Yext.com Revolution
Yext was founded with the premises that local companies want calls and not clicks. If you have ever ran a local brick and mortar business you are less concerned with potential customers visiting your website than gaining an opportunity to speak either via phone or face to face.
Yext understood this through developing a number of advertising verticals that were a replacement to traditional yellow pages. From there the put a focus on leveraging acoustical technology.
Picture it like this . . .
Yext provides a local numbers that act as a “proxy” for potential clients calling with questions specific to a local service. The local service provider then receives a call (which is being recorded by the Yext system) and speaks directly to the potential customer.
In the example showed in the video a call is placed to “Joes Car Repair”. The customer explains that he has a Porsche 911 (2007) with a check engine light and some front brake issues.
Joe politely tells him to bring the car into the shop and then the call ends.
This now becomes a actionable lead inside the Yext system and Joe’s car repair is billed for the action based advertising he has just received.
Now, what makes Yext ultra cool is that they utilize a proprietary acoustical tracking technology that not only records the call, but also deciphers what the call was about.
This lead information is then sent to the inbox of the local service provider.
When I first learned about Yext, I instantly thought this is a goldmine due to the fact it functions much like a in house, large scale CPA network for local service providers.
No wonder right after Yext gave their presentation they secured $25 million in funding.
