Online to offline performance has always presented a challenge for chain businesses who want to reach millions of consumers through social media campaigns, but also need them to buy from brick-and-mortar locations. The challenges created by the pandemic, over the past year, have suddenly made the drive to offline purchase at stores much more challenging, while all the more necessary. It's true that more and more people have been staying home, but they also still need to eat and shop, so take-out, curbside (inclusive of BOPIS and BORIS), and delivery demand have been on an upward trajectory.

Let’s recap what many brands have had to think through during COVID-19. While these examples are referenced specifically around “Search” (according to this article in Search Engine Watch), they have broader implications for marketing in general:

NEWSFLASH: Your customers aren’t coming to your website. Well, at least most of them. 85% of customer interactions with your brand happen on third-party sites like Google, Yelp, Facebook, etc.

We're happy to announce the launch of Longitude73, the fully dedicated B2B service division of AmericanTowns Media.We grew up as a B2C-focused organization who, over time, began offering our services and solutions to clients, helping their brands connect more deeply on a local basis.

Too many times, it goes this way: you run a digital ad. Someone clicks on it. Maybe they complete a transaction, maybe they don’t. After that, the customer goes away. Once your paid campaign stops, so do your interactions. If you want to re-engage, you need to start at Square One with yet another digital ad.

Once upon a time, all shops and service providers were local. They were present in town, knowledgeable about their specialty, personal in their customer service.

Companies in the travel industry must feel as if they are in a zero-sum business. As if the only thing anyone cares about anymore is how much they’re going to pay. Consumers say it. Businesses say it. But worst of all, it’s a race to the bottom that gives the Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) – who don’t have physical locations to pay for and manage – an obvious advantage.