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The shrinking distance between local advertisers and online advertising
By Pete Christothoulou | October 3, 2007
“That last inch into the plumber’s wallet is a long inch” - Joseph Walsh, CEO of YellowBook
Joe Walsh is right, but I think that last inch is shrinking…..quickly.
For more than a decade now there have been a wide range of companies focused on making online advertising easy, which is great. But the focus has been directed first toward the Fortune 1,000, and second toward larger, nationally focused advertisers. These are the groups who have largely had the internal resources (people) to help “figure online out”, create a strategy around driving online transactions and supporting customers, and the budgets to allocate to the channel.
Local advertisers (SMBs), while not as sophisticated as the Fortune 1,000 (for the most part), have the same objective of acquiring as many customers as possible at the best rate and, therefore, need the same tools and services. These include: one, the ability to create relevant marketing campaigns; two, the technology and partner relationships to place those campaigns in front of the most relevant customers (e.g., search engines, shopping engines, and vertical Web sites); and three, the capability to manage and optimize the advertising campaigns.
Whether provided by large companies such as Google; agencies like Aquantive (Microsoft); or vertical specialists, such as Marchex (focused on local) these tools largely exist today.
The rub is that SMBs *also* need better education regarding online advertising ( e.g. ‘what do I do,’ ‘where do I go,’ ‘how does it work,’ etc.) and a different kind of sales and support relationship. The good news is that TODAY there are large local incumbents, such as AT&T, YellowBook, Idearc, and others who are highly motivated toward educating the channel with their sales forces (thousands of local sales reps) and supporting these merchants in the same manner in which they have been supported in an offline environment (through traditional Yellow pages).
It’s happening. We are seeing it every day. There are thousands of new advertisers embracing the online medium every month and we believe that will accelerate given the commitment that we are seeing at a macro-level to making this happen.
Topics: Advertising |
October 5th, 2007 at 4:23 am
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October 5th, 2007 at 5:54 pm
[…] The shrinking distance between local advertisers and online advertising […]
November 13th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
I completely agree with your premise: SMBs “need better education” regarding online business-building options, from online advertising, search, to lead gen, etc. Years ago I ran small business marketing for Apple, so I have some insights into the particular challenges involving the SMB arena.
But I’m skeptical about your assumption that large local incumbents such as AT&T, YellowBook, etc., have the consultative skill sets to help SMBs learn how to adopt — and use effectively — these new business-building capabilities. (You may be hearing a wonderful pitch from their corporate staff, but the feet on the street are quite different.)
Speaking as someone who has owned and run a small business since 1994, not one of the companies you’ve mentioned is one I’d consider asking for advice on how to market/promote my local business… Based on my routine encounters with their phone-based sales organizations, their people are not very impressive — and do not convey the impression that they are equipped to teach or consult with small business owners. Your partners will need to make a big investment to improve the consultative skills of their field organizations, if you want to bring about the change that you envision.
Given how badly SMB owners need more effective ways to promote their businesses among local clients or consumers, I do hope you’re right, and that your channel partners have more capabilities than I, for one, have seen to date.
Good luck with your venture.