MerchantCircle offers search to local advertisers

Local advertisers have a new outlet for online advertising. MerchantCircle, a network of local business with an online presence, has developed a suite of advertising platforms designed with local businesses in mind.

by Kristina Knight

"Over half of our 320,000 members are new to the web and rely on MerchantCircle as their only web presence - and 75% of those buying our current advertising products have never advertised online before," said Darren Waddell, Sr. Director of Marketing at MerchantCircle. "Our new product suite offers the simplest, most flexible solution for local business owners to attract new customers online."

First on the list of suite services is a search engine marketing platform and allows local businesses to create and run search marketing campaigns on the major search engines.

Advertisers who want more than text ads or pay-per-click opportunities, though, maybe want to skip straight to the multi-media ad platform. This offering gives local businesses the ability to create videos which are showcased on hubs like Citysearch. The videos are professionally shot and edited to look like premium pieces of video but are actually very affordable.

There is also a listing submission service which offers local marketers the ability to list their business in all of the major online directories from one location and at one time. This could cut the amount of time that businesses spend listing their information.

Finally the custom budget area helps advertisers create and use an advertising budget to get the most from their online ad dollars.

Tags: local advertising, local search

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MerchantCircle must be doing something right, they are taking on criticisms. Thats usually a good sign for a new and growing business. I for one will have to take what I can get in the dog eat dog business world, but know that it is all about what my customers think about me and not what some self appointed critic might have to say. He is only one mans opinion and a good smear campaign never really hurts those that can back up their acitons. CarWorldConnect.com is a example of a business who has already made connections in the business sector, and one who has taken advantage of networking with other businesses in North America to get themselves noticed by Google and Yahoo. It has to be a win win situation for the search engine giants as well MerchantCircle. There is plenty of businesses around for all to prosper in the game, sometimes we just want to be a little greedy to take it all. I for one don't want see Yahoo fall out of competition, nor any other business for that matter. We should encourage our fellow business counterparts in a free trade society. Healthy competition grows new ideas and stimulates a stale market place.

Posted by: Fred Dodson on January 23, 2008 14:44

MerchantCircle recently crossed 500,000 members. We’re proud to help local businesses acquire customers by offering an alternative to over-priced, ineffective offline marketing channels. We’ve been interviewing our merchants in all 50 states – you can read about their MerchantCircle experience here: www.visualcv.com/merchantcircle. We’re committed to providing every local business a web presence, easy-to-use marekting tools and a platform for connecting with other merchants, all for free. As always, please email any questions or concerns to support@merchantcircle.com and we will respond as soon as possible.

Posted by: Kevin L. on June 28, 2008 03:02