Local, Targeted Ads, Are You Ready?

DID YOU KNOW?

The Kelsey Group forecasts that $5 billion of locally targeted, small-business advertising will move online by 2009--

Is your business being left behind?

Search Engine Land points us to a recent study on Yellow Pages usage statistics.

Donnelley & Yahoo Partner For Local

Caught this on The Kelsey Blog;

"R.H. Donnelley announced today that it will partner with Yahoo! to give its advertisers a more substantial presence on Yahoo! Local. This will come in three flavors.

From the release:

• Featured Listings — Sponsored listings with guaranteed placement on the first or second search results pages for broader exposure in a specific geography or category
• Enhanced Listings — Sponsored listings that offer the ability to add a detailed business description, photos, tagline and coupons to create greater online visibility for businesses and enhance their appearance within organic results
• Yahoo! Maps Business Listings — Sponsored listings within the context of a map-based view"

Smart for Yahoo and Donnelley, bad for the individual who is looking to get a Yahoo! Featured Listing with little competition as Yahoo! is working hard to fill every vacant sponsored spot.

When Bob the carpet store owner goes to place a featured listing on Yahoo! Local he will be jousting for one of the top three spots with big ticket advertising clients from Donnelley and SuperPages .

If you are a small business and you found your way this far you know you must expand your Internet footprint to stay with or rise above your competition. It's confusing as no blueprint for doing it right exists.

Your options are as follows:

• You can place your money with an IYP rep from R.H. Donnelley or SuperPages or your local print directory sales rep and let them guide you. (the same guys who have been roping you onto their print books since the beginning of time).
• You can learn the search marketing angles yourself. Cut out the agents and reps and have some fun learning this fascinating end of the market. (do you have the time?)
• You can hire an independent marketing agent to educate and guide you through the Internet marketing maze. (and save you a ton)

Option #2 is the best if a person has the time. Option #3 is the best if you want your business represented across the board, with a full presence on all the local directories, search engines and review sites. Option #3 also brings you a full time one on one Pay Per Click practitioner dedicated to making your business grow.

Quick News On The Local Search Front

Local.com (LOCM) buys PremierGuide for a fire sale price of $2 million.

"Premier has directories on over 350 sites including Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc., GateHouse Media, Inc. and Washington Post."

Valley Yellow Pages goes digital in 2007 with the launch of MyYp.com. I have to say this is a terrible debut for the company already late to the digital table. The search is clunky, the layout is terrible and look at this messy page. It looks like they simply scanned their own pages. Simply amazing this is the best they could come up with. Disappointing frankly and makes me think they should consult with the people at Local.com?

Embarq Pushing BestRedYP.com

Who is Embarq?

"Corporate Profile; Embarq Corporation (NYSE: EQ) provides a suite of communications services to customers in its serving areas. Embarq, which is expected to rank among the Fortune 500, brings common-sense ideas, reliable service and a renewed commitment to the communities it serves. Embarq focuses on offering its customers practical, innovative products and competitive pricing. The company has 20,000 employees and operates in 18 states offering local and long distance voice, data, high speed internet, wireless, and entertainment services."

UMmmm, I don't understand. Corporate speak is not my specialty so I went to the common man's place to find all answers under the sun Wikipedia!

"Embarq Corporation, or EMBARQ, was formerly the local telephone division (LTD) of Sprint Nextel. It is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol EQ.
The company is the fourth largest local exchange carrier in the United States (below the Baby Bells) and the largest independent local provider, serving customers in 18 states and providing local, long distance and high-speed data services to residential and business customers. The Las Vegas, Nevada metropolitan area is its largest market. [1] The company consists of approximately 20,000 employees.
Telephone directories for EMBARQ customers are published by R.H. Donnelley.
Approximately $3 billion in debt incurred from the Sprint Nextel merger was transferred to the new company. The company is estimated to have approximately $6 billion in revenues.
EMBARQ trademarks are the property of a subsidiary named Embarq Holdings Company LLC, commonly mistaken as the actual name of the publicly traded holding company, Embarq Corporation. It began trading on the NYSE on May 18, 2006."

Ahhhh that's better and now I understand the connection to R.H. Donnelley. Embarq owns BestRedYP.com and the online Yellow Pages site is published by R.H. Donnelley who last year bought LocalLaunch and are clearly moving into local search in earnest.

Why this ridiculous lead up? Well today I saw a Google AdSense ad on another blog advertising Embarq's BestRedYP.com. It seems odd Embarq is pushing their directory this way. Maybe they are taking the tact Local.com took when they jump started their local search engine in 2005. The company spent a ton buying traffic via AdWords and according to the company the marketing plan was successful. I can't imagine BestRedYP can catch the same wind as Local.com. The name is not catchy and the interface is old school, not intuitive and a bit clunky. I'm not saying it's not a good directory but I am suggesting it's not going to get bookmarked by too many.
Embarq is well capitalized so they can afford to test away. I can't see any benefit in placing clients there yet but I will keep an eye on the site and how it is being marketed.