BirdEye
What’s the State of Online Reviews in 2025?
Online reviews continue to be one of the tentpoles of localized marketing and search. They’re also the bain of many SMBs’ existence – a necessary
Pro Features
Good, Bad & Ugly: The State of Venture Funding in 2025
What market signals can quantify the state of venture funding? To answer that question, we turned to our go-to thought leader for all things investing & finance, Circumference Group’s Luca Sechi.
brands
What Are the Top Local Brands in America?
Though the long tail of local mostly consists of small businesses, there are several national brands in the mix. One advantage that these entities often
Pro Features
Tiger Pistol’s Latest Playbook Addresses Revenue Growth for Marketing Resellers.
Marketing resellers are a key piece of the local media & advertising value chain. They help ad tech players scale by bringing their products to
Chatmeter
Lowes Leads Chatmeter’s Retail Reputation Report
Chatmeter has released its Retail Reputation report, which scores retailers using its first-party data. Among the findings, Lowe’s took the top spot, along with standouts like Home Depot and Costco. One success factor according to Chatmeter is cross-location consistency in employee training.
local seo
Exit Velocity: A Conversation with Mark Kabana
Last month, Yext acquired local search benchmarking and intelligence leader Places Scout. What were the drivers for the acquisition and how are the combined forces
AI
vcita Balances Agentic-AI Automation & Control
SMB Saas innovator vcita this week launched a new agentic AI function. Housed in its flagship BizAI software for SMB marketing, it offers an additional layer of automation for agent-like features such as responding to customers, booking appointments, and generating estimates or job quotes.
AI
Automating SMB Video: A Conversation with Creatify, Part II
Creatify tackles the perennial challenge of automating video marketing for time-starved and tech-challenged SMBs.
3D Mapping
Snapchat Gets More Location Aware
Snapchat lenses can now interact with GPS and GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems). They can also ingest location-based signals such as compass headings and custom locations, which flow from Snap’s places database.
Pro Features
Automating SMB Video: A Conversation with Creatify
Creatify tackles the perennial challenge of automating video marketing for time-starved and tech-challenged SMBs.
Location Intelligence
Precisely Expands its Location-Intelligence Reach
Data analytics player Precisely has launched its software on the Snowflake Marketplace, making it more accessible to marketers and operators throughout the land.
Pro Features
Tiger Pistol Offers Tactical Advice for Local Marketing Resellers
Following a rapid-fire release schedule for its series of tactical playbooks, Tiger Pistol is out this week with the latest edition. Entitled Scaling SMB Advertising: A Marketing Reseller’s Guide to Efficiency, Profitability, and Growth, it focuses on nuances in the art of reselling local advertising programs.
Pro Features
Read.AI Gets More Interactive & Actionable
Read.AI today announced Search Copilot, an AI-powered engine that retrieves and synthesizes insights from workplace communications. The idea is to have a cross-platform intelligence engine to organize communications across meetings, emails, chats, cloud storage, and CRM systems.
AI
Google’s ‘AI Mode’ Turns Searches into Conversations
Another day, another Google announcement for AI search. Following our coverage yesterday about gen-AI-infused product search, Google has rolled out ‘AI Mode.’ This brings searches from isolated one-off endeavors to a more continuous and progressive string of questions. In other words, a conversation.
Google
Google Brings Generative AI to Shopping
When looking at all the places where Google continues to blitz AI, we can add shopping to the list. Users can now enter gen AI-style
Pro Features
Tiger Pistol Builds Bridges Between Franchisors & Franchisees
Tiger Pistol has released its latest playbook, this one focused on franchise marketers. Entitled Building Bridges: How Localized Advertising Creates Trust and Drives Franchise Success, it comes just one week after its last playbook release.
Pro Features
Yext Launches Scout, An AI Search & Competitive Intelligence Agent
Yext has launched its latest product: Scout. The AI search and competitive intelligence agent is designed to help multi-location brands navigate and operate within a quickly-changing search environment. This includes a fragmented mix of places to get found online.
Pro Features
Thryv Q4 Earnings Propelled by SaaS Growth
Thryv Holdings, which operates SMB marketing software platform Thryv, reported Q4 earnings this week with strong growth for its SaaS business. Highlights include 41 percent year-over-year revenue growth in the SaaS portions of its business in Q4; and 30 percent year-over-year growth for FY 2024.
Adobe
3 Ways AI Revenue Models are Materializing
Companies from Adobe to Google are starting to peel away AI features from a core product to instead live within discreet – and often paid – apps. Will that work? The question boils down to whether or not consumers are ready to pay for AI en masse.
MULO
Tiger Pistol’s Latest Playbook is a Five-Pack on Local Business Verticals
Tiger Pistol is back at it. After a string of marketing playbooks it released last year, it kicks off 2025 with the next in the series: a five-pack on benchmarking and best practices for restaurants, home services, education, beauty, and fitness.