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July 3, 2008
Yahoo and MerchantCircle Enter Local Online Marketing Partnership
MerchantCircle, a network of local business owners, has announced a new partnership with Yahoo. As a newly minted Yahoo! Local Ambassador, MerchantCircle members will have exclusive access to Yahoo Local online marketing services. MerchantCircle has seen dramatic growth since December 2007, when it began a new push for its online advertising products. The network has now surpassed 500,000 members.
“Yahoo! is one of the most important brands on the internet – one that really appeals to our local business members. Local business owners tell us they want to advertise on Yahoo! to get more local customers to their storefront,” says Darren Waddell, Vice President of Marketing, MerchantCircle. “This partnership creates an important product option in our growing suite of advertising products for local merchants.”
Merchant Circle expects its members to get access to the program by the end of the summer.
MerchantCircle offers its members SEO-friendly profiles on its site. Last November, MerchantCircle announced a partnership with Citysearch, where members can be featured on the popular online local guide.
Posted by Nathania Johnson at July 3, 2008 9:08 AM
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Comments
That's a great local business strategy and it just goes to show that the needs of any business can usually be serviced in some way online, regardless of the nature of the company.
Posted by: ecommerce at July 8, 2008 4:05 PM
Yahoo Local ranks among the top mapping sites online. But they have to develop traction amongst small, local advertisers. They simply don't have the in-house capacity or know-how to generate business from mom and pop businesses who are on a $30/budget per month. MerchantCircle provides a highly scalable way to generate business from the hard to reach segment in advertising, of small businesses with an annual budget of a few hundred to a few thousands dollars. We have a virtually zero cost model wherein businesses come to our site as a result of an automated phone message that we send out periodically. Most businesses have THANKED us for providing the service and the BBB complaints have largely tapered off. The criticisms we've received online for robo-calls and Do-not-call violations are overstated, and frankly a legal, not a business matter.
Posted by: Ben S. at July 14, 2008 2:56 AM
Hi Ben, We are a small local mom and pop business that is just getting by with a single phone line that I answer myself most of the time. Merchant circle has regularly been tying up my line with stupid recorded advertising and making it so that my customers can't get through. Your company is nothing but a spam house. That's pretty clear by the lengths that you go to to obscure your real identity and contact information.
Posted by: Dave at August 28, 2008 5:02 PM
