitude of new tools that businesses can potentially take advantage of. This includes a lot of ad tools, but also other things.

    On the ad side, there’s the Ads Manager app, which helps businesses manage their ad campaigns from their mobile devices. It also launched the Audience Network, its mobile ad network, which lets mobile apps monetize through Facebook’s active advertisers. Other semi-new ad-related offerings include local awareness ads, conversion lift measurement, and of course product ads.

    A couple months ago, Facebook announced that it reached 2 million active advertisers. At the time, we ran through many of the company’s latest ad offerings including, but not limited to these things.

    In January, Facebook launched Place Tips, which appear at the top of users’ News Feeds to give them information about the places they’re at.

    At the same time, the company announced that it’s testing Bluetooth beacons with select businesses that allow them to tap into this functionality. For brick-and-mortar businesses, this is a major area to keep an eye on as time goes on.

    Facebook has made numerous moves, which point to the social network becoming a better place for businesses and individuals to sell products. In addition to the multi-product ads, Facebook acquired shopping search engine TheFind to incorporate its technology into the Facebook ad ecosystem.

    Facebook also has a Buy button, which is still only available on a limited basis, but it did give advertisers call-to-action buttons in December, which include a “shop now” option. The company has also added new buying and selling features to Groups.

    Another recently launched a tool that has the potential to benefit small businesses is a new standalone Android app called Hello, which serves as a caller ID app, but also as a provider of local business search and information.

    Opportunities with Messenger

    It also added peer-to-peer payments to Messenger, not entirely unlike Square’s Square Cash offering, which that company recently turned into a small business marketing vehicle with $Cashtags.

    And speaking of Messenger, in addition to turning the product into its own developer platform (which could provide some business opportunities itself), Facebook announced last month that it is readying some business-specific features for it. Businesses will be able to connect with customers directly through this intimate messaging platform, potentially replacing email as a communication channel for some customers.

    As a business, you can enable your customers to connect with you via Messenger. If they elect to do so, you’ll be able to send them personalized updates and talk to them in real time.

    You can use custom layouts for order confirmation, shopping updates, etc. As the company says, “This lets your customers keep all their order info in one place and reach out to you if they need to change anything.”

    Facebook is hoping businesses will use this to improve their customer support experiences, which as studies have shown, are not particularly great when it comes to social media.

    Budget and Time are Obstacles

    Besides the reduction of organic reach on Facebook, small businesses’ biggest obstacles are their budgets and their time/resources for marketing.

    A study from BrightLocal found that 34% of small businesses allocate less than 10% of their marketing budgets to online channels, while 50% allocate less than 30% and only 29% allocate over 70%.

    “I found this figure a little perplexing when you consider the other responses SMBs gave,” CEO Myles Anderson told WebProNews. “75% said online was effective at bringing in new customers & 3 of top 4 most effective marketing channels are ‘digital’. Yet SMBs allocate a disproportionately low % of their marketing budgets online. I believe the reason is a combination of a few factors.”

    “Many business owners handle it themselves so don’t assign a monetary budget to online marketing,” he said. “The survey showed that 64% of business owners handle their internet marketing themselves. Online marketing isn’t applicable or doesn’t work for some businesses so they don’t invest. Some businesses rely solely on Word of Mouth to bring in new customers so don’t invest in online. Budgets are too low to play in the online arena.”

    The study found a direct correlation between the number of employees the business has and the monthly marketing budget.

    30% of those running the business on their own said online marketing was simply ‘not effective’. When you have to do everything, it’s not hard to understand why that might be. The fewer people a business has, the harder it is to do marketing right.

    According to another report from Thrive Analytics, 77% of small and medium-sized businesses don’t think they have the time or knowledge to manage their digital media efforts effectively, while 70% wish they could take advantage of digital media to help them expand their businesses and reach.

    That study did find that just after company websites (and we’re talking a one percentage point difference here), Facebook and/or social media sites are the biggest area of focus for budget growth planned by SMBs over the next twelve months.

    However, other research finds that small businesses haven’t increased their social presences at all over the past year:

    “When you think about our marketer growth, I think we have an ability to grow both the number of advertisers who use our platform, but also the percentage of their business that we get,” said Sandberg on the earnings call. “So 30 million small business pages continuing to grow [again, now 40 million]. We have an opportunity to turn those businesses into advertisers and marketers, and that’s what we’ve done successfully and we’re going to continue to focus on that. And we do that by building very simple ad products.”

    “There are some who spend a large portion of their budget on Facebook, but that’s actually very unusual,” she told investors. “For most people, even when they start spending with us, we’re a small portion of their budget. And when you look at the consumer time we get, we are not getting the equivalent amount of time or resources from our marketers really of any size, and therein lies our opportunity to grow.”

    Yes, Facebook wants you to advertise. The free ride to the News Feed is a thing of the past, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that Facebook isn’t small business-friendly. The advertising opportunities are only improving, but even beyond that, the company is putting out a lot of interesting tools and features that businesses may be able to take advantage of.

    Either way, Facebook is clearly dedicated to trying to win over the minds of distraught small businesses. How do you think it’s doing? Discuss.

    Images via Facebook, Socialbakers, Nanigans, Kinetic Social, BrightLocal, Thrive Analytics, eMarketer

  • Yelp Shares Findings On Consumer Reservations

    Yelp Shares Findings On Consumer Reservations

    Yelp is sharing some findings from a national survey it commissioned from Nielsen to “get intel on how consumers across the country are making reservations.”

    This comes as the company is rolling out Yelp Now, a recently announced search tool for reservations and ordering. The feature enables users to filter search results to show businesses with available reservations based on date, time, party size, and the type of food they want or restaurants that deliver.

    Yelp Now will eventually expand to include businesses beyond restaurants including spas, hotels, plumbers, and dentists.

    The roll-out began earlier this month in select U.S. cities on desktop and iOS. It allows users to reserve tables at restaurants that use Yelp SeatMe and Yelp Reservations. For delivery, users can access those using Yelp’s Eat24, ChowNow, Delivery.com, or EatStreet.

    “Our goal is to make Yelp the best place for consumers to discover and transact with great local businesses, and to help business owners connect with the millions of people who use Yelp every day,” says Yelp’s Brad Menezes. “Whether you’re the couch potato ordering food at midnight or the die-hard foodie planning a dinner at the hottest new restaurant, we’ve got you covered!”

    Here are some findings from the Nielsen study:

  • Nearly 4 in 10 (39%) Americans researched or checked reviews of a restaurant before their last dining experience
  • Nearly a third of Americans (28%) researched or checked reviews of a restaurant before they placed an order for takeout or delivery
    15% of Americans made a reservation last time they dined out. In Atlanta and DC, men made reservations three times more often than women.
  • Of people who made a reservation last time they dined out…

    – 42% did so online or using an app

    – More men than women went online or used an app to make that reservation (47% vs. 37%)

    – 75% of people who made a reservation last time they dined out did so within 2 days of their dining experience.

    – More men than women made a same day reservation (46% vs. 33%)

    • Yelp also provided some New York-specific stats. 18% of New Yorkers made a reservation last time they dined out.

    The company says, “In the NYC Metro, more women than men made a reservation last time they dined out (20% vs. 16%) Of those in the NYC Metro who made a reservation last time they dined out: 41% did so online or using an app; More women than men made the reservation online or using an app (42% vs. 40%); 46% did so the same day as their dining experience; 100% of men did so within 2 days of their dining experience vs. 62% of women.”

    Yelp will announce its Q1 earnings on Wednesday, and will likely discuss Yelp Now and its reservations business further in the ensuing conference call.

    Images via Yelp

  • Sheryl Sandberg On What Facebook Is Doing For Small Businesses

    In recent months there have been a lot of articles written about how Facebook is hurting or “failing” small businesses.

    In November, Tech Times wrote that “Facebook is killing small business entrepreneurs”.

    Last month, Fast Company published an article called “How Facebook is Failing Local Businesses“.

    Are these stories exaggerated? It really depends on the business, but in general, probably. Either way, it seems worth taking a look at what the company said about small and medium sized businesses on its earnings call on Wednesday.

    In her prepared remarks, COO Sheryl Sandberg said, “In Q2 of last year, we shared that we reached 30 million active business Pages on Facebook. This number continues to grow as more and more small businesses are using our free Pages product – and we remain focused on converting these Page owners into advertisers. One way we’re doing this is by providing simple, easy-to-use products; over 80% of new advertisers start with entry-level tools like a promoted post or Page like. We are increasingly focused on making sure these tools work well on mobile. We’re also educating marketers on how to use Facebook more effectively. We recently launched two online training resources: Blueprint, for large clients and agencies, and ‘Learn How’ videos for small businesses. These efforts are paying off. In Q1 we announced that we now have over 2 million active advertisers.”

    She talked about SMBs more during the Q&A session at the end of the call. Here are her words on the subject (via Seeking Alpha’s transcript):

    I think all marketers have the opportunity to do video, and that’s pretty exciting, including SMBs who would never be able to hire a film crew and buy a TV ad. We’re seeing those put videos in. Over 1 million SMBs have posted videos and done really small ad buys around them. And that’s pretty cool because I don’t think there are probably 1 million advertisers who have bought TV ads in that same period of time.

    …

    On SMBs, we have a very small test in the U.S. We started last quarter for buy-on Facebook, and that enables people to buy products from merchants with a buy button on Pages, and it is a product that is used and aimed at SMBs. We’re also very focused on helping SMBs have a presence, especially a mobile presence. 35% of SMBs in the United States, which is probably ahead of most other countries, don’t have a web presence at all, and an even smaller percentage of SMBs have a mobile web presence or any kind of mobile presence that works. And so Pages are a good and free and easy way to have a mobile presence, and that’s something we’re very focused on growing.
    …

    When you think about our marketer growth, I think we have an ability to grow both the number of advertisers who use our platform, but also the percentage of their business that we get. So 30 million small business pages continuing to grow. We have an opportunity to turn those businesses into advertisers and marketers, and that’s what we’ve done successfully and we’re going to continue to focus on that. And we do that by building very simple ad products.

    And then when you think about the percentage of spend we have, what I said before on this call, which is we only have a small percentage of even our large customers, that’s true of our small customers, too. Now, there are some who spend a large portion of their budget on Facebook, but that’s actually very unusual. For most people, even when they start spending with us, we’re a small portion of their budget. And when you look at the consumer time we get, we are not getting the equivalent amount of time or resources from our marketers really of any size, and therein lies our opportunity to grow.

    One of the things that has been the biggest thorn in the side of small businesses (especially those with lower marketing budgets) is the fact that Facebook keeps changing its News Feed algorithm in ways that prevent Facebook Page posts from being seen by more people without having to pay for visibility.

    In fact, the company just announced more changes this week, which don’t look particularly good for these businesses. CEO Mark Zuckerberg addressed these on the earnings call as well, though his words probably aren’t of much comfort to those who have been suffering from these changes.

    Facebook did make another announcement this week, which could potentially be good for small businesses with Facebook pages. It launched a new Android app that provides users with Facebook information for caller ID as well as business search functionality. These separate Facebook apps, however, don’t always gain a ton of users, so it’s hard to say what kind of impact this one will have.

    Image via Facebook

  • Square Gives Small Businesses Attractive New Email Marketing Option

    Square just announced a new service that might make email marketing service providers a little nervous. It’s called Square Marketing, and comes with an email marketing solution for small businesses, who use Square for payments.

    It’s unclear exactly how many active merchants Square has under its belt, but according to stats the company released late last year, its merchants make up the 13th largest American retailer. The company told AdAge it has “millions of small businesses” using Square to process transactions. That’s a lot of small businesses who can potentially rely on Square for their email marketing efforts.

    Square Marketing is part of a new suite of “customer engagement tools,” which the company says is “uniquely suited for local businesses,” and link online marketing efforts to sales in the real world for those using Square Register.

    “You can choose from several beautiful, customizable email templates to create a promotion, an announcement, or an event invitation,” the company explains. “And Square gives you something no one else can offer: preorganized lists of customers who’ve already visited your store — whether loyal, casual, or lapsed — so you can target the right audience with the right message from day one. You might invite loyal customers to a ‘Friends and Family’ event or maybe re-engage lapsed customers with a special deal.”

    “More importantly, Square Marketing closes the loop for brick-and-mortar businesses,” it adds. “Traditional email marketing tools show how many people opened your email. But with Square, you see precisely how marketing drives in-store sales, whether customers come back, and how much they spend when they do.”

    This all sounds quite attractive for small businesses with physical stores – many of which are still only tip-toeing around online marketing in the first place.

    According to the company, the offering caters to a speedy email marketing process, as the templates and distribution lists it builds let you “go from idea to sent email campaign in minutes.”

    The Square Dashboard shows results from the email campaigns, including return on investment for each email.

    There’s a free version in which you have to pay ten cents per email and one that costs $15 a month for unlimited email and additional features. Here’s a comparison of what you get with each.

    Square has been running a pilot test of the service with some sellers. Those who sent out promotions saw open and redemption rates at 2x the industry average, according to the company. One user, who owns a bakery, said she sends out promotions once very two weeks to about 800 customers, and that it’s been a great way to get people into her store.

    “Those numbers translate into real dollars,” it says. “Square sellers generated nearly $1,000,000 in sales tied directly to promotion redemptions.”

    It says it surveyed its merchants and that 80% of respondents said they’re “very likely” to recommend Square Marketing to colleagues.

    Images via Square

  • Amazon Starts Handpicking Local Service Businesses To Put In Front Of Customers

    Amazon announced the launch of a new service called Amazon Home Services, which lets customers browse, buy, and schedule appointments with professional services via a marketplace of services in categories like home improvement, computer & electronics, lawn & garden, lessons, automotive, and others.

    This appears to be what we learned about last summer, which was then called Amazon Local Services. Documentation for that on Amazon’s site now comes with the Amazon Home Services brand.

    According to the company, all the professionals in the marketplace have been handpicked, and offer upfront pricing on pre-packaged services along with reviews from customers that have made “verified purchases”. You may recall last summer that people were talking about Amazon competing with Yelp. Well, this is it.

    “All Amazon Home Services reviews are from verified purchases, so customers know they are hearing from real customers,” Amazon says. “No special sign up or subscription is required to read reviews and ratings.”

    Service professionals are only added to the marketplace on an invitation-only basis. They go through background checks, are required to maintain insurance, and are expected to uphold “a high performance standard.” Services are backed by Amazon’s “Happiness Guarantee”.

    “Amazon doesn’t just refer customers to providers, but stays with them every step of the way,” the company says. “All services purchased are guaranteed. If customers are not satisfied at the end of the service, Amazon will work with customers and the pro to ensure the job gets done right or provide a refund.”

    “Service pros compete for a customer’s business based on price, quality and availability,” it adds. “If customers find a lower price for the same service and pro, we will match it. Customers can add pre-packaged services right to their cart with just a few clicks on Amazon and are only charged when the service is completed.”

    Once you find the right service, just add it to your cart, and set up a time. You only pay when the job is complete. You can also create custom requests and get estimates back within one business day.

    Amazon says the service makes purchasing services as easy as buying products on Amazon. It released this infographic to illustrate the services’s benefits:

    For now, Amazon Home Services is available to people in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle, but will be expanding in time. Users can access the marketplace by finding the Amazon Home Services link in the “Shop by Department” section on the Amazon homepage. Searching “home services” or “local services” will also get you there.

    Amazon is currently giving away a $20 gift card to people buying services valued at $99 or higher. That ends on April 13.

    Businesses that want to get involved will need to go through Amazon Selling Services. There’s no charge to sign up or to list services, and businesses only pay Amazon when they get paid. There aren’t any lead fees.

    Businesses can set prices for standard services up front and accept requests for custom services, which will be delivered to their inboxes. Amazon handles the payment processing and customer payment issues.

    Beyond the marketplace itself, Amazon is giving businesses visibility by showing them to customers who shop for related products.

    You can apply for an invitation here.

    Images via Amazon

  • Google Adds Call-Only Campaigns To AdWords

    Google Adds Call-Only Campaigns To AdWords

    Google announced the launch of new call-only campaigns for AdWords. These let businesses reach customers by prominently showing their phone number, business description, and a call button on the search results page.

    “People are living their lives online and engaging with your business in new ways,” says AdWords product manager Amit Agarwal. “With smartphones in hand, consumers are increasingly looking for products or services while on the go and then placing a call right away. In fact, 70% of mobile searchers call a business directly from search results.”

    “Call-only campaigns are specially designed to only show on mobile devices that can make phone calls,” he says. “This means every click you pay for can be a phone call to your business.”

    As Google notes, advertisers can simply form their bid strategies based on CPA or ROAS goals for calls as every click goes toward a phone call. The company recommends tailoring ads for calls with language like “speak to a specialist today” or “call to make an appointment”.

    Recent research from BrightLocal found that phone calls are the success metric small to midsize businesses are most concerned with.

    Image via Google

  • Yelp Is Beefing Up Its Sales Staff

    Yelp Is Beefing Up Its Sales Staff

    Yelp released its earnings report for the fourth quarter and full year 2014 on Thursday, and as previously reported, the company grew its local advertising accounts by 48% over the course of 2014.

    Yelp execs discussed the progress of its ad offerings quite a bit during a conference call. The company intends to increase its sales headcount by 40% this year. This will mostly be in the U.S. despite the company’s international growth efforts (it launched in five new countries in 2014).

    The news is sure to draw some eye rolls from those accusing Yelp salespeople of extorting them by holding positive reviews hostage (allegations that have never been proven and that Yelp has always successfully combated on a legal basis). Yelp announced last month that the FTC closed an investigation related to this without taking any action against the company.

    “Many of those folks [salespeople] tend to come to us either straight out of college or within a few years thereafter, but we take all comers and there’s all different kinds of folks,” said COO and Director Geoff Donaker on the conference call (via Seeking Alpha’s transcript). “But it is a sales training program and so most of that headcount is folks who are reaching out to local businesses of different stripes. Of course, within that number, there is some international and there is some sort of specialty sales and mid-market franchise and national accounts, but the majority of it is kind of traditional local sales headcount here in the U.S.”

    Donaker noted that while Yelp has traditionally focused on selling impressions-based packages, it made its packaged CPC product widely available in September. He said they’re happy with the “fast uptake” of that, and that CPC advertisers accounted for 32% of local revenue during the fourth quarter (up from 23% in Q3).

    “The next logical step in our closing-the-loop efforts is to connect advertising spend all the way through to customer leads and spending,” said Donaker. “We are now tracking these ad-driven leads and associated revenue estimates for all advertisers, and we’ll be making this data available in our business owner tools in the coming quarters.”

    He mentioned that local CPC customers experience an average ROI of over 500% on their Yelp ad spend.

    Yelp has also seen increased growth from those utilizing its self-serve ads. More and more people are starting their advertising process there, and then electing to call up Yelp salespeople, Donaker said.

    “Taken together, we believe that most business owners will continue to prefer consulting with our sales people, though many of these conversations may increasingly be what we think of as assisted self-serve,” he said.

    In response to a question from an analyst, Donaker said Yelp has “an awful lot” of unused or unsold ad inventory.

    “Also, we’re seeing that in some more competitive categories or geo categories, if you will,” he said. “We do see that prices quickly rise within packaged CPC because that is an auction-based dynamic where folks effectively are bringing in an amount of money that they’re going to spend on CPC advertising and then leaving it to the bidding to determine what the prices will ultimately be for that inventory. And so you can imagine tight categories like movers in San Francisco, those prices are able to move up pretty quickly. So I think there is headroom in both price as well as inventory generally.”

    One analyst noted that core search players are recommending bids at about 2x the levels of Yelp.

    “We noticed the same thing as we’ve done a little bit of benchmarking, and it obviously gives us comfort with both the ROI that we’re giving to advertisers today as well as the headroom in those categories for pricing,” Donaker responded. “And so the simple answer is just acquisition, and that’s why we continue to be focused on bringing in as many CPC advertisers as we can because over time, more competition should mean prices will rise as well as, hopefully, more happy customers.

    At one point, CEO Jeremy Stoppelman noted that more than half of Yelp’s advertisers are taking advantage of video offerings.

    Image via Yelp

  • Yelp Grew Local Advertising Accounts 48% Over 2014

    Yelp just released its earnings report for the fourth quarter and full year 2014. Net revenue for the quarter grew 56% year-over-year as the company grew local advertising accounts by 48% to approximately 84,000.

    To be clear, Yelp considers local advertising accounts to be all local business accounts from which it recognizes local revenue in a given three-month period.

    Cumulative reviews grew 35% to about 71 million while average monthly unique visitors grew 13% to 135 million. Average monthly mobile uniques grew 37% to 72 million. Active local business accounts grew 39% year over year to 93,700.

    Last week, Yelp dropped the hammer on another round of businesses it says were violating its guidelines. It dished out consumer alerts to 85 business pages warning users about practices they claim to have discovered.

    Here’s Yelp’s earnings release in its entirety:

    SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 5, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — Yelp Inc. (NYSE: YELP), the company that connects consumers with great local businesses, today announced financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2014.

    • Net revenue was $109.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2014, reflecting 56% growth over the fourth quarter of 2013
    • Cash flow from operations was $18.9 million in the fourth quarter. Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter of 2014 was $25.1 million, reflecting a nearly 150% increase over the fourth quarter of 2013
    • Cumulative reviews grew 35% year over year to approximately 71 million
    • Average monthly unique visitors grew 13% year over year to approximately 135 million1 and average monthly mobile unique visitors grew 37% year over year to approximately 72 million2
    • Active local business accounts grew 39% year over year to approximately 93,700
    • Local advertising accounts grew 48% year over year to approximately 84,0003

    Net income in the fourth quarter of 2014 was $32.7 million, or $0.42 per share, compared to a net loss of$(2.1) million, or $(0.03) per share, in the fourth quarter of 2013. Net income for the fourth quarter of 2014 included an income tax benefit of $26.2 million, or $0.34 per share, due to the release of a deferred tax asset valuation allowance.

    Net revenue for the full year ended December 31, 2014 was $377.5 million, an increase of 62% compared to $233.0 million in the prior year. Net income for the full year ended December 31, 2014 was $36.5 million, or $0.48 per share, compared to a net loss of $(10.1) million, or $(0.15) per share, in 2013. Adjusted EBITDA for the full year 2014 was $70.9 million compared to $29.4 million for the prior year.

    Non-GAAP net income, which consists of net income excluding stock-based compensation, amortization and valuation allowance release, was $18.9 million for the fourth quarter, or $0.24 per share, compared to $7.3 million, or $0.11 per share, in the fourth quarter of 2013. Non-GAAP net income for the full year endedDecember 31, 2014 was $53.0 million, or $0.69 per share, compared to $18.3 million, or $0.28 per share, for the comparable period in 2013.

    “We are extremely pleased with our accomplishments in 2014, having made great progress on the key initiatives we set at the beginning of the year,” said Jeremy Stoppelman, Yelp’s chief executive officer. “We continued to support the Yelp community with numerous improvements to the consumer experience, expanded our geographic footprint and found new ways to communicate the valuable leads we deliver to local businesses. As we move into 2015, we will look to drive mobile engagement by making Yelp even more useful for everyday consumer needs, increase awareness of Yelp among consumers and deliver and measure ROI for our advertisers. We see a vast market opportunity ahead of us and look forward to capturing more advertising spend as it shifts online.”

    “This past year marked an important milestone for Yelp,” added Rob Krolik, Yelp’s chief financial officer. “We achieved full year profitability for the first time while growing revenue in excess of 60% in 2014 and generating operating cash flow of approximately $58 million. Given the leverage we’ve seen in the business and the large opportunity ahead of us, we believe we can achieve adjusted EBITDA margins of 35-40% over the long term.”

    Business Highlights

    • Closing the loop with businesses:  Yelp continued to increase the value it delivers to business owners with the launch of the Yelp for Business Owners app to help business owners interact with Yelp consumers and view their business metrics on-the-go. In the fourth quarter, consumers made approximately 350,000 transactions through Yelp Platform. Now, Yelp has more than 60,000 businesses integrated into Yelp Platform through its 12 partners, enabling even more transactions.
    • International expansion:  Yelp launched in five new countries in 2014, expanding its global footprint to 29 countries around the world. Consumers are now able to use the mobile translation feature to read Yelp content in 16 different languages. In the fourth quarter, Yelp acquired review sites Restaurant-Kritik and Cityvox to deepen and broaden its content in Europe.
    • Community engagement:  Consumer and community engagement continued to grow in 2014 as new features such as video uploads, Yelp Reservations and Message the Business were added to enhance the consumer experience. In the fourth quarter, mobile app contributions rose to approximately 58% of reviews and photos posted.

    Business Outlook

    As of today, Yelp is providing its outlook for the first quarter and full year of 2015.

    • For the first quarter of 2015, net revenue is expected to be in the range of $114 million to $116 million, representing growth of approximately 51% compared to the first quarter of 2014. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be in the range of $19 million to $21 million. Stock-based compensation is expected to be in the range of $12 million to $13 million, and depreciation and amortization is expected to be approximately 4-5% of revenue.
    • For the full year of 2015, net revenue is expected to be in the range of $538 million to $543 million, representing growth of approximately 43% compared to full year 2014. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be in the range of $100 million to $103 million. Stock-based compensation is expected to be in the range of $58 million to $60 million, and depreciation and amortization is expected to be approximately 4-5% of revenue.

    Quarterly Conference Call

    To access the call, please dial 1 (800) 708-4539, or outside the U.S. 1 (847) 619-6396, with Passcode 38800596, at least five minutes prior to the 1:30 p.m. PT start time.  A live webcast of the call will also be available at http://www.yelp-ir.com under the Events & Presentations menu.  An audio replay will be available between 4:00 p.m. PT February 05, 2015 and 11:59 p.m. PT February 12, 2015 by calling 1 (888) 843-7419 or 1 (630) 652-3042, with Passcode 38800596.  The replay will also be available on the Company’s website at http://www.yelp-ir.com.

    About Yelp

    Yelp Inc. (http://www.yelp.com) connects people with great local businesses. Yelp was founded in San Francisco in July 2004. Since then, Yelp communities have taken root in major metros across 29 countries. Yelp had a monthly average of approximately 135 million unique visitors during the fourth quarter of 20141. By the end of the same quarter, Yelpers had written approximately 71 million local reviews, making Yelp the leading local guide for real word-of-mouth on everything from boutiques and mechanics to restaurants and dentists. Approximately 72 million unique visitors visited Yelp via their mobile device on a monthly average basis during the fourth quarter of 20142.

    1 Source: “Users” as measured by Google Analytics

    2 Average monthly mobile unique visitors based on the number of unique visitors accessing Yelp via mobile web and unique devices accessing the app on a monthly average basis over a given three-month period.

    3 Local advertising accounts comprise all local business accounts from which we recognize Local revenue in a given three-month period.

    Non-GAAP Financial Measures

    This press release includes information relating to Adjusted EBITDA and Non-GAAP net income, each of which the Securities and Exchange Commission has defined as a “non-GAAP financial measures.” Adjusted EBITDA and Non-GAAP net income have been included in this press release because they are key measures used by the Company’s management and board of directors to understand and evaluate core operating performance and trends, to prepare and approve its annual budget and to develop short- and long-term operational plans. The presentation of this financial information, which is not prepared under any comprehensive set of accounting rules or principles, is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (“GAAP”).

    Adjusted EBITDA and Non-GAAP net income have limitations as analytical tools, and you should not consider them in isolation or as substitutes for analysis of the Company’s results as reported under GAAP. Some of these limitations are:

    • although depreciation and amortization are non-cash charges, the assets being depreciated and amortized may have to be replaced in the future, and adjusted EBITDA and Non-GAAP net income do not reflect cash capital expenditure requirements for such replacements or for new capital expenditure requirements;
    • adjusted EBITDA does not reflect changes in, or cash requirements for, the Company’s working capital needs;
    • adjusted EBITDA and Non-GAAP net income do not consider the potentially dilutive impact of equity-based compensation;
    • adjusted EBITDA does not reflect tax payments that may represent a reduction in cash available to us;
    • adjusted EBITDA does not take into account restructuring and integration costs associated with our acquisition of Qype;
    • and other companies, including those in the Company’s industry, may calculate adjusted EBITDA differently, which reduces its usefulness as a comparative measure.

    Because of these limitations, you should consider adjusted EBITDA and Non-GAAP net income alongside other financial performance measures, including various cash flow metrics, net income (loss) and the Company’s other GAAP results. Additionally, the Company has not reconciled its adjusted EBITDA outlook for the first quarter and full year 2015 to its net income (loss) outlook because it does not provide an outlook for other income (expense) and provision for income taxes, which are reconciling items between net income (loss) and adjusted EBITDA. As items that impact net income (loss) are out of the Company’s control and cannot be reasonably predicted, the Company is unable to provide such an outlook. Accordingly, reconciliation to net income (loss) outlook for the first quarter and full year 2015 is not available without unreasonable effort. For a reconciliation of historical non-GAAP financial measures to the nearest comparable GAAP measures, see the Non-GAAP reconciliations included below in this press release.

    Forward-Looking Statements

    This press release contains forward-looking statements relating to, among other things, the future performance of Yelp and its consolidated subsidiaries that are based on the Company’s current expectations, forecasts and assumptions and involve risks and uncertainties. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding expected financial results for the first quarter and full year 2015, the Company’s potential adjusted EBITDA margins over the long term, the future growth in Company revenue and continued investing by the Company in its future growth, the Company’s ability to drive mobile engagement, increase awareness of Yelp  among consumers, deliver and measure ROI for our advertisers, expand geographically and build Yelp communities internationally and expand its markets and presence in existing markets, the Company’s ability to capture the large local opportunity and more advertising spend and develop new ways to close the loop with local businesses. The Company’s actual results could differ materially from those predicted or implied and reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to: the Company’s short operating history in an evolving industry; the Company’s ability to generate sufficient revenue to maintain profitability, particularly in light of its significant ongoing sales and marketing expenses; the Company’s ability to successfully manage acquisitions of new businesses, solutions or technologies, including Qype and SeatMe, and to integrate those businesses, solutions or technologies; the Company’s reliance on traffic to its website from search engines like Google and Bing; the Company’s ability to generate and maintain sufficient high quality content from its users; maintaining a strong brand and managing negative publicity that may arise; maintaining and expanding the Company’s base of advertisers; changes in political, business and economic conditions, including any European or general economic downturn or crisis and any conditions that affect ecommerce growth; fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; the Company’s ability to deal with the increasingly competitive local search environment; the Company’s need and ability to manage other regulatory, tax and litigation risks as its services are offered in more jurisdictions and applicable laws become more restrictive; the competitive and regulatory environment while the Company continues to expand geographically and introduce new products and as new laws and regulations related to Internet companies come into effect; the Company’s ability to timely upgrade and develop its systems, infrastructure and customer service capabilities. The forward-looking statements in this release do not include the potential impact of any acquisitions or divestitures that may be announced and/or completed after the date hereof.

    More information about factors that could affect the Company’s operating results is included under the captions “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in the Company’s most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q at http://www.yelp-ir.com or the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements in this release, which are based on information available to the Company on the date hereof. Yelp assumes no obligation to update such statements. The results we report in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the three months and year ended December 31, 2014 could differ from the preliminary results we have announced in this press release.

    Investor Relations Contact Information
    Yelp Investor Relations
    Wendy Lim
    (415) 568-3240 
    [email protected]

     

    Yelp Inc
    Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets
    (In thousands)
    (Unaudited)
               
        December 31,     December 31,
        2014     2013
    Assets          
    Current assets:          
    Cash and cash equivalents   $        247,312     $        389,764
    Short-term marketable securities   118,498     –
    Accounts receivable, net   35,593     21,317
    Prepaid expenses and other current assets 19,355     5,752
    Total current assets   420,758     416,833
               
    Long-term marketable securities   38,612     –
    Property, equipment and software, net   62,761     30,666
    Goodwill   67,307     59,690
    Intangibles, net   5,786     5,235
    Restricted cash   17,943     3,247
    Other assets   16,483     306
    Total assets   $        629,650     $        515,977
               
    Liabilities  and stockholders’ equity           
    Current liabilities:          
    Accounts payable   $            1,398     $            3,364
    Accrued liabilities   29,581     19,004
    Deferred revenue   2,994     2,621
    Total current liabilities   33,973     24,989
    Long-term liabilities   7,527     4,505
    Total liabilities   41,500     29,494
               
    Commitments and contingencies           
               
    Stockholders’ equity          
    Common stock   –     –
    Additional paid-in capital   627,742     553,753
    Accumulated other comprehensive  income (5,609)     3,186
    Accumulated deficit   (33,983)     (70,456)
    Total stockholders’ equity   588,150     486,483
    Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity   $         629,650     $         515,977

     

    Yelp Inc        
    Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations        
    (In thousands, except per share amounts)        
    (Unaudited)        
        Three Months Ended   Twelve Months Ended
        December 31,   December 31,
        2014   2013   2014   2013
                     
    Net revenue   $ 109,887   $ 70,651   $ 377,536   $ 232,988
                     
    Cost and expenses                
    Cost of revenue (1)   7,286   4,926   24,382   16,561
    Sales and marketing (1)   53,580   38,847   201,050   131,970
    Product development (1)   19,076   11,802   65,181   38,243
    General and administrative (1)   16,662   13,460   58,274   42,907
    Depreciation and amortization   5,291   3,524   17,590   11,455
    Restructuring and integration (1)   –   –   –   675
                     
    Total cost and expenses   101,895   72,559   366,477   241,811
    Income (Loss) from operations   7,992   (1,908)   11,059   (8,823)
    Other income (expense), net   38   (109)   221   (407)
    Income (Loss) before provision for income taxes   8,030   (2,017)   11,280   (9,230)
    Benefit (Provision) for income taxes   24,698   (52)   25,193   (838)
    Net income (loss) attributable to common stockholders   $   32,728   $ (2,069)   $   36,473   $ (10,068)
                     
    Net income (loss) per share attributable to common stockholders:                
    Basic   $       0.45   $   (0.03)   $       0.51   $     (0.15)
    Diluted   $       0.42   $   (0.03)   $       0.48   $     (0.15)
                     
    Weighted-average shares used to compute net income (loss) per share attributable to common stockholders:                
    Basic   72,645   68,847   71,936   65,665
    Diluted   77,211   68,847   76,712   65,665
                     
                     
                     
    (1) Includes stock-based compensation expense as follows:                
        Three Months Ended   Twelve Months Ended
        December 31,   December 31,
        2014   2013   2014   2013
    Cost of revenue   $        207   $      140   $        729   $        421
    Sales and marketing   3,995   3,201   15,003   10,131
    Research and development   4,551   2,705   14,884   6,270
    General and administrative   3,063   2,743   11,657   9,300
    Restructuring and integration   –   –   –   555
    Total stock-based compensation   $   11,816   $   8,789   $   42,273   $   26,677

     

    Yelp Inc
    Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows
    (In thousands)
    (Unaudited)
        Year Ended
        December 31,
        2014   2013
    Operating activities        
    Net income (loss)   $        36,473   $ (10,068)
     Adjustments to reconcile net income (loss) to net cash provided by
     (used in) operating activities:    		        
    Depreciation and amortization   17,590   11,455
    Provision for doubtful accounts and sales returns   7,238   3,304
    Stock-based compensation   42,273   26,677
    Release of valuation allowance   (28,197)   –
    (Gain) loss on disposal of assets and website development costs   4   159
      Premium amortization, net, on securities held-to-maturity   349   –
    Excess tax benefit from share-based award activity   (1,834)   (353)
             
    Changes in operating assets and liabilities:        
    Accounts receivable   (21,291)   (12,843)
    Prepaid expenses and other assets   (4,011)   (1,572)
    Accounts payable, accrued expenses and other liabilities   8,927   4,971
    Deferred revenue   411   (298)
    Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities   57,932   21,432
             
    Investing activities        
    Acquisitions, net of cash received   (14,340)   (2,057)
    Purchases of property, equipment and software   (29,054)   (16,243)
    Capitalized website and software development costs   (11,349)   (4,856)
    Change in restricted cash   (14,764)   3,176
    Purchase of intangibles   (1,724)   –
    Proceeds from sale of property and equipment     14   –
    Goodwill measurement period adjustment   –   1,153
    Purchases of investment securities held-to- maturity   (210,459)   –
    Maturities of investment securities held-to-maturity   53,002   –
    Cash used in investing activities   (228,674)   (18,827)
             
    Financing activities        
    Proceeds from follow-on offering, net of offering costs   –   276,527
    Proceeds from issuance of common stock from share-based awards   20,164   13,554
    Proceeds from issuance of common stock for Employee Stock Purchase Plan   8,869   1,960
    Excess tax benefit from share-based award activity   1,834   353
    Repurchase of common stock   (1,318)   (674)
             
    Net cash provided by financing activities   29,549   291,720
             
    Effect of exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents   (1,259)   315
             
    Net increase in cash and cash equivalents   (142,452)   294,640
    Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period   389,764   95,124
    Cash and cash equivalents at end of period   247,312   $ 389,764

     

      Yelp Inc      
      Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Financial Measures      
      (In thousands)      
      (Unaudited)      
                       
          Three Months Ended   Twelve Months Ended
          December 31,   December 31,
          2014   2013   2014   2013
                       
    Adjusted EBITDA:                
      Net income (loss)   $ 32,728   $ (2,069)   $ 36,473   $ (10,068)
      (Benefit) Provision for income taxes   (24,698)   52   (25,193)   838
      Other (income) expense, net   (38)   109   (221)   407
      Depreciation and amortization   5,291   3,524   17,590   11,455
      Stock-based compensation   11,816   8,789   42,273   26,122
      Restructuring and integration   –   –   –   675
      Adjusted EBITDA   $ 25,099   $ 10,405   $ 70,922   $  29,429
                       
    GAAP net income (loss) to non-GAAP net income per share:          
      GAAP net income (loss) attributable to common Shareholders   $32,728   $(2,069)   $36,473   $(10,068)
         Add back: stock-based compensation 11,816   8,789   42,273   26,122
         Add back: amortization of intangible assets 550   620   2,448   2,260
         Add back: valuation allowance release (26,197)   –   (28,197)   –
      NON-GAAP NET INCOME    $18,897   $  7,340   $52,997   $ 18,314
                       
      GAAP diluted shares   77,211   68,847   76,712   65,665
                       
    NON-GAAP NET INCOME  PER SHARE $    0.24   $    0.11   $    0.69   $     0.28

     

    Logo – http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20050511/SFW134LOGO

     

     

    SOURCE Yelp Inc.

     

  • Why Aren’t SMBs Investing More In Online Marketing?

    Why Aren’t SMBs Investing More In Online Marketing?

    Local SEO firm BrightLocal recently released some findings from its annual SMB Internet Marketing Survey. These revealed that plenty of small and midsize businesses find online marketing effective, and plan to spend more on it in the future, yet a surprising number of them are dedicating pretty small amounts of money to it.

    What do you think is holding back SMB online marketing budgets? Share your thoughts in the comments.

    We sent some questions over to BrightLocal CEO Myles Anderson to gain a little bit more perspective into how SMBs are approaching online marketing.

    According to the study, 34% allocate less than 10% of their marketing budget to online channels, while 50% allocate less than 30% and only 29% allocate over 70%.

    Why is there so little going to online channels?

    “I found this figure a little perplexing when you consider the other responses SMBs gave,” Anderson tells WebProNews. “75% said online was effective at bringing in new customers & 3 of top 4 most effective marketing channels are ‘digital’. Yet SMBs allocate a disproportionately low % of their marketing budgets online. I believe the reason is a combination of a few factors.”

    “Many business owners handle it themselves so don’t assign a monetary budget to online marketing,” he says. “The survey showed that 64% of business owners handle their internet marketing themselves. Online marketing isn’t applicable or doesn’t work for some businesses so they don’t invest. Some businesses rely solely on Word of Mouth to bring in new customers so don’t invest in online. Budgets are too low to play in the online arena.”

    Should SMBs be allocating more of their budgets to online channels?

    “Considering that 75% of respondents said that online marketing was effective I would expect a larger slice of budgets to be allocated to online channels,” Anderson says. “However many business owners seem prepared to handle their online marketing themselves. Many of the most effective marketing channels can be effectively used for free – it only takes time & knowledge to do it right and drive customers through to your business.”

    “These 2 aspects combined mean that big investment in online marketing isn’t always needed,” he adds. “However local online marketing isn’t for the faint hearted. The vast array of options & constant change in best practices & guidelines make it hard to stay on top of unless you have the time & skills to invest in understanding it.”

    The rise of mobile opens up a lot of opportunity for online marketing for SMBs that wasn’t so prevalent before smartphones.

    Is a lack of understanding holding back budgets in mobile?

    “The number of searches done using a mobile device now outstrips those done on a PC,” says Anderson. “This is significant because the nature & intent of mobile-based searches is more ‘local’ than on PCs so local business websites & listings will be surfaced in the results for more search terms. Google uses searcher location as a big factor in determining which results it returns so optimization for mobile & also for your town/city/neighbourhood are more important then ever. Not all businesses will drive new customers from mobile searchers. Mobile searches are less ‘discovery’ orientated so services that require greater information & consideration prior to purchase (e.g. dentists, plastic surgeon, attorneys) won’t see much conversion from mobile. But that shouldn’t stop them optimizing for local and establishing brand presence with local customers.”

    “So, I think most businesses owners are aware that mobile usage is growing. But many may not perceive that it’s relevant to them or justified in allocating budget to it vs. other tried & tested channels that they know deliver new customers.”

    Based on the survey data, a significant amount of businesses are planning to spend more on online marketing.

    Which channels (search, social, email, etc.) will benefit the most?

    “I think they’ll see an uplift as businesses & marketeers look to pull in customers from many sources,” says Anderson. “Having a diversified marketing strategy is wise as you don’t become reliant on 1-2 channels to deliver everything. Many businesses are too reliant on Google/Google Places to generate site traffic & calls. This leaves them vulnerable to algo updates or guideline changes which can literally switch off their pipeline of customers.”

    The research shows that businesses consider phone calls to be the most valued success metric compared to web traffic, search rankings, and significantly over customers actually walking through the door or inquiring via the website.

    Why are phone calls so highly valued compared to other metrics?

    “Firstly there are many local businesses that don’t cater to walk-in customers (e.g. gardeners, plumbers, accountants, therapists, mobile-masseuses) but they all have a phone,” Anderson says. “Secondly, calls convert better than online enquiries. Customers are more engaged (they’ve taken the time to call) and a business has a greater opportunity to understand the customer’s need and propose the best solution for them. Thirdly, speaking to a customer on the phone is often cheaper than dealing with customers in-location. So if you can pre-qualify/pre-sell a customer on the phone then it’s a lower cost per sale.”

    Do you expect to increase your online marketing budget this year? Let us know.

  • Google Rolls Local Update Out To More Countries

    Back in July, Google launched an algorithm update that shook up local search results in the U.S. While Google never gave it an official name like Panda or Penguin that we’re aware of, Search Engine Land started calling it the “Pigeon” update, and that’s what people in the industry have, for the most part, adopted for it.

    That update has now reportedly started rolling out to other countries including the UK, Canada, and Australia.

    Back in July when the update launched, people noticed missing 7 packs in some types of local results, and Google confirmed the update, saying that it “ties deeper into their web search capabilities, including the hundreds of ranking signals they use in web search, along with search reatures such as Knowledge Graph, spelling correction, synonyms, and more.”

    The update was also said to improve distance and location parameters.

    Search Engine Land is now reporting that the update has significantly affected local businesses in the new regions, and points out that Google is, once again, making major algorithm changes around the holidays, which it had pretty much stopped doing until recently.

    As we’ve talked about in the past, Google updates around the holidays can deliver major blows to businesses at the most important sales time of the year. Now, not only are they rolling this update out, they’ve been slowly rolling out a new version of Penguin.

    Image via Google

  • eBay Labels Now Available On Mobile

    eBay Labels Now Available On Mobile

    eBay announced that it is now offering sellers labels from its mobile apps. While you could access and print labels from the desktop before, the functionality has been expanded to make it more convenient.

    The company announced in a short blog post:

    You already know that eBay labels are a great way to save both time and money. But did you know you can print them from your mobile device? Well, it’s true. iPhone and Android users now have a super convenient way to print shipping labels right from their mobile phone. As long as you have the Android eBay app 2.8 or later, or iPhone eBay app 3.5 or later, you’re good to go.

    The labels have to be purchased through the app, and printed via a Wi-Fi enabled printer or by emailing the purchased label to your email id. You also have to have used eBay labels on the desktop in the past.

    In other eBay news, the company is expanding its local efforts, despite recently pulling the plug on its eBay Now apps. It’s reportedly offering in-store pick-up and same-day delivery in Brooklyn.

    Image via eBay

  • Etsy Launches New Local Feature In Pilot

    Etsy Launches New Local Feature In Pilot

    Etsy announced that it’s launching a pilot program that will alert shoppers on their mobile device that an Etsy seller they like is selling at a local event.

    “Etsy Local push notifications are a new way for Etsy sellers and buyers to connect locally and in-person,” a spokesperson for Etsy said in an email. “It connects sellers participating in fairs and markets to shoppers in their area; shoppers can meet and buy from sellers in-person, supporting both the Etsy community and their own local economies.”

    Sellers can add the events and markets they’ll be participating in via Etsy.com/Local. Shoppers who are within 5 miles (based on their shipping zip code), and have favorited their shop, favorited an item, or purchased from that Etsy seller, will receive a notification about a day in advance.

    Notifications will be sent to a select group of shoppers through the newest version of the Etsy app on Android and iOS during the pilot phase.

    “Etsy Local is another way that Etsy is helping sellers grow in all aspects of their businesses, both in the online and offline worlds,” the spokesperson said. “This August, our new wholesale platform launched out of beta, offering sellers a convenient way to sell directly to retailers and have their designs carried in brick-and-mortar stores, such as independent boutiques. In October, Etsy launched the Sell on Etsy card reader as a way to help sellers manage their multi-channel businesses in a way that integrates seamlessly with their online shops.”

    35% of US-based Etsy sellers sell at craft fairs, according to the company, so the new feature should prove to be a valuable one.

    Image via Etsy

  • Bing Adds Quick Answers For Local Info

    Bing Adds Quick Answers For Local Info

    Microsoft announced that Bing will now display quick answers to queries related to local information. These come in the form of “facts” at the top of the search page, which provide things like phone numbers for restaurants, hours of local stores, and directions to people’s houses.

    “Need help figuring out whether that unbelievable sale item is still around and you can’t waste another moment? Or want to celebrate your savings with a nice dinner? Just search for the phone number and we’ll give it to you right there,” says Microsoft. “Now, how to get there? Just ask for directions and you can see a quick answer showing the best route with distance and travel time information. Click on turn by turn directions to get the full route details.”

    Examples of queries you could use (as provided by Microsoft) include: How to reach 120 Broadway, New York, NY 10271 from Brooklyn?; Directions to 920 Dexter Ave N, Seattle, WA; Travel time to 440 Terry Ave, Seattle.

    You can also use “reviews” or “address” commands for places.

    The directions feature is currently only available in the US, UK and France, while reviews and address answers are only available on desktop.

    Images via Microsoft