Another SEM for Small Business

There’s a new player in the small business SEM segement, Innuity. Here’s the current list (as I know it) of all the firms targeting small businesses (SMBs) with simplified online marketing services:

• ClickForward (now gone as a separate entity, bought by YellowBook)
• Inceptor (Owned by Idearc/SuperPages)
• Innovectra (just launched LeadStream)
• Innuity (see release link above)
• Leads.com (owned by Websitepros)
• ListandFound
• LocalLaunch (RH Donnelley owned)
• MatchCraft
• Marchex/TrafficLeader
• Natpal (relatively new)
• ReachLocal (still independent)
• Weblistic
• WebVisible (still independent, has greatest penetration vs. others in newspaper industry)

There are a number of verticals offering similar SEM services to their industries and segments, as well as webhosts that offer these same services through partnerships with some of the firms above. In addition, YP publishers and newspapers use these companies to offer SEM services and traffic to their customers.

This, folks, is the foundation for the “local search ecosystem“: sales channel/aggregator + SEM firm that simplifies the sale and handles management and fulfillment. Forget about self-service on a mass scale (absent some radical developments, which may come) for a number of years.

Okay, there are a lot of players on this list but the SMB market is incredibly fragmented. It will take a patchwork of efforts to get more SMBs into online marketing. About 10% of the YP print advertiser population is using online marketing today. There are many millions of businesses out there waiting to be Internet-enabled.

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