I like it because it represents innovation aimed at helping small businesses build out their local search presence. Say what you want about the [relative] high price or the legitimacy of these partner sites to attract meaningful traffic, Yext is centralizing a fragmented space and making it easier for local advertisers to open their wallets to test a solution.

I heard this from a local advertising client of ours: “I spend 50% of my budget on Google but get 90% of my leads from ‘em.” Yext Tags won’t change these results, but we’re in an era that if you can prove uniqueness, you have a shot at sustainable profitability. Yext Tags is distinct enough from Google Tags that there’s room for both, and the aggregate promotion should grow the pie dramatically (perform any Google local search to see just how few business are “tagged”).

Alfred P. Sloan, CEO of General Motors in the 1930’s once quipped that he wanted to help Walter Chrysler get his car company off the ground because he believed the competition would actually help GM sell more cars! That is what I think will happen here:  the sales and marketing efforts of Yext Tags will get more businesses to buy Google Tags.

In a quick-hit fashion, here are details of Yext Tags:

• Price will be $100 per month (shared 50/50 between Yext and the partner sites). Sure, it’s 4x the price of a Google Tag, but there are over a dozen publishers signed up so far
• Yext Tags are sold through the Yext sales force (initially), and part of the value will come via the self-managed dashboard Yext has built
• This dashboard allows you not only to claim your listing across all partner listing sites, but also to update contact details going forward as well as tagline ad copy all in one action

Here’s what I think the impact will be in the local search market:

• The distinctness of being an aggregator *and* a claim center will sway plenty of business to sign up. I think Yext Tags will be a winner
• By putting your own trackable phone number in the Yext Tag, local advertisers can see if a Yext Tag is worth the money. It’s important to have phone call data support the investment because there will be yet another shiny object around the corner asking for $100 a month no doubt
• As stated above, the market penetration of Tags of any form is surprisingly paltry. This buzz should create a snowball effect for more SMBs signing up for both Google and Yext Tags

I love that Yext has used development resources to remove steps from a disjointed process. I’m curious to see to what extent Yext Tags will present an opportunity for SuperMedia, Yelp etc. to upsell these advertisers. I’m also curious as to what kind of analytics (if any) the Yext Tags dashboard will provide.

I do like the idea of a plumber or auto dealer opening up a clear-as-day two-row call tracking report showing, “Calls from Google Places vs. Calls From Yext Tags.” I can’t think of a more striking data point to see if it’s working.

Reprinted with permission from Century Interactive’s blog. Thanks Stephen!

Coined by 15miles, local searchonomics is exactly as it sounds; it’s leveraging local search to economically grow your business. Consumers search with local intent, and, not only are their searches local, but they also expect their results to be local (usually within 15 miles of where they’re located, according to our Local Search Usage Study).

We also know that consumers’ main pain point during search is the lack of relevant local information. Whether online or offline, the information you deliver to the consumer needs to be accurate, consistent and robust.

Make it Fit Your Business

Like finger prints, no two businesses are the same. They may offer similar services and compete within the same industry and/or markets, but each marketing plan should be custom to a particular business. The media used will overlap, but the way you use the media is what will set you apart from the competition. To understand how you can make local searchonomics work for your business, let’s take a glance at two different ends of the spectrum – the corporate parent and franchise and the “mom and pop” shop (i.e., the SMB).

Corporate and Franchise

Corporate is typically looking to build a positive brand presence while driving consumers to local locations. With local search intertwined, marketing messages should be consistent across local media channels and display a cohesive and positive brand.

If you are known as the reliable service provider it should be apparent across all channels. After all, consumers on average reference 7.9 different media sources when searching for products/services – so it’s important not to send them a mixed message.

So when do you customize your media placements? Ultimately the decision lies in the goal of your advertising – so it may depend on whether you’re trying to direct consumers to contact, to generate conversation and reviews or just build awareness. Regardless of your advertising goal, the message, if done right, will eventually trigger consumer contact at the location level.

With that, each location’s advertising efforts should be unique to that branch, but not clash with the corporate message. A searcher needs to associate their perception of your brand with a local location. Given this, location pages that are linked from the corporate website should function and provide the valuable location information the consumer is seeking while portraying the brand message corporate is striving to maintain.

*Source: BIA / Kelsey, 2010

Mom and Pop Shops (SMBs)

Smaller businesses typically battle two issues – limited advertising knowledge and budget. Fortunately, though, there are ways to overcome both of those issues.

The first thing to keep in mind is that what was once the right fit for your local business in the past may or may not be what works today. You need to make sure that your advertising efforts are changing to meet the needs of today’s consumers. Don’t ignore the ever-changing search-savvy consumer – 50% of the population is now under 30 and if they’re not in your target demographic today, they probably will be tomorrow.

In addition, the “local” part of local searchonomics is of even more importance to your local business because you can’t offset under-performance of one market with the over-performance in another. You have one market to play ball in and you need to make it count. Understand your market, know your clientele, ask them what they think and where they go to find information – then make sure you’re there.

It will mean testing and tracking media to see what the right fit is for your industry and market, but always keep in mind that it could change tomorrow. As is true with most things in life, the only constant is change when it comes to local searchonomics.

Take the automotive industry for example; broadcast advertising may not be a good fit, but directional and consumer-driven advertising like Google Places and consumer review sites may be a great fit. Then, on the another end of the spectrum, in the banking industry the same media may not be the exact fit, but a combination of directional (maybe mobile) and traditional media (maybe radio) would be a better fit.

*Source: Socialnomics in association with Hult International Business School, May 2010.

Local Searchonomics – It’s Ever-Changing

Like I mentioned before, consumers are search-savvy and are now controlling the content in the search space. They have the ability to determine where your business needs to be, not where they need to go to find it. And if you’re not there, they’ll pick someone else.

Set it and forget it no longer works in this media-crowded world. Embrace the value of local search to grow your business or continue your old ways and fall behind – that’s the basics of local searchonomics.  

There’s seemingly no realm of modern life that doesn’t lend itself to slick implementation on a 3G phone. For all intents and purposes, three platforms dominate the mobile space — the iPhone, Android and everybody else’s smartphone (that includes you, BlackBerry).

Now for the worst-of-times reality-check: of those 7,000 apps, only 34 at last count worked as standard across all devices. Thirty-four.

As The Kelsey Group noted in 2009, small businesses have not completely warmed to mobile advertising, owing to persistent technical and business hurdles that make ad buys challenging even for major brands.

While the potential can’t be denied — Kelsey estimated that U.S. local mobile search advertising will hit $1.3 billion by 2013 — those hurdles aren’t going away of their own accord. Just last month Kelsey found that, on average, consumers are using 7.9 different media sources when shopping for products or services in their local area.

So what’s a small business to do?

Everyone’s life would be vastly easier if every message and every app were capable of being retrofitted to multiple devices. Until the Holy Grail arrives, however, small businesses need to think in multiple dimensions, in order to manage — and optimize — their ad buys.

For local, independent businesses, search is not one-platform-fits-all. To be eclectic is to be smart; being eclectic acknowledges how consumers (in other words, all of us) find local products and services in increasingly diverse ways.

And to be smart means obtaining a clear view of the status quo. The role of business owner-as-consumer is instructive here. When shopping for netbook computers for the office, our prototypical small business owner probably searches online from work. If the furnace goes on the fritz at home, he or she will likely use the PC in the study to locate a specialist.

If our small business owner is schlepping the kids around and they begin demanding pizza, the in-car navigation system will find the closest joint. If he or she is on a business trip and needs to give a suit that just-pressed look, out comes the smartphone to pinpoint a dry cleaner within easy range of the hotel.

Those are four different types of searches, corresponding to four separate “personas” – business owner, homeowner, parent and business traveler. Certainly, there are others: vacation traveler, mobile salesperson, student, and the list goes on. Each conducts searches in a different way and with an untold number and variety of devices.

The challenge for any business — whether conducting transactional business online, or using the Internet to drive response on a local level — is to be where potential customers are searching. That’s no small feat, considering the utter lack of standardization, the thousands of entry points and the lack of time to manage them all.

A Framework That Works

A small business can best cope by simplifying its approach to knowing how customers find them. A simple framework is in order here; it involves answering these questions:

Where are they looking for you? Do they use Google, Yahoo!, or an online directory? What about the phone book? Do they use wireless devices, or do they go online?

When do they look for you? Consider the products and services you offer, and think about the situations in which your customers are likely to need you. Are you a convenience service, such as a dry cleaner? Or a major infrequent purchase that involves heavy research, like when someone is looking for an attorney?

How are they finding you? What key phrases do they use when they search? What categories is your business listed under in the directories? One of the best ways to gain insight is to test a few search campaigns and then analyze the data.

Think about it — for the fraction of the cost of running a focus group, you can gain insight into how your customers are looking for you, and then analyze what time of day they are most likely to search and on what geographical areas you should focus.

Knowing how customers find you is key to being found — and it’s also (logically if paradoxically) how you can find them.

The new Ad Suite can target advertisements based on time, keyword, category or location. User behavior is also factored into targeting data.

CEO and co-founder of mobile People Jens Andersen said in the statement that “We have developed and tested local mobile advertising products that are highly relevant to Local Advertisers and Directory Publishers and based on our experience with both users and advertisers the solution is ready for global rollout.”

The integrated mobile search and advertising solution offers directory publishers and advertisers priority products, sponsored links, banner and map advertisements, mobile adsites and click to call reporting.

Citysearch — an online guide with editorial content, user reviews of local businesses and merchant videos – will provide its information across AOL properties, including its CityGuide (a longtime competitor of Citysearch), Local Search and MapQuest. AOL will integrate local ads and content from Citysearch into AOL’s leading local properties – giving advertisers access to more than 57 million unique users a month, according to comScore.

“AOL has the largest local online network and this partnership gives us the ability to enhance our local experience, expand our reach by incorporating Citysearch’s rich local content in our numerous local sites and improve monetization of our local properties through Citysearch’s local advertising network,” said John Kannapell, SVP, AOL Search in a release. “The combination of the enhanced content and reach into new markets will also increase the premium local advertising inventory available to advertisers through Platform-A.”

“This partnership is a classic ‘win-win’ for both companies; Citysearch’s content is great for AOL’s audience, AOL’s reach is great for Citysearch’s advertisers who will gain access to qualified local customers and the ability to deliver a consistent message across the web, and both companies will benefit from incremental revenue,” said Jay Herratti, CEO, Citysearch. “We are thrilled to have high-quality AOL properties and affiliates such as AOL CityGuide, Local Search and MapQuest as part of the Citysearch Local Advertising network.”

According to the US Online Local Advertising Forecast, 2007—2012, released by JupiterResearch, local advertising will increase by 13% from 2007 to 2012. This is faster than online advertising as a whole which is only projected to grow about 12% in the same time frame. The biggest impact is anticipated to be made by local display and search advertising with compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) of 18% and 16% respectively, during the next five years.

Lead Analyst Barry Parr, Media Analyst for JupiterResearch stated “Although traditional media such as newspaper and local broadcast are facing new challenges regarding their business models, local advertising in these media mainstays is not a dying market. The ability to assemble relatively larger general audiences will remain a principal advantage of traditional media.”

David Schatsky, President of Jupiter Research said in the statement “At this point, most local advertisers are not marketers and do not have the time or resources to manage, let alone optimize, online advertising campaigns. Although search is increasing its impact on the local market, it still demands a degree of sophistication unavailable to most local advertisers.”