Affinity, perhaps best known as a Web hosting provider, has for some time been pushing its bevy of add-on services, such as Web design. This week, the company debuted its new ValueTraffic marketing services practice, focused on helping online merchants achieve better results from search marketing.

Meanwhile, e-commerce shopping cart giant LaGarde is poised to enter the marketing services fray as well. LaGarde's brand is synonymous with its popular StoreFront offerings, but it also has created a brisk business in providing add-on services, such as Web design, hosting, and payment processing.

The packages differ in specific offerings, and pricing structure as well.

For $100 per month, Affinity will create, execute and manage a small business customer's search campaign. The ValueTraffic plan guarantees at least 10,000 monthly impressions or 50 Web site visits.

Meanwhile, LaGarde is charging set-up and monthly fees for its combination of search and e-mail marketing services. Those fees start at $9.95 for set-up, and $200 to $300 per month on the low end. LaGarde will also design e-mail creative, for an additional fee.

The end result is that both Affinity and LaGarde will be going head-to-head in an already crowded arena. Earlier this week, Web hosting giant Interland (which, too, has made successful forays into the add-on services market) launched its pay-per-click search marketing practice.

But the marketing services space may not yet be as congested as some might think. Indeed, Affinity says that small businesses are being underserved by marketing services providers.

"A large company goes out and gets and ad agency," said Affinity Chief Executive Peter Chambers. "We think small business customers get neglected and are searching for this kind of service."

Small business owners "want less time on dealing with Web sites and their e-commerce stuff," he said. "They want us to handle that, and want to spend more time on their businesses."

It's also not just about addressing an underserved market, however. LaGarde in particular is banking that small businesses will find it simpler and more cost-effective to get their outsourced search and e-mail marketing from a vendor who is already providing them with other services.

"What we found over the last several years is that the more solution-oriented we can make our offering to merchants, then the more successful we are as a company ... and of key importance, the more successful our merchants are," said LaGarde CEO Bob LaGarde. "Every time we offered another piece of the solution to our customer base, one, we created new substantial revenue streams for the company, and two, happier customers."

Affinity, on the other hand, said it plans to offer its search-only service on a one-off basis to small businesses that aren't already hosting customers.

Christopher Saunders is managing editor of ECommerce-Guide.com.

Do you have a comment or question about this article or other e-commerce topics in general? Speak out in the SmallBusinessComputing.com E-Commerce Forum. Join the discussion today!