Former LinkedIn comms boss to end ‘daunting’ digital move for SMEs in new GoDaddy role
Former LinkedIn head of communications Tara Commerford has been tasked with spearheading the growth of GoDaddy in Australia as she vowed to end the “daunting” prospect of building a digital presence for SMEs.
Commerford was appointed country manager Australia and New Zealand in June, a position she will hold in addition to her role as non-executive director in the not-for-profit sector.
Prior to that Commerford spent almost five years as head of communications for LinkedIn Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia.
She told Mumbrella the launch of an on-the-ground office in Australia – the market was previously run out of the US – will enable GoDaddy to “localise products and solutions” and learn more about the business needs of SMEs.
“With the global growth of small businesses and entrepreneurs, and their growing interest of creating a presence online, we believe the timing is perfect for us to be launching operations here,” Commerford said.
“Small businesses are key to Australia’s economy. They make up 96 per cent of all companies and the vast majority are micro-businesses.”
But while nearly all SMEs are connected to the Internet, only 37 per cent have a website of their own, she said, adding that small business owners are hampered by time-constraints, the worry of running day-to-day operations and how to grow their business.
“Many are thinking about creating a website and a digital presence but think it’s a daunting task and often put it off for later,” Commerford said. “We want to help these businesses get online, easily and affordably with the great customer care that GoDaddy is known for.
Central to its plans will be the creation of products and service that will specifically serve the needs of Australian businesses. GoDaddy will “learn from its customers” in the development of such products, she said.
“Having a local operation is a great opportunity for us to learn from our customers. We are here to localise and adapt our products and services to better cater for the Australian market.”
GoDaddy will focus on educating businesses on the benefits a digital presence, Commerford said, with the operation set to take a “fully integrated and multi-channeled marketing approach to increase our brand awareness”.
The marketing mix will be based on “market relevancy” and will be “dependent on the needs of our target audience”, she said.
“We’ll also continue to explore new avenues and platforms to engage our core audience.”
Steve Jones
GoDaddy was a great company a decade ago.
Then the idiotic founder & CEO went on to kill an elephant causing outrage.
[http://gawker.com/5870851/has-godaddys-elephant-killing-ceo-finally-gone-too-far]
It was sold to private equity in 2011
[http://venturebeat.com/2011/07/01/go-daddy-sold-to-private-equity-firms-for-2-25-billion/] and prices have doubled. It is no longer good value at all.
GoDaddy initially supported SOPA in 2011.
These and other bad decisions caused many – including Wikimedia Foundation – to move domains away from GoDaddy
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Move_Your_Domain_Day]
Stick with locals domain companies: Melbourne IT or the smaller home-grown ones.
GoDaddy has passed its prime
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Sounds like Tara is just what godaddy need… All the best!
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GoTara!
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