Orlando, Florida (February 1, 2021) – IZEA Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ: IZEA), the premier provider of influencer marketing technology, data, and services for the world’s leading brands, announced today that bookings for Managed Services in January 2021 set a record for the best January in the history of the company. The results were bolstered by strong repeat business and expanding contract sizes as well as the addition of new customers in the month.
“Our Managed Services team has continued the momentum we saw towards the end of 2020, despite the ongoing challenges associated with COVID-19,” said Ted Murphy, IZEA’s Chairman and CEO. “Not only is this the best January for Managed Services bookings on record, but we have also exceeded the combined bookings for January and February of 2020 in the first month of this year. We are very close to exceeding all of Q1 2020 Managed Services bookings at this point, and continue to develop a robust pipeline for potential opportunities throughout the quarter. IZEA is very well positioned to show growth in managed services bookings as compared to Q1 of last year while the pandemic continues to impact many of our previous customers.”
Bookings are a measure of all sales orders minus any known or expected cancellations or refunds with respect to such sales orders or refunds. Management uses bookings to inform expectations of total sales activity. Bookings are not always an indicator of revenue for the quarter and could be subject to future adjustment. Revenue from Managed Services bookings are typically recognized over a 6-month period on average.
The company significantly increased marketing activities in Q4 2020 and Q1 2021, with the majority of spend allocated towards promoting IZEA’s SaaS offerings. IZEA’s total active SaaS customer base increased to break new record numbers in January 2021, largely driven by signups for IZEAx Discovery, the company’s self-service influencer discovery tool. The active customer count for IZEAx Discovery in January 2021 has more than doubled as compared to January 2020. The company is also seeing continued positive sales momentum with IZEAx Unity Suite new customer wins, particularly among the more affordable pricing tiers introduced last year.
“We believe the addressable customer base for our software solutions is vast and relatively untapped,” said Ted Murphy, IZEA’s Chairman and CEO. “Businesses of all sizes are using influencer marketing to drive their business forward, and our goal is to provide a suite of software tools that are accessible and affordable for the masses. Last year we rolled out pricing changes which have been met with a surge of new customers, extending our reach far beyond the top tier brands and agencies that have historically represented our customer base. We are converting customers at direct-to-consumer brands and smaller agencies, and we are doing so in a way that is largely driven by marketing automation rather than human outreach. As we continue to transition to our new pricing tiers, we are aware there may be near term negative impact on revenue, but long term we believe will see a dramatic increase in the size of our customer ecosystem, with more dollars coming from more customers.”
“IZEA is in a growth mindset,” said Ted Murphy, IZEA’s Chairman and CEO. “Our capital on hand enables us to move into a mode of capturing market share and scaling our company. We are more aggressively marketing. We are hiring new team members. We are focused on building a diverse customer base for offerings, and servicing the full spectrum of marketers and creators.”
