I like to think that the archive of The Small Business Big Marketing Show is full of marketing gold. In fact I know it is, as I continue to receive daily emails from motivated business owners telling me what they’ve learnt, how they’ve implemented the ideas and what impact it’s had on their business.
Then, every now and then, I do an interview that right from the get-go, is dripping with ideas that will help you grow your business through some very smart marketing.
My chat with Dominic Holland of tow.com.au is one of those interviews.
Today, tow.com.au has completely disrupted the long established and tightly-held towing industry, generated seven figure revenues in its first year, and is growing at seven figures year-on-year.
Dom himself was last year awarded Queensland’s Young Entrepreneur of the year, and just last week won the New Business Category at the Telstra Business Awards.
In no particular order, here are some marketing and business insights from Dominic Holland of Tow.com.au:
On disruption:
Look for what areas of your industry are ripe for disruption – that are ready for doing things differently (Branson is the master of this)
Every industry has massive potential; it’s just about working the right model up. That model isn’t always apparent at the start.
On freeing up time & reducing costs through automation:
Embrace technology in all aspects of your business to find more time and reduce costs
If a staff member asks the same question twice, then they have to go and find a way to automate it
Most activities that we do, there’s a piece of technology available to automate them
On change:
Accept that things change in business (and life) constantly, then change becomes an exciting proposition
On Google:
Google Adwords enables you to compete with the biggest companies and on the world stage in your industry
On your customers:
Go and physically meet those people who can help drive your business forward – customers, JV partners, suppliers, media
Understand the nuances of your industry – pull together as much intelligence and as many insights as possible so you understand how your industry currently operates better than anyone
On mindset:
“Always expect the unexpected.”
There’s no shortage of ideas out there, it’s the mindset you have around those ideas that determines their success.
“It’s not making changes that bother me. I get antsy when things stay the same for too long.”
On marketing:
Spend a good amount of time building a compelling brand.
You don’t need to be aware of your entire strategy from day one.
On domain names:
Short single word domain names are easy to remember and set the foundation for a great brand – “I don’t give out our phone number, I just give out the domain name.”
On websites:
“If your grandma can use it, then it’s good.”
Dumb it down as much as possible
It’s all about speed and simplicity
Conversion optimisation is everything
Make sure you have a click and call phone number on your website
On SEO:
Not as valuable as it used to be
Google no longer show ads down the right hand side of search results – now they run and extra ad at the top (totaling four ads at the top) – this forces you to click on an ad, an not scroll down to the organic listings
Organic content is still good for organic content as there are few ads
On Content creation:
We have a page for every suburb in the country with key content – Get a quote, Get a tow, call us.
You can see this if you Google Towing Chinchilla
On apps:
It doesn’t make sense for a towing company to have an app –
“No one’s going to download an app for our industry, because then they’re planning to fail!”
There was a time when the perception was you needed an app – this is no longer the case
Which idea or insight above gets you excited? And what’s your first step to implementing it?
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