April 29, 2006
With the local business market being largely untapped at this time, companies are trying to figure out ways to get local businesses to partake in the online marketing arena. I know that I have tried to show the importance of this over the time I've blogged here.
Now in response to this Yahoo! (YHOO) has now created a flat-fee "Featured Listings" that is much easier to manage than the auction-based keyword-targeted ads.
Here are a few of the practicals as reported by Pamela Parker:
"Featured Listings, which are guaranteed to appear on local search results pages, are offered at five different price points ranging from $20 to $300/month. Ads in higher-demand categories and more-populated areas command a larger amount.
"Advertisers will also pay more for appearing above organic results, rather than below. Only 12 listings are available per-category for each region, with three appearing above the organic results and three below. The company says it will dole out the placements on a first-come, first-serve basis. It's not immediately clear whether sponsored search listings will also appear on the same results pages or how they will be prioritized. Yahoo! representatives didn't respond to inquiries by press time.
"Each Featured Listing contains a business' tagline, customizable links to coupons or special offers, and a designated business details page. Yahoo! will also throw in a free five-page Web site to Featured Listings advertisers. That service is in beta. Though the ads aren't priced on a per-click basis, advertisers will receive reports on pageviews and clicks."
For a small business operator that doesn't want to spend enormous amounts of time filtering and monitoring the auction-based model, this is really something that should be considered. Either way, I really encourage you to participate in local online marketing, it will truly give you an edge over your competitors.
