Businessmodel of Yext

Customer Segments

Yext provides location cloud services to a broad range of commercial and institutional clients. It specifically targets customers operating in the following industries:

• Financial Services, including banks, insurance companies, brokerage firms, and credit unions;
• Automotive, including vehicle manufacturers, independent auto dealerships, and online vehicle sales companies;
• Hospitality, including hotel chain operators, resorts and spas, theme parks, and gym and leisure facilities;
• Retail, including retail chains such as supermarkets, phone and technology retailers, and specialist shops;
• Healthcare, including healthcare facilities such as hospitals, as well as integrated healthcare service providers;
• Food Services, including various food outlets, such as restaurants, cafes, diners, and fast food franchises;
• Government, including various local, state and federal government bodies and public agencies; and
• Small Business, including small businesses across multiple sectors. Yext names a number of its customers on its website, including Ben and Jerry’s, Sears Hometown and Outlet, Denny’s, Premier Inn, Autonation, T-Mobile, Bayada Home Health Care, and Sotheby’s International Realty.

Yext is based in the US, which remains its principal market. The Company, however, serves an international client base.

Value Propositions

Yext provides value to its customers in the following ways:

• Its unique proprietary solutions, with the Company offering a range of products and solutions to customers that perform various functions and utilise a number of proprietary technologies and intellectual properties;
• Its technical expertise and specialist personnel, with the Company employing a team of highly-trained expert technical staff, as well as an experienced team of industry executives;
• Its broad range of integration partners, with the Company collaborating with a number of high-profile technology companies – including Facebook, Google, Apple, and Yelp – to power location data everywhere consumers engage with its customers’s brands; and
• Its search results services, with the Company able to provide search engine optimised local pages, location finders, and other tools in order to ensure its customers’s brands top certain location searches ### Channels

Yext operates a website at www.yext.com, through which it prides information on its various products, solutions, and target industries. While the Company does not operate an online sales channel, it does allow customers to schedule demonstrations of its solutions and products directly from its website. It also operates an online customer portal, where customers are able to manage their account settings, access the tools and functionality included in the Company’s products and solutions, and track payments. The Company also provides access to its online platform through mobile apps that are available on iOS and Android devices.

Yext makes its sales primarily through its in-house team of direct sales personnel, who are organised by geographic region. The Company’s sales personnel operate out of the Company’s four offices, comprising locations in New York, Chicago, and McLean in the US, and a single international office in London, UK. The Company also provides services and solutions via a network of partners and value-added resellers, including professional marketers, digital agencies, web developers, and social media managers, who integrate Yext functionality into their own solutions.

Customer Relationships

Yext does not sell products directly to customers on a self-service basis. The Company does, however, allow customers schedule software demonstrations through its website, and enables customers to access the full range of tools and resources associated with its products through a self-service online platform. Customers are able to utilise Yext tools, manage their accounts, and track their payment history independently, without interacting with members of the Company’s sales staff.

Yext makes its sales through an in-house team of sales specialists who consult directly with clients and establish the most appropriate solutions for their needs, tailoring the Company’s solutions for the unique circumstances of individual client. The Company has account management teams for its largest customers, with a view to securing long-term business relationships.

Yext provides a range of online support services to its customers through its website. This includes webinars, FAQs, and guides that can be accessed independently. Customers can alternatively contact members of the Company’s support personnel directly over the phone or via an online contact form, receiving personalised responses to queries. Yext also posts details of all of its upcoming events on its website, providing customers the opportunity to interact with representatives of the Company in person.

Additionally, Yext is able to interact directly with its customers through its various social media accounts, including with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, and Google+.

Key Activities

Yext is a technology services provider. It operates a digital location management platform that enables businesses to share location information with mobile consumers across a network of applications, maps, directories, search engines, and social media partners. The Company uses proprietary digital location management software that allows commercial customers to manage their online presence, engage their customers, and drive business at their various locations.

The Company offers two principal products: PowerListings, which allows companies to control their listings across various global partners; Yext Pages, which is designed to turn their online visitors into store visitors. Yext serves a broad range of companies across multiple industries – including the financial services, healthcare, retail, and hospitality sectors – and operates out of offices in the US and the UK.

Key Partners

Yext works in conjunction with a range of companies and organisations in order to develop and deliver effective cloud location services. These partners can be categorised broadly as:

• Channel and Distribution Partners, comprising a range of value-added resellers and sales agents, including professional marketers, digital agencies, web developers, and social media managers that integrate Yext functionality into their own services;
• Integration Partners, comprising a range of technology companies and online platforms that integrate tools and functionality into the Yext platform, allowing Yext clients to find consumers across multiple online and mobile channels;
• Software and Development Partners, comprising a range of software developers and technology companies that assist in developing and implementing the Company’s solutions and products; and
• Consulting Partners, comprising a range of technology and location specialists that provide ongoing support and advisory services to Yext throughout the development of its products. Yext includes a number of well-known online platforms and technology companies among its integrations partners, including Facebook, Google, Apple, Foursquare, Yelp, Yahoo, Bing, and Waze. The Company provides services through various marketing and digital agencies, including Entrata, RevLocal, UpCity, and Mr Marketing.

Key Resources

Yext’s key resources are its technologies and intellectual properties, its online platform, its IT and communications infrastructure, its sales and distribution channels, its partnerships – notably its broad network of high-profile integration partners, and its personnel.

The success of Yext’s continuing operation relies in large part on the protection of its proprietary technologies and properties. Searches of records published by the US Patent and Trademark Office identified several patent applications filed in the name of Yext, including applications entitled ‘Providing enhanced business listings with structured lists to multiple search providers from a source system’, ‘Method and system for providing enhanced business listings to multiple search providers from a single source’ and ‘Suppressing duplicate listings on multiple search engine web sites from a single source system given a known synchronized listing’.

Yext also owns and or leases several properties, namely its four offices across Chicago, New York, McLean, and London.

Cost Structure

Yext incurs costs in relation to the development of its technologies and solutions, the development and maintenance of its online platform, the maintenance of its IT and communications infrastructure, the operation of its sales and distribution channels, the implementation of advertising and marketing campaigns, the management of its partnerships, and the retention of its personnel. A large portion of the Company’s costs relate to the payment of salaries, benefits, and other incentives to its workforce of 600 employees.

Revenue Streams

Yext generates revenue through the development and sale of location-related software products and solutions. The Company also derives a portion of its revenue through the provision of various ancillary and related services, including consulting services, and training services. The Company’s products are provided on a subscription basis, with varying prices. The Company’s PowerListing product for instance ranges from $ per week for a basic plan and $19 per week for the Premium package.

Yext remains a privately-owned company and, as such, is not obliged to disclose its financial results online. The Company, however, was reported to have generated $88 million for its fiscal year 2016, up around 48% on its revenue for the previous year.