Go Daddy goes for Indian SMBs

The 'Cup of Coffee' campaign's theme is 'Get a web presence in the time you finish a cup of coffee,' which aims to exhibit how convenient and fast it is to build a website, at an affordable cost.

Web hosting and domain name registrations company Go Daddy has launched its 'Cup of Coffee' campaign in India. Targeted at Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs), the campaign's theme is 'get a web presence in the time you finish a cup of coffee,' which aims to exhibit how convenient and fast it is to build a website, at an affordable cost. The 'Cup of Coffee' campaign is running simultaneously in three cities - New Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad - for a period of one month.

As a part of the campaign, at various SMB clusters in the mentioned cities, a Go Daddy mobile-experience zone has been positioned during the campaign period, offering a first-hand experience of how SMBs can register a domain name, build a website, get an email address and leverage Google AdWords to promote their website.

In Delhi, the company has identified Naraina, Okhla, Shahadara, Mayapuri and Nehru Place as SMB-dominated clusters. Similarly in Mumbai, Go Daddy will reach out to SMBs based in Andheri (East and West), Borivali, Malad and Navi Mumbai. In Hyderabad, they will be stationed at Mehndipatnam, Chenoy Trade Centre, Malekpet, Kukatpally and Secunderabad.

This integrated campaign also offers customers a '.com' address for their web presence, a website for their business, an email ID with 1GB space and Google AdWords credit worth Rs 2,500 so that SMBs can have their business appear on Google - all for Rs 580 only.

Besides, trained Go Daddy experts are being sent door-to-door in selected clusters across each of the three cities, showcasing how websites can be built quickly and promoted on Google easily. Websites and Google AdWords advertising accounts are built for interested businesses at the mobile-experience zone or at their doorstep - at no additional cost.

To complement these efforts and to ensure maximum outreach, the company is also using radio and outdoor advertising in the three cities.

US-based Go Daddy entered India with full-scale operations in June 2012, and has its largest international office with a customer care centre in the country. The company also appointed Rajiv Sodhi as managing director of Go Daddy India.

Speaking to afaqs! about the objective behind the campaign, Sodhi, vice president and managing director, Go Daddy India, says, "From a cultural perspective, India is largely a do-it-for-me market, which means the expectation is that someone else will build and manage an online business for the customer. The 'Cup of Coffee' campaign aims to help India's small businesses build a successful online aspect of their business, irrespective of whether they are a start-up, a one-person operation or a bigger and established enterprise. However, the Go Daddy association just does not stop with getting customers an online presence. We can help our customers solve problems, harness the internet and make their businesses successful."

Giving his reasons for targeting SMBs, Sodhi states that there are about 150 million internet users and less than 4 million domain names in India. "Additionally, with over 30 million small and medium businesses in India, there are only half a million websites. We believe that internet is the key driver for business growth and with Go Daddy it becomes very easy to get online. We can help our customers solve problems, harness the internet and make their businesses successful," he informs.

Go Daddy is based in Scottsdale, Ariz., USA. Internationally, it has data centre facilities in Europe and Asia, as well as an office in Canada. In 2011, Go Daddy received a growth investment from KKR, Silver Lake and TCV that was designed to fuel the company's international expansion.