Category Archives: advertising

How small businesses should use Yelp

Posted on February 23, 2012 by Rakesh Agrawal

Although I’ve strongly criticized Yelp‘s business model in recent weeks, Yelp is an incredibly important platform for small businesses to be aware of and engage with. And unlike Groupon, which has almost no redeeming value, Yelp has created a valuable consumer … Continue reading →

Posted in advertising, local search, yellow pages, yelp | 4 Comments

Virgin America knows how to make daily deals work

Posted on June 22, 2011 by Rakesh Agrawal

I admit it. I am in the bag for Virgin America. I have been since before they took off. (Literally.) I once live tweeted a flight to San Diego using their in-flight WiFi. Savvy travelers will recognize that the picture … Continue reading →

Posted in advertising, airlines, groupon, local search | 4 Comments

Groupon personalizes the daily deal

Posted on July 30, 2010 by Rakesh Agrawal

Groupon announced a shift from its approach of the same deal for all email subscribers in a market to personalized deals in select cities. CEO Andrew Mason says that there is a backlog of 35,000 businesses waiting to be featured … Continue reading →

Posted in advertising, local search, marketing | 1 Comment

Why small businesses are snapping up the daily deal

Posted on July 29, 2010 by Rakesh Agrawal

In recent months, we’ve seen daily deal sites like Groupon and Living Social grow like crazy. Groupon is valued at $1.35 billion. That’s more than 4x the valuation of the McClatchy Company, one of the country’s largest newspaper publishers. It … Continue reading →

Posted in advertising, google, local search, marketing, yelp | 3 Comments

United’s mobile check in not ready for takeoff

Posted on July 4, 2010 by Rakesh Agrawal

On my last trip, I had the opportunity to try United’s mobile check-in and mobile boarding passes. The promise is paper-free check in. It sounds really great, but it’s not quite there. Partly it’s due to United’s horrible user interface, … Continue reading →

Posted in advertising, airlines, customer service, mobile, ui, wireless | Tagged | 6 Comments

Bing, Yahoo! try to capitalize on Google’s Michael Jackson traffic surge

Posted on June 30, 2009 by Rakesh Agrawal

Seen over the weekend: ads for bing and Yahoo! on Google search results for “Michael Jackson”. The bing ad led to bing’s xRank page for Michael Jackson. The Yahoo! ad bizarrely led to a Yahoo! shopping results page for Michael … Continue reading →

Posted in advertising, aol, bing, google, search, yahoo | 1 Comment

Ads that work: CapitalOne Card Lab on flickr

Posted on October 15, 2008 by Rakesh Agrawal

There’s so much ad clutter out there that it’s rare to see an ad that really hits the nail on the head. Here’s one that jumped out at me: an ad for CapitalOne’s Card Lab. CapitalOne lets you customize many … Continue reading →

Posted in adsthatwork, advertising | Comments Off on Ads that work: CapitalOne Card Lab on flickr

Slice, dice, repackage and resell

Posted on September 11, 2008 by Rakesh Agrawal

The newspaper business has missed out on a lot of opportunities over the years. Here’s one they shouldn’t miss: repackaging content for niches. Most major markets have an industry specialization or two. In Detroit it’s the auto industry. Minneapolis has … Continue reading →

Posted in advertising, journalism, media, newspapers | Comments Off on Slice, dice, repackage and resell

Your customers are Twits

Posted on September 1, 2008 by Rakesh Agrawal

Last year, I blogged about how local businesses could use Twitter to reach their customers. In that hypothetical example, a street vendor would let regulars know whether he was working or not. A number of large companies, including Zappos, Comcast … Continue reading →

Posted in advertising, customer service, lbs, local search, marketing, social networking, twitter | 4 Comments

Why don’t local businesses use the Internet?

Posted on September 1, 2008 by Rakesh Agrawal

Back in the mid 90s, I frequented The Weinery, a total dive of a hot dog place in the Cedar/Riverside area of Minneapolis. Jerry, the then owner, collected email addresses and would occasionally send out specials. Say the password when … Continue reading →

Posted in advertising, lbs, local search, marketing, newspapers, yellow pages | 9 Comments