Click and Mortar retailers have, since the dawn of online marketing, struggled with the challenge of promoting an online, direct-to-consumer store environment with their own brick and mortar stores. Even manufacturer, publisher, and designer brand advertisers wrestle with channel conflict and the support of their identity through retail partners.

The promise of Local Search eludes many as traditional paid search placement is burdened with the need to create hundreds of campaigns by zip code, dma, or other geography. Promotion of local stores, sales, and events requires replication of the same (or similar) program over and over again. While the paid local search marketing channel exists to promote local sales and events, the engines’ experiences still encourage users to search for a product, store, or brand they want, not a localized result. As we all know by now, this is where vertical search steps in to create for users, an experience entirely their own. Options worth your consideration are available from Yahoo! Local and Zvents which cross the bridge between online and offline, brand and channel.

Yahoo! Local, is, of course, “local search” which caters to those looking, literally, for a store or business within their vicinity. Store listings are free and easily submitted through a user friendly process. With 80,000 zipcodes indexed and over 60,000 city pages, even the smallest business in the most remote location should look to Yahoo! Local for promotion.

Paid placement in Y! Local is available through an Enhanced Listing, a paid, guaranteed placement on the first or second SERP which includes customizable store descriptions, photos, and promotion of online coupons. Pricing varies according to distribution and reach for each location though, with so little demand, rates are usually much more attractive than traditional Paid Search.

The Yellow Pages are nice but a listing alone won’t get customers in the door. Retailers know this well and while sales and promotions are still sufficient online, offline, events, classes, fairs, parties, and celebrity appearances help draw a crowd. Zvents indexes store events and sales to its massive, localized event search engine and allows users to save keyword searches, venues, or grouped themes of interest to receive updates through RSS or iCal. Inclusion in their index is free and promotion of your event extends beyond their site search to event pages with partners including the San Jose Mercury News, Miami Herald, and Boston.com. Creating a venue (your store) will ensure its promotion in perpetuity; customers who enjoy your events and sales can save your store to their MyZvents page.

A good number of retailers have caught on to this opportunity and I easily found reading clubs at Borders, PetSmart’s in store Greyhound adoption, and a Trading Spaces clinic at Home Depot. Even Williams-Sonoma made an appearance (though they are apparently still dabbling with the opportunity) while outdoor retailer REI is promoting a variety of classes to draw enthusiasts into the store.

Brand advertisers are catching on to promote branded events while bridging the gap between promotion of their brand and retail partners. Kodak’s Path to Transformation series takes photographers through photography’s transition from film to digital while Toyota’s well known Toyotafest is featured alongside lecture series and Toyota sponsored events.

Easily include your Stores’ events from the prominent link at the top of any page and create groups of themed or like events (like all your sales or education classes) to promote from your own site.

As search continues to evolve, marketers must look beyond the tried and true engines to the emerging opportunities in local marketing. Yellow Pages have been replaced with online directories and store sales and events have a new home for promotion in search.