MerchantCircle Launch Party

MerchantCircle had it's quiet launch party last night in downtown Los Altos. It was a great event with family and friends.

A bunch of people who had been at Spoke were there, including a couple of my favorite investors from Spoke; Rob Thies and Philippe Cases along with some of our current investors like Sharon and her family from B of A and Mark Menell from Rustic Canyon.

We also had a couple of our local merchants attend, Cambric, Delegate to Me, and Intero Real Estate Services joined the festivities. A group of people from Topix were there as well. Skrenta always has something to say interesting that make me stop and think. Chris Kelly, who is now with the Facebook but former GC and CPO from Spoke was there as well. Prasad who also worked with me at Spoke attended. It was great to see him at Cydelity where I am fortunate to be on the board and had just had a major win in online fraud protection. There were also a bunch of other people there as well including Mike, Joe and Arin who worked with me at Spoke and are now at Topix. On another note, Topix just launched some really interesting things in the classified space and we are looking forward to getting our merchants the ability to advertise there as part of our bundles.

The evening was particularly exciting because some very interesting things had just went live with one of the map services from a big search engine right before the event. I am not going to talk a lot about it because I don't want to mess it up, but we're excited they had taken our idea on what to do with our RSS feeds and implemented it. Now, they did not tell us and we found it by chance, but it was still great. Let's just say if you are a merchant getting other merchant reviews, having coupons and having consumer reviews; it is a very good thing.

As the night was coming to a close and as we were washing the dishes- or should I say as David was washing them, we had some great discussions about how to better help merchants leverage all of the picture content they are putting on the site. I expect some amazing things out of the team in this area during June. I am sure you all have great ideas on what we should do as well. Send them in...we all know that you guys are the ones who know what we should be doing.

p.s. check out the pictures from the launch here.

Best,
Ben

A few questions answered

A few questions have been floating around on other blogs lately, namely about Yahoo and our exit strategy. I thought I'd clear up a few of the questions.

Were you aware of Yahoo! Local Listings as you developed your product?

We were very aware of Yahoo Local when we created the product.---How could anyone miss the ads in the Wall Street Journal trying to get people to use it. But serious, we believe that bringing the Yahoo inventory and visibility opportunity to our Merchants is an important part of our solution. As you noted, we already make sure our pages are being picked up by the search engines since this where were Local Consumers often first enter the Local Internet.

Part of our current paid programs includes Yahoo Search marketing. We continue to work to expand this with Yahoo and other sources of great opportunities to be visible on the Local Internet for our Local Merchants. Paul Levine and his team at Yahoo are doing some great things. We hope to continue to expand that dialogue so that when we bring 5M merchants online, Yahoo is part of that solution.


What's your exit strategy?

Our goal is simple, we want to bring every small merchant online. Every small merchant from Mom and Daughter carpet cleaners who can't afford the Yellow Pages, to the corner Pizza joint who is wasting money on an ad in a book that in a couple of years no one is going to open. We want to do it because it creates an enormous opportunity for Local Merchants to use their one advantage that Starbucks and Wal-Mart, they are Local and they understand and value the Local Community. We don't think about exit strategy (ok so maybe late at night- say 3am when we are trying to get to sleep), we think about getting to every local merchant from Soldotna to Fairhope.

thanks,
Ben

Why Merchants Join MerchantCircle

Kate Kaye of ClickZ News wrote a great article about MerchantCircle today in which she interviewed one of our customers, Mark Cermak of EcoClean Carpet Care, about his experience to date with MerchantCircle. For me, her article brings to light a couple of key points:

1. Local businesses, like Mark's, are abandoning traditional advertising vehicles like "newspaper classifieds and Yellow Pages" for online advertising.

2. Businesses are integrating MerchantCircle into their other online marketing efforts; in Mark's case, "a separate Web site and . . . . online press releases.

3. Merchants are willing to pay for online advertising, even when the results are so far somewhat unclear, because intuitively they know it works.

4. Certain providers, like Jingle and Quigo, "get it" and are modifying their business models to serve local advertisers in similar fashion to the "big boxes" that were previously their main customers.


For me, this article helps to highlight why we've been able to grow to more than 5,000 merchant customers nationwide in only a few short months. Early adopters, like Mark, understand that Internet advertising delivers better results than the Yellow Pages, they understand that MerchantCircle will increase their online visibility and provide them access to networks previously reserved for the Wal-Mart's of the world, they are willing to make a monetary investment in order to compete with the big guys online, and they are happy enough with us that are telling their friends (most of our growth comes through referrals!)
Because of great merchant advertisers, MerchantCircle has been growing faster than we had ever imagined possible. Thousands of merchants become members of "The Circle" each month, and we are always on the lookout for more: more merchants to serve and more partners to help us serve them.

To date we've provided many services for our local merchants and have lots of valuable ideas for the future. What are your thoughts?

Best,
Doug

MerchantCircle Official Launch

Today, we officially launched MerchantCircle, letting the world know we've found a path to an answer to the question that has stumped many a local advertising expert ... How do you connect the 10 million local businesses in the U.S. with the $97 billion local advertising market? We believe we have a better answer than the current approaches.

Over the past few months, with the help of our members, we've been refining our service. The response has been outstanding. We are blowing past our goal to have 5,000 local businesses joined when we started, and they're actively building their business networks by inviting other businesses in their communities to join, too. Our members are also advertising and expressing themselves online, using a wide range of tools we offer, including blogging, online coupons and keyword advertising. They are also reaching out to their favorite consumers to get them involved.

Take a look for yourself at several local businesses with fabulous listings on MerchantCircle.

Several bloggers and reporters have already featured MerchantCircle this morning:

• Greg Sterling, Screenwerk, "MerchantCircle: Zero Customer Acquisition Cost", "What's different about MerchantCircle is the composite dimension of the offering - web presence + search marketing + CRM tools (newsletter, blog)" and Search Engine Watch, "MerchantCircle: SEO-Friendly Services for Small Businesses", "The landing pages, which are intended as a substitute for a website (but could be a complement to one), are highly SEO-friendly according to CEO Ben Smith."

• Rafe Needleman, CNet News.com, "MerchantCircle: World's Easiest Small Business Web Sites", "At its free service level, MerchantCircle is absolutely worth a try for any small business. But the free product is just a tease. For $29.95 a month, MerchantCircle will put one paid ad a month on engines like Google and Yahoo."

• Mike Bazeley, SiliconBeat, "Going Local with MerchantCircle", "The 'circle' in the company's name comes from the idea that merchants will create networks of affiliated businesses by adding their names to their profile pages and swapping ads with each other."

• Adotas - Where Interactive Advertising Begins, "MerchantCircle Connects Local Advertisers to Local Businesses", "It's [MerchantCircle] hit the 5,000 merchant mark, a tally that's been steadily doubling every 4-6 weeks, and contains more than 14 million listings and aggregates more than 10 million RSS feeds full of local business and marketing information."

We're excited to keep bringing our members more features to help them tap into qualified traffic on the Local Internet. This is just a start! We have a long way to go over the next year to bring even a small part of our vision online. But we do everything in small steps, so you will see new stuff even later this week and a big push for new capabilities by the end of the month.

In the end it is all about what local merchants are doing on our site. Check out PJ Fitness Corp in Altamonte Springs, Florida and Humbolt County Lines Magazine in Eureka, California and see how they are using MerchantCircle to communicate with their local markets.

This is what inspires us. One thing Mary Lou Song, who advises us and helped drive listening to the community at eBay as employee #2 or something has helped us really think about is this - in the end the merchants know what they need. So, if you have ideas, let us know. You never know. We might have some of them live by the end of the week. And, by the way, I'm still looking forward to giving out the beer or Pepsi to someone who tries on the blogs and does not like it.

Thanks,
Ben

Be a Featured Business

Last Thursday we sent out a special promotion to all our merchants. Just in case you missed the offer here it is again; and REMEMBER to act by June 5th.

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SUBJECT: Be a Featured Business on MerchantCircle

We’d love to feature your business nationally on MerchantCircle!

Every day, tens of thousands of local customers visit MerchantCircle. And, since we’ve started our press tour to launch MerchantCircle, even more folks are checking out MerchantCircle, our neighborhood directories, and our member listings. In fact, we’ve already appeared in Business Week.

We like to show our visitors great-looking listings of local businesses, just like you. That’s why we want to make you a Special Offer – Buy a monthly subscription to our Basic package by Monday, June 5th, and have your business listing featured nationally in our Member Showcase for the month of June.

Our Basic subscription package offers you the best deal in local advertising at just $29.95/month.

With Basic, get:
• Google and Yahoo! Advertisements
• Optimized placement in search engine results
• Your ad posted on the listing of every merchant in your community
• More for your money with 4 targeted ad campaigns
• Great looking ads with custom creatives
• 10 times the reach of your newsletter

We’re only launching MerchantCircle once, so don’t miss out on this unique opportunity!

Yes I want to Buy Basic

Tell Me More

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I hope to see many many participants! And, if you have any questions just drop me a comment and I'll be sure to get right back to you. Have a great weekend!

cheers,
Ryan

Featured Blog

The recently featured us on their website. It's great to see that people are understanding what we do and the real benefit we are trying to provide to small businesses. It's all about being local in our eyes!

But, don't only listen to us, see what some of our own merchants are saying about the benefits of Local. Check out the Data Doctors from Phoenix, Arizona; they get the idea, great stuff guys!

cheers,
Ryan

Top 5 things to building a GREAT MerchantCircle listing

We continue to see so many great merchant pages being created on MerchantCircle that we thought it would be great to share some of them as well as our thoughts into getting the most out of claiming your listing.

Here are the top 5 things to do to build a great MerchantCircle page along with some great examples.

1. Pictures, Pictures, Pictures! Everyone loves to see pictures on a website. Use this to your advantage by making use of your listing picture and badge picture uploads on your account. You can also include pictures in your blog and newsletters. The more the better! Include images of your location, yourself, employees, and your customers. Check out Majestic Art Gallery and BBQ by DeVault.

2. Affiliate! Have good things to say about a fellow merchant? Begin Affiliating and Endorsing. Not only does this boost your credibility among consumers but it provides your business with the kind words of your community right on your listing. Check out Blonde Bear Bed and Breakfast.

3. Coupons and Advertisements! Promote specials and deals with online coupons and ads. The consumers coming to your site will want to see what you have to offer. Give them a reason to drop by your store with online printable deals. These specials will also help in completing your page and providing the unique content Google and Yahoo look for in searches. Check out Jaworski Coatings.

4. Blog! Blog! Blog! Let your customers know whatÂ’s going on. Give them an insight into your operations. Blogging is a great way to initiate and carry communication amongst your consumers. Check out Cottage on Mobile Street and EcoClean.

5. READ ALL ABOUT IT!! Newsletters! Another great way to keep your audience educated is with Newsletters. This great feature of MerchantCircle allows you to start publishing quickly and easily. Start sending out Newsletters quarterly, monthly, or even weekly. Check out Mariyas Skin Care.


Cheers,
Ryan