Yankee Group Sees SMBs Losing Potential Revenue from Unsophisticated Web Presence

BOSTON -- Aug. 8, 2005 --Yankee Group today revealed that SMBs and mid-market enterprises are not fully utilizing the available online e-commerce and marketing potential of the internet. Subsequently, businesses are losing potential profit due to the lack of a sophisticated online presence.

Yankee Group's DecisionNote, Evolving SMB and Mid-Market Enterprise Web-Hosting Market Dynamics, Part 2, transforms survey data from the Small & Medium Business Applications & Web Survey into vital recommendations for vendors, VARs and end users. The DecisionNote provides a detailed breakdown of marketing tools as well as strategies and sales tools for the SMB market. In order for small businesses to optimize their exposure in the internet landscape, Yankee Group advises dedicating more resources toward e-commerce and online marketing tools and services provided by web-related services companies.

"The slow adoption rate of e-commerce, online marketing tools and hosting services is leaving a key revenue channel underutilized by SMBs, even though companies such as Interland and Affinity Internet offer specialized services that can dramatically assist companies with their online marketing strategies," said Sanjeev Aggarwal, Yankee Group senior analyst. "However, our research shows that SMBs are increasing the use of sponsored search through the use of adwords and keywords. These online marketing techniques are gaining popularity even when compared to online/offline yellow pages. Yahoo! and Google have built booming businesses out of helping companies use the internet to reach large audiences. Now they lead the online effort to go after the ad business of SMBs."

Although the internet is the fastest-growing sales channel for both SMBs and mid-market businesses, apprehension still exists for creating a web storefront. To help SMBs navigate opportunities, hosting and web-related services companies provide the knowledge, tools and services to successfully compete in the online world--realizing a higher ROI.

About Yankee Group

At Yankee Group, we help our clients succeed by providing the knowledge, tools and support they need to make winning decisions when business opportunities intersect with technology solutions. In business more than 35 years, Yankee Group knows the importance of listening to and understanding the needs of our clients.