PR - Acxiom Partners with Search Initiatives LLC

A new strategic partnership with Nashua, N.H.-based Search Initiatives LLC will provide clients of Acxiom Corporation with more detailed business directory data on small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) across the country, the two companies announced yesterday.

Acxiom will include data from Search Initiatives’ subsidiary, eLocal Listing, to further enhance its business data listings. In turn, Search Initiatives will incorporate Acxiom data into its products, including the company’s search and search engine optimization offerings.

“The U.S. business sector is constantly changing,” said Jon Cohn, Acxiom product leader, “and we are constantly looking for innovative ways to further improve the quality of our business data listings. With this agreement, we’ll be able to provide even more detailed business information to our many data clients.”

“We are in the business of speaking to thousands of U.S. businesses every day,” said Tim Judd, chief executive officer of Search Initiatives. “Through our subsidiary, eLocal Listing, and our network of call centers, we reach out and touch millions of SMBs each year. The additional information we discover about those companies during our process will be incorporated into Acxiom’s core business listing products.”

The strategic alliance between the two companies reinforces the importance of the emerging local online market and the value of enhanced local contact data.

“The national online market has developed on a largely self-service basis that doesn’t work as well at the local level with time-starved small businesses,” Judd said. “To be effective while marketing to the enormous U.S. small business market, you need accurate, current data supported by the ability to talk to those customers with a personal touch.”