We have been meeting with a number of media salespeople, tracking articles about the transformation of the sales process, developing a number of theories specific to transforming the media sales process plus what is needed to support the transformation. We will be exploring a number of these theories and observations supported by sales rep interviews …

Four-month-old, Cincinnati, Ohio-based SmartyTags has a decidedly different approach to the technology of QR codes. Rather than just focusing on the technology, its focus is on how best to use them as a marketing tool, track uses of each code and make them part of an integrated marketing campaign.
As QR codes have advanced with …

Sebastien Provencher introduced the EADP audience in Mallorca, Spain, to the concept of conversational commerce. Praized Media’s latest product, Needium, mines local Tweets to uncover intent whether it is intentional or unintentional. Provencher offered the example of a series of tweets on people hungry for sandwiches or wishing for a particular type of sandwich. “While …

The EADP conference in Mallorca was treated to the insights and good humor of Yellow Pages Group Canada’s Matthieu Houle and the company’s very funny ad campaign.
Mobile, Houle said, gives directories the appeal local advertisers are looking for. His opening slides revealed that “30 percent of YPG Canada’s searches come from mobile handsets which …

The opening session of the European Association of Directory Publishers (EADP) conference in Mallorca, Spain was designed to open people’s minds about how mobile and social can and should be used to the advantage of directory companies. Jullien Billot of PagesJaunes, France, kicked off the day telling the attendees that mobile is creating new audiences …

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Brooklyn-based Pontiflex, which describes itself as “the industry’s leading mobile, email and social acquisition platform.” The real power behind the Pontiflex approach is the ability to capture email and consumer data in an open and transparent way. Advertisers only pay for the actual signups — data …

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Graham Clarke, CEO of Dealicio, an offshoot of 53 Technology. Dealicio is a white-label platform enabling local media companies to launch, manage and advertise daily deals. Dealicio recognized the power of social media in driving deals and spreading them through social networks from their earlier work …

We’ve been starting to see the signs of recovery for the past few months. Companies that have been cutting costs and back office expenses are now realizing they need to get the sales end of their businesses moving again. Throughout the recession, salespeople who could at one time demand higher base salaries, fringe benefits, signing …

Leading off the day at the Internet Summit, Chip Perry, CEO of AutoTrader, revealed that the company’s main business focus is not on e-commerce but on filling the gaps in the consumer shopping experience and providing valuable tools for sellers.
“The Internet was supposed to change the buyer-seller interaction,” Perry noted. “But AutoTrader kept in …

There is a lot going on in online media on the East Coast evidenced by the panel on geolocation here at the Internet Summit in Raleigh, North Carolina, sponsored by TechMedia and Southern Capital Ventures. Geolocation continues to be major news given the press coverage of Gowalla, Foursquare, Google and Facebook, which are all chasing …

Content remains king on the Internet mainly because there are more ways to produce, connect and interact with content than ever before. According to Rod Smith of IBM, “there are more ways to dig into content than ever before, but it also produces more targeted ways for advertisers to interact with the audiences they are …

We had the opportunity to sit down with industry leader MediaTrust to understand the major changes in the in the performance marketing (pay-for-results) category and the challenges of developing a cost-per-lead (CPL) model.
MediaTrust began as an affiliate marketing company, but was continually challenged by the deceptive practices of many affiliate marketers and publishers. Understanding …

I had the opportunity to meet with Yext CEO Howard Lerman and President Brian Distelburger to talk about their recent product additions and approach to the SMB marketplace. What struck me as I entered their NYC loft-style office is the energy from the growing telephone sales team. The impression is that this is a company …

We had the opportunity to meet with Medialets CEO Eric Litman to understand its unique approach to deploying media rich mobile advertising. Medialets started out as a mobile ad network much like Feedburner but quickly realized that what mobile advertising lacked was a platform that facilitated the placement of media rich mobile ads in publisher …

While pundits point to online and mobile media as carving away local broadcast TV’s share, TVB President Steve Lanzano points out that online and mobile have actually worked to help local TV increase its consumption numbers. With the new age of digital TV and TV content re-broadcast online and on mobile, consumers are actually discovering …

I recently attended a webinar hosted by SalesBlogcast that featured social media company BizBrag. My reason for attending was to learn how small and medium sized-businesses can take advantage of social media. Based on our Local Commerce Monitor research, 32 percent of SMBs said they plan to use a social site, while 31 percent indicated …

For the past year and a half, we have been answering questions about and consulting with our clients on sales transformation and consultative selling (see here, here and here). One of the key aspects of many of the questions we receive is “what has fundamentally changed, how has it changed and what do we need …

One of the recommendations we have been supporting and talking about over the past year is the need to look at the print directory differently. For the past 100-plus years, the directory has been viewed as a distribution media vehicle — “we deliver to every resident in a city.” In recent years, with distribution declining …

One of the last sessions at Marketplaces 2010 focused on what local niche or media sites can do to better leverage opportunities to grow revenues. Sitting on the panel were Tony Lee of Adicio, Ken Kalb from Analog Analytics and Reed Brown from Matchbin, who all had similar views on how to help local media …

Citsearch CEO Jay Herratti, speaking at BIA/Kelsey’s Marketplaces conference, debuted the company’s new thinking and approach to how best to address the local online market. Herratti explains, “It has been increasingly difficult to reach consumers and advertisers at scale. This is the toughest challenge because there is increased competition from a variety of local search …