Clearly, SMB marketing is no longer just about local search and directory listings. While search remains an important piece of the pie, display is emerging in its own right. Marchex, AdReady, Cobalt’s Admission, MediaTraks, Mixpo and Jivox are among those companies that have been targeting SMBs and others for display (and rich media) solutions.
Now, ReachLocal, the independent sales company that pitches local SMBs on alternatives to Yellow Pages advertising, says it is going into selling display ads as well. The company has offices in 30 U.S. cities, as well as operating units in the U.K., Canada and Australia.
The launch of ReachDisplay “employs remarketing and optimization to make customer acquisition for local advertisers a better value,” notes the company’s press release. That’s a lot of jargon, but it means two things: It is cookie-ing consumers who have previously visited a Web site and using the knowledge about consumers to create ad hoc local networks.
AlmondNet actually pioneered the practice several years ago, sharing high CPMs from highly targeted advertising with media providers that allow it to take an ad and place it on a network that features similar content.
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(This came in from Steven Johnson)
I get why ReachLocal wants to leverage its sales force — but making this move, at this point also means they probably are running out of SEM steam.
There simply are not infinite Google clicks to re-sell, especially when you and other re-sellers are essentially bidding each other up (so much for margins).
Good luck to Reach on this effort. They enter a very crowded sales field — and offering one order, one bill “ease” is not as much of an advantage here or all the existing local sales networks would be doing better.
The bigger question is why is a VC-backed company like Reachlocal focusing on OLD technologies? Where is their product offering for mobile devices?
I’d be willing to bet that this really has more to do with the fact that, in a slowing economy, they needed a product offering that costs a lot less than their usual SEM campaigns in order to have ANY kind of revenue stream at all.
Bottom line: a VC-backed company should be at the forefront of NEW technologies and product offerings, not coming late to the same-old products that have been around for years. Otherwise, how DO they plan to differentiate themselves from their very real competition?