The ReachLocal Story

Solving the local business challenge with online marketing.

You’re looking for a company that can help you solve the unique challenges of marketing your local business online, with experience that gets the results you want – more customers. Our founders created ReachLocal to do just that. Here’s our story.

When ReachLocal began, the Internet was already integral to our everyday lives. You could go online to do anything you needed – read the news on websites like CNN.com, research businesses on directories like Citysearch, and of course, use search engines like Google to look for local products and services. In fact, consumers already had thousands of choices to find information about businesses in their area. But if you were a local business owner, it became much more difficult to reach these digital consumers, which meant getting fewer customers.

The Business Challenge: No Time, No Technology

As consumers spent more time online, all the money businesses were spending on traditional advertising became less effective. Gone were the days of making one phone call to place an ad in the newspaper or Yellow Pages. Busy running their businesses, owners didn’t have the time or the technology to figure out where and how to advertise online. Which sites were the most effective? Who did they need to call to place an ad? How would they create effective ads and know if they were working? And, ultimately, how were they going to manage it all?

Watch our video about the digitization of local business.

The Business Solution: ReachLocal Online Marketing

Our founders saw firsthand the challenge local businesses were facing. Companies like Google, Yahoo! and Yelp emerged to help the consumer find information online, but no one was focused on helping local business reach consumers. So our founders built ReachLocal, the first company dedicated to helping local businesses get customers online. That’s why we’re called ReachLocal. It’s in our name because it’s what we do.

Our Formula for Success

We knew there was a simpler way for local businesses to advertise online. So, we found all the places people were going online and packaged them up into one easy service for local businesses. We delivered this service through a local expert known as an Internet Marketing Consultant, managed and optimized it through our technology on a daily basis to get better results, and proved it was working with easy-to-read reports. And we’ve applied this formula to all our offerings ever since.

In 2005, we introduced ReachSearch to get you more leads from consumers who are ready to purchase. This is done by putting text ads on hundreds of the leading search engines and directories.

In 2009, we built ReachDisplay to build brand awareness by placing banner ads on thousands of premium sites where consumers are surfing.

In 2010, we launched ReachCast to get you customers through Web marketing delivered by a dedicated service expert called a Web Presence Professional.

In 2011, we developed ReachRemarketing to keep your business top of mind with local prospects by showing your display ads to consumers who have previously visited your website.

In 2012, we added ReachRetargeting to put your display ads in front of consumers who search for topics related to your business or visit your website.

Our Methodology: Web Presence Optimization

Today, we offer a full suite of services that work together to deliver a total Web presence, including online advertising, web marketing, and conversion tools, to get you more customers online. Every day, we continue to identify new ways to package online marketing services into affordable, powerful solutions – always with local businesses in mind.