ReachLocal Expands to New Zealand

ReachLocal announced Wednesday that it entered a strategic alliance with SureFire Search, a New Zealand marketing agency that works with small and medium-sized businesses. The move will expand ReachLocal’s global presence, which includes online ad campaigns in the United Kingdom, Germany and Australia.

ReachLocal trained SureFire Search’s sales force to deliver its products and services, including ReachSearch and ReachDisplay, to New Zealand businesses. ReachSearch delivers local advertisers’ marketing messages through ads across popular search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. ReachDisplay allows local businesses to reach customers using display advertising on publisher sites like Facebook.

The New Zealand Ministry of Economic Development reported that small and medium-sized businesses employing 50 or fewer employees in 2009 accounted for 99 percent of total businesses in the country. Yellow Pages New Zealand has long enjoyed a favorable market position with small-business advertisers as the country’s dominant directory publisher. But YPG’s online directory market share may decline with an international player like ReachLocal offering search engine and display advertising to its core advertisers. Another new entrant to the local online space in New Zealand is Localist, which is backed by the New Zealand Post.