Comments on: ReachLocal Grabs Huge Round for Local Sales

By: WebVisible Raises $12 Million in a Series B Round « Screenwerk

WebVisible Raises $12 Million in a Series B Round « Screenwerk — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 14:37:13 +0000

[...] firms. It and Reach Local are the two largest of these firms and both are still independent. Reach recently raised $55 million against a rumored valuation of $300 [...]

By: Chuck

Chuck — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 15:31:11 +0000

What happens if verizon starts to scale up superpages.com in markets where reach is trying to play? I imagine they are driving a ton of value from the cheap cost per calls on IYP to help offset the expensive cost per calls on S/E. Will be curious to see how that plays out

By: Greg Sterling

Greg Sterling — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 01:37:44 +0000

This was a comment from Len Muscarella that he sent to me to post on his behalf. Not my view; entirely his opinion. See above.

By: Gilman

Gilman — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 01:24:14 +0000

Sterling - Please clarify your comments:

“we saw a lot of bad purchasing going on — buying words that would deliver impressions but not the right ones. As a result, we have been telling clients to avoid ReachLocal. They’re good at billing, but I’m not sure they’re good for their clients or the reputation of SEM.”

How do you “buy impressions”? Isn’t that CPM? You don’t but impressions on a CPC model. I have seen their platform and it does deliver what you are saying it does not (from some of my customers) and working in a competing organization on the local side, they do scare me. That is a load of bunk and I am a competitor of RL - They are the real deal and I am losing clients hand-over-first to them.

Your comments are crap

By: Yodle Building Feet on the Street Too « Screenwerk

Yodle Building Feet on the Street Too « Screenwerk — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 17:39:34 +0000

[...] of the things that makes Yodle interesting and different is that, like ReachLocal, it’s opening local sales offices. It currently has five in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, [...]

By: Len Muscarella

Len Muscarella — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 16:11:16 +0000

Thanks for the post, Greg.
We have several clients who had been using ReachLocal and did not seem to be getting any of the intelligence you would expect in SEM marketing. They were paying $3,500 or more a month and didn’t know (1) what search terms they were purchasing; (2) what the ROI was for various search terms; (3) how their ads read; (4) what they were paying per word per click. And when we finally got ReachLocal to provide them that information, we saw a lot of bad purchasing going on — buying words that would deliver impressions but not the right ones.
As a result, we have been telling clients to avoid ReachLocal. They’re good a billing, but I’m not sure they’re good for their clients or the reputation of SEM.

By: Weekly Local Wrap Up - 10/12/07 | LocalPoint - Perspectives on the Local Internet

Sat, 13 Oct 2007 00:45:59 +0000

[...] ReachLocal Grabs Huge Round for Local Sales [...]

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 17:59:16 +0000

While the technology is important, the key to success with SMBs and SEM is the combination of tech savvy, time, budget, and lack of fear.

Most SMBs that have the budget would rather pay some to overcome the time, fear, and ‘tech savvy’ success factors. This is why very lucrative parts of the SMB market use ‘trusted resources’ to on-board and manage SEM campaigns.

Those ‘trusted resources’ need to be real account managers - whether ‘feet on the street’ or ‘dedicated inbound case managers’.

The SMB market is clearly defining a need beyond self-provisioning…

By: Reach Local Raises Big Funding « A Fuller View: Dylan Fuller’s Blog

Reach Local Raises Big Funding « A Fuller View: Dylan Fuller’s Blog — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 20:08:18 +0000

[...] a significant amount of additional funding… A big and tasty $55 Million! Both TechCrunch and Greg Sterling have more analysis. My initial thoughts are that is seriously validates SEM for the local space and [...]

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 13:16:02 +0000

Sabrina,

Either you work directly for RL or your husband has one heck of a salesman.

RL’s technology is no better than anyone else’s in the space. You can call it conversion-based optimization, ROI-based optimization, call-based optimization. Whatever you choose to call it, most SEM agencies or resellers either offer the same thing or are working on their own “technology.” In addition, call tracking and call recording are all managed by the same third party vendors. Any company can get a VoiceStar, EStara or Who’s Calling to provide call tracking and recording.

One common rumor about RL is that they struggle to find a sales force clever enough to sell to SME’s and geeky enough to simultaneously manage accounts. The traits required to do both rarely manifest themselves in one person.

This problem isn’t unique to RL, every “old media” company trying to sell “new media” products struggle with some variation of this problem. Can I teach an old sales dog new tricks?

In the end, RL is in a nice position to give it a try. $55 million can solve a lot of problems.