BoomTime is Booming

May 6, 2011 | Reprint from New Mexico Business Weekly; by Kevin Robinson-Avila

Steve Paternoster, owner of Scalo’s Northern Italian Grill and Brasserie La Provence, said BoomTime’s online promotional services have helped him grow sales by up to 7 percent a year.

Albuquerque-based BoomTime, which launched in 2005, provides point-and-click software for service-related businesses to sell gift certificates online. It also manages web-based promotions for customers.

Paternoster said he was one of BoomTimes’s first New Mexico customers.

“They now manage all of my web presence for me, and they do all of my social marketing through Twitter, Facebook and other social media,” Paternoster said. “Their services have generated incremental sales of between 3 and 7 percent annually.”

BoomTime’s web management and social media marketing services are new. Originally, the company focused solely on gift vouchers through proprietary software that allows businesses to customize certificates with their own logos and designs. But it broadened its services in recent years to include online marketing, said President Bill Bice.

“We offer a much more in-depth product now,” Bice said. “We take charge of the full online presence of small businesses.”

BoomTime charges a 3 percent commission on gift certificate sales, eliminating risks for customers who pay when they make a sale, Bice said. Full web management costs $50 per month.

The company has 4,000 clients nationwide, up from 2,000 in 2007. Bice estimates BoomTime has helped its small business clients achieve $105 million in combined gross sales online since launching.

BoomTime received a $1.2 million investment from the Verge Fund in 2006.