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Session Review: Local Search: Are Partnerships the Key to Success?

By Libby Waldo | March 19, 2008

Here at Search Engine Strategies, there was an interesting track put on by the Kelsey Group. One of the panels in particular was focused on the importance of partnerships when it comes to Local search.  The speakers for this track included:

The moderator was John Kelsey, of the Kelsey Group. The main focus of this panel was clear, but the interesting point that kept coming through was not only the importance of partnerships, but the necessity of sales forces being able to reach the small “local” advertisers.  

Local sales force companies, like LocalLaunch (via DEX) and AT&T are in a unique position to capitalize on the relationships that their sales forces already have.  Local advertisers need and want to work with someone they trust and know already, and it certainly can’t be some outsider who comes in and presents them with completely foreign concepts. 

When sales reps maximize these relationships by first educating small local advertisers on the importance of advertising online, subsequently they become more of a marketing consultant than a sales rep. When this happens, they are able to differentiate themselves in a way that noone else can. They have an “in” with a group of advertisers that everyone wants to reach but few have the ability to get in front of.  It is for this reason that we at Marchex partner with the local aggregators, like AT&T, so that we can provide our services to advertisers of all sizes, in the best possible way to reach each of the advertising groups.

Topics: The Kelsey Group, National advertisers, Local SEO, Local Advertisers, Community, Local Search |

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