Go Daddy: you know it as the largest domain registrar in the world. It has also been known for its “sexy” (some would say sleazy) commercials. But with new CEO Blake Irving (formerly Chief Product Officer at Yahoo) at the helm and some local veterans in its ranks now, the company is making a major push to shift its image and make a much larger play in SMB marketing services.
This is clearly a big potential growth area for Go Daddy. The company’s website and collateral have changed to reflect the new emphasis:
The company told me last month that it has more than 11 million domain customers on a global basis. Its domain market share is over 50%, with 55 million domains under management. It’s also the largest paid hosting provider in the world with 5.6 million sites.
Go Daddy explained that 70% of its customers are SMBs. It performs telephone outreach (read: sales) to domain owners monthly — to the tune of 1.5 million calls. Many of those calls are seeking to motivate domain owners to build sites and adopt other Go Daddy services.
The image above shows the menu of tools and services offered today by the company, which include site design and hosting, SEO, email marketing, SEM and e-commerce.
There’s no explicit pitch around mobile but the site builder creates a mobile-optimized site. It’s a bit unclear whether this is responsive design or a mobile-specific site. I suspect it’s the former, but I’m not certain.
The company also offers a “learning center” with content and high-touch online chat and phone support (beyond sales).
If you haven’t been to the Go Daddy site in some time you’ll be surprised by the changes. With its “foot in the door” through domain registration Blake Irving and company see a major opening to sell services to SMBs. Given the company’s huge installed base of SMBs I believe there’s a very real opportunity here.
One of the two 2013 Go Daddy SuperBowl commercials this year kicked off the “rebranding” of the company as a provider of online marketing services.
What’s your sense of how successful they might become as a seller of SMB digital marketing products?
