In October 2019, Yahoo Small Business launched its Business Maker. It’s a “a new platform to help small businesses and aspiring business owners start, run, and grow their own business.” Based on its claims, we were intrigued. We evaluated and directionally compared it to other service providers. The results were pleasantly unexpected.
Thinking about making changes to your business? ProStrategix has the business experience and knowhow to help. ProStrategix Advisors focuses on fundraising and business operations. Its sister company ProStrategix Consulting is full-service digital marketing agency.
Yahoo Small Business Maker does provide a selection of tailored services that help you manage your small business plans, legal needs, web hosting, Yahoo small business email, local search, and point of sale (as in credit card and merchant services).
As stated in the video, it appears to be a good deal. Without enrolling, t’s impossible to tell if each of the individual services offered by Yahoo will be equivalent to the services provided by the other services we reviewed, for example will Yahoo mail be as good as Gmail. However, it does win from a convenience standpoint.
The control panel is great. The unified dashboard is definite plus for a small business owner. Plus, it is very easy to set-up a business account.
If you are an experienced businessperson, Yahoo Business Maker’s guided tracks and to-do lists are a bit annoying. But for someone starting out, they are a great resource, not only for small business email or personal email, but also for boosting online presence and the like.
We aren’t a traditional brick-and-mortar business, so we weren’t able to review the point of sale (POS) system and the other retail solutions of Yahoo Business Maker, like a custom domain for e-commerce. The key benefit of this service is its user friendliness. This assessment is based solely on what they claim vs. experiencing it first-hand.
If you are starting a business, you should consider Yahoo Business Maker. However, much of this information is readily available for free. As an existing business, if you have your business plan complete, all your legal paperwork in place, etc., its value is a bit diminished.
The Local Search tool was the only feature that could have been of value to us. We don’t need another mail app or business mail account.
Unfortunately, that tool was about as expensive as the monthly rate for the full plan, and about the same price as a more well-established brand, such as SEMRush. Therefore, the benefits of this feature were outweighed by its cost.
We developed an infographic that outlines the basic steps involved in starting a business. It provides a high-level overview of what we believe is important when thinking about starting a business.
Since we are talking about search and improved digital presence, we should discuss digital strategy and the lack thereof in the Yahoo Small Business Maker.
All small businesses, no matter how small or how new, should consider digital advertising/marketing. The benefits of digital advertising and marketing are numerous. First, it typically enable you to reach a larger audience. Second the ability to target and message specific segments of your audience cannot be beat. Third, a targeted digital marketing campaign helps you reach each segment more cost-effectively. Finally, the feedback is measurable and rapid, so you can be flexible and responsive
Your digital strategy will likely depend on your customers’ degree of purchase involvement. Purchase involvement in how much time and energy your customer puts into deciding to buy or not to buy your product or service. For example, the time and energy dedicated to deciding which candy bar to buy is low. In contrast, the time and energy is much greater when deciding to buy a car. The candy bar is an example of low purchase involvement, where the car is an example of high involvement.
For a low involvement purchase, your digital strategy will most likely focus on recency and trying to stay top of mind when your customer is considering a purchase. These strategies most often rely heavily on social media, mobile marketing, and other tools that enable frequent and timely communication. These strategies place less emphasis on long-tailed search, content marketing, and other deeper more long-term tools.
For a high involvement purchase, your digital strategy will most likely focus on providing relevant content that helps your customer make the right decision, even if its not you. These are big-ticket items, and as such, they require research and take time to decide. These strategies most often rely heavily on long-tailed search, content marketing, and other deeper more long-term tools. They tend to place much less emphasis on social media, mobile marketing, and the like.
For a medium involvement purchase, your digital strategy will most likely have a blend of both of the above. You’ll want some presence on multiple media platforms. The depth of which will be highly dependent on your business, target, and their media consumption patterns.
If you are looking for more one-on-one help, you can check out our business development options for business set-up. Alternatively, if you need help with your digital strategy, please checkout our digital strategy services. There you can learn more about how to do things yourself or how you can get more specialize help.
The retail system seemed great, especially the additional help with POS and merchant account assistance. The other features were good if you were starting, but unnecessary if you are established. Plus, you can get much of the information for free, elsewhere. Additionally, there are other solutions, which may have more features for the same price.
Brian Cairns, CEO of Prostrategix Consulting. Over 25 years of business experience as a corporate executive, entrepreneur, and small business owner. For more information, please visit my LinkedIn profile
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