Two well-known players in SMB marketing services today announced a partnership to integrate their platforms to provide end-to-end customer acquisition/retention services for SMBs.

The new partners are WordStream, a major SEM and search services provider (and Google Premier SMB Partner), and the well-known email provider Constant Contact. The goal of the partnership is to give SMBs an easy-to-use tool to acquire customers via highly targeted online search, and then retain those customers through email marketing.

In an interview with BIA/Kelsey, WordStream founder and CTO Larry Kim said “The future of SMB marketing is the integration of channels”. He believes the new partnership will be a “win-win” for SMBs, since it will give them a simple way to first acquire customers and then “nurture” them to build “long-lasting customer relationships”.

The arrangement will include cross-licensing of platforms and products (e.g. WordStream’s AdWords Performance Grader) to each other’s customer bases, and customer on-boarding and coaching from Constant Contact’s support team.

We believe this partnership is a harbinger of many more to follow in the SMB marketing automation and services space.  The core logic of this partnership is compelling for several reasons, and partnerships like this will be a leading way the new marketing technologies are commercialized for SMBs (and the agencies that serve them).

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We’ll be covering many aspects of selling the new marketing automation tools at BIA/Kelsey SMB, Sept 29-30 in Denver.