Local SEM/online marketing platform Clickable announced a deal with the company that owns New York Magazine, the Grub Street blogs and Menupages.com to offer SEM/PPC to local businesses through its sales force/channels. These sites have local advertisers and Clickable effectively brings a “network” of outside traffic to them.
From the press release:
New York Media, parent company of the weekly New York magazine, twice-yearly New York Weddings, nymag.com Web site, Grub Street network of food blogs, and restaurant and menu resource MenuPages.com, today announced a partnership with Clickable to add online lead generation to the advertising opportunities offered to clients. “New York Connects” will provide online presence and new customer leads through search engine marketing (SEM) to local businesses that have not yet fully tapped into the Web’s potential. New York Media has been a leader among media brands in developing its online business, and will be the first Northeast media sales partner for Clickable’s Platform.
We’ll see more such deals with “non-traditional” SMB channels as all possible local sales efforts are exploited by vendors, and as publishers/sales teams seek new offerings to find revenues. But SEM alone is not going to be sufficient going forward, I’ve argued in my post yesterday: The New Local Product Suite Now in Focus
Other platforms out there that are interesting are Kenshoo (which I haven’t spoken to) and ClickFuel, which I spoke to on Friday (Steve Pogorzelski, the CEO). I was impressed with ClickFuel’s patience and approach to the market. The company offers direct, high-touch SMB sales but also a dashboard/analytics product that can be white labeled. It also has a diversified product suite, which includes website development and email marketing, in addition to SEM.
The market can obviously support multiple channels and vendors because it’s so fragmented and so opaque. However if national ad campaigns begin that may change.
Screenwerk 
December 15, 2009 at 2:08 pm
Hi Greg, thanks for the attention. Importantly, SEM is a starting place, but performance-based investment that delivers transparency and meaningful business growth, simply, from numerous channels is key. And opacity won’t live long. Much, much more to come in 2010. Stay tuned!