SMB Marketing Platform bzzHive Announces Launch at #SFSW12

bzzHive CEO Dave Walker announced the launch of his company’s beta site at the Street Fight Summit West in San Francisco on Monday. bzzHive, a web start-up that aims to streamline the marketing process for small businesses and their suppliers, helps marketing services suppliers reach and sell to small businesses. bzzHive makes these connections based on need, industry, and geographic location.

Walker calls bzzHive a mashup of LinkedIn, Angie’s List, Elance, and Amazon e-commerce. “We applied the best of those business models and created a next generation concept, more narrowly focused on the five million small businesses in real and immediate need, and more deeply concentrated in the high-anxiety purchase area of marketing and advertising,” Walker said.

To determine which points and features small business owner need from their marketing partners, Walker and his team worked closely with Borrell Associates to dig into the state of small business marketing. Through this research, Walker found that small businesses need help with budgeting, buying, and marketing. Small business education is another important element at bzzHive. “Small businesses are intensely outcome-driven, meaning they don’t want to spend a lot of time talking strategy, planning, and mix,” Walker said. “They want to know what others are spending, what they should spend, what price is right, and who does it best.”

One thing businesses don’t need are more sales calls from sales reps pitching the “perfect solution.” These frequent sales pitches have made it difficult for small business owners to know who to trust, leading to expensive mistakes.

Walker is hoping to capitalize on the $50 to $80 billion small to mid-size business market by providing a 24/7 service that’s available to clients for a low monthly fee. “It’s obvious that small businesses know they need smart marketing and advertising to win customers and grow sales,” Walker said. “We’ve set out to actively help small businesses learn, budget, buy, and do the job of smart marketing in a new world.”

Stephanie Miles is an associate editor at Street Fight.