Unleashing Digital Growth: LocalEdge’s $19 Million Digital Success Story with Vendasta
“Choosing Vendasta as our partner has been a game-changer for us. Not only were they far, far ahead of their competition for their online presence solutions, but their all-in-one platform also enables us to offer comprehensive online presence solutions and white-label services to our clients while simplifying our tech stack and operations.”
– Carrie Carver, Vice President of Information Technology, Hearst Media Services.
Check out the full case study below and discover how, through their partnership with Vendasta, Hearst has:
- Generated $19M+ reselling digital solutions from the Vendasta marketplace
- Maintained 97% account retention by leveraging Vendasta tools to deliver an incredible online experience to local advertisers
- Sold 3200+ products through a repeatable sales process that allows their teams to sell digitally with ease
LocalEdge is a premier multi-media company leading the transition to digital marketing for local advertisers. It is part of the Hearst Corporation, which operates 33 TV stations, 76 newspapers, digital services businesses, and 200+ magazines worldwide.
Amid the evolving digital marketing landscape, LocalEdge wanted to seize on the first-mover opportunity presented by addressing local advertisers’ online presence needs with reputation management, listings registration, and social media management software.
Unlock new revenue streams with tailored digital solutions for local advertisers
- $19M in Gross Marketplace Revenue
- 3,200+ products sold
- 97% account retention
Background
Recognizing the need to expand beyond traditional print directory marketing solutions, LocalEdge, like many media or media-owned companies, embarked on a journey to diversify its offering.
Around the time of partnering with Vendasta in 2010, LocalEdge had a keen foresight regarding the increasing significance of reputation management, social media, and listing solutions for small and medium businesses. This trend was fueled by the growing recognition of social proof and the impact of Google star ratings.
To avoid the complexities and costs associated with developing a proprietary solution or integrating multiple providers, LocalEdge aimed for a streamlined approach while still maintaining a white-label offering.
“We wanted to avoid the time and effort required to develop our own proprietary offering and the challenges of dealing with constant API changes from different platforms,” says Carrie Carver, Vice President of Information Technology at Hearst Media Services.
“Choosing Vendasta as our partner has been a game-changer for us. Not only were they far, far ahead of their competition for their online presence solutions, but their all-in-one platform also enables us to offer comprehensive online presence solutions and white-label services to our clients while simplifying our tech stack and operations.”
Vendasta’s platform became the centralized hub for managing LocalEdge clients’ digital marketing needs, encompassing crucial elements such as client data and billing, all in one convenient location.
Objectives
LocalEdge’s partnership with Vendasta was driven by specific objectives:
- Resell comprehensive online presence solutions, including reputation management software and a social media management platform.
- Collaborate with a partner capable of developing seamless integrations to ensure consistent data and order management across LocalEdge’s entire tech stack.
While these goals have remained paramount, LocalEdge has also embraced the opportunity to leverage Vendasta’s dynamic white-label software marketplace, which offers over 250 products. This has allowed LocalEdge to expand its digital offering and cater to a wider audience.
“By utilizing the Marketplace, we have positioned ourselves as the go-to solution for our advertisers’ evolving needs, including SEM and SEO. We have the flexibility to package and enhance our marketing bundles as our client relationships grow,” says Carver.
The Approach
LocalEdge takes a comprehensive approach to address the needs of local advertisers, combining traditional and digital advertising solutions.
In collaboration with Vendasta, they have designed marketing bundles that cater to these needs, offering a range of services such as search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO), social media management, and website development. One of the key components of their bundles is reputation management, which has been integrated seamlessly thanks to Vendasta’s development work.
“We focus on SEM, SEO, social media management, and websites as our core services. We have packaged reputation management into almost all of those bundles. The development work done by Vendasta has made it incredibly easy for us to integrate our systems, making the process of ordering, canceling, and making changes much more efficient. It’s the perfect mix of products that our advertisers are really happy with, addressing their specific needs,” Carver says.
By offering bundled online presence solutions and integrating reputation management seamlessly, LocalEdge empowers its clients to efficiently manage their online presence and respond to reviews. This strategic approach gives LocalEdge’s clients a competitive edge, especially in industries where customer reviews play a crucial role. Through Vendasta’s support, clients receive timely notifications and valuable insights, enhancing their online presence and reputation.
LocalEdge has emerged as a trusted partner for local advertisers’ digital marketing needs, delivering a unified and streamlined experience. This enables clients to navigate the path to online success with ease, achieving higher visibility and driving business growth.
Execution
Through their collaboration with Vendasta, LocalEdge has discovered valuable upsell opportunities, particularly in the realm of reputation management, especially for industries with a high volume of review activity.
Central to LocalEdge’s offering is a comprehensive reputation management report seamlessly integrated into user-friendly dashboards. This integration empowers advertisers to conveniently access and monitor their reputation management data, providing a user-friendly experience. Carver calls this feature out as a competitive advantage, given some other tools in the market don’t provide the same or same level of monitoring and AI-powered response capabilities.
In addition to their core services, LocalEdge provides supplementary labor support that complements their reputation management solutions. These additional services aim to offer comprehensive assistance to advertisers, further enhancing their experience and maximizing the value they receive.
Conclusion
The collaboration between LocalEdge and Vendasta is a win-win partnership that brings significant advantages to local advertisers. By bundling and packaging comprehensive online presence solutions, including reputation management and social media tools, LocalEdge has enabled its advertisers to monitor and respond to reviews, giving them a competitive edge in their industries.
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