Establishing a renewed focus on marketing helps boost revenue for ISP Gradwell
Who is the client company, what products/service do they offer?
Gradwell is an internet service provider specialising in products and services for small and micro businesses. They provide internet technology for every line of your business card. From an internet telephone number, your business mobile or landline and the hardware, service and support you need for small business communications, to web hosting; and broadband for your office. Gradwell’s audience is companies with between one and 50 employees and their services are available directly, or through a network of over 150 local IT consultants.
What was their marketing problem?
Gradwell had a loyal following among the techie audience, but seemed pretty inaccessible to less tech savvy business people. They had the classic tech company issue of selling on features, without explaining the benefits. If they were going to grow, they needed to appeal to businesses that don’t care about the technology under the bonnet. From hairdressers to Steiner schools – Gradwell’s products needed to make sense and stand out.
Why did they work with the marketing provider?
Understanding that they needed to step up their marketing, Peter Gradwell, MD put a note up in a local marketing group on LinkedIn. He met with three local consultants who responded, one of which was Clear Thought Consulting. They were selected as their lead marketing partner because they presented a structured step-by-step programme rather than a quick fix. Peter was also impressed that Clear Thought’s focus is on transferring skills into the businesses with whom they work, rather than setting up a retained, dependent, relationship.
What solution was devised?
Clear Thought delivered a 12-month marketing transformation programme in three phases. The first step was to really understand and segment the target audience, agree key messages, and audit the legacy marketing operation. From this they were able to identify key gaps and areas for improvement. The next stage was to get the marketing foundations in place; this included a rebrand, a website refresh, development of key templates, the appointment of key suppliers and the development on an activity plan. The final phase was to mentor their young marketing team through the delivery of the first quarter of marketing activity. At the end of the programme, the fundamentals were in place and the business had a clear view on the key areas to focus on for their next stage of development.
What results were achieved?
The key differences that you can immediately point to are:
– The inbound sales team has doubled to manage the enquiries
– New staff are much more quickly up to speed with the company’s product range and values
– Everybody explains the product range in the same way
– In a recent staff survey more than 90 per cent of the team agreed that a strong brand was key to future success
– Gradwell is now able to ascertain where its customers are coming from: 49 per cent of their enquiries come from direct sales (calls to regular sales number), 31 per centfrom the web (contact forms and phone number on their website) and 20 per cent from email.
But, the key change is one of mindset. Peter is now committed to making marketing a priority in his business. Twelve months on from the Clear Thought project when the finance team wanted to cut the marketing budget, Peter stood firm and ring-fenced the core budget. He’s also grown the marketing team from one person to three.
The project was never about quick wins; it was about firming up the foundations. Initially, Peter had assumed that what was needed was more lead generation – i.e. pouring in more leads at the top of the funnel. What Clear Thought identified was that the company needed to address their conversions and retentions before they spent money on leads that may come to nothing. And, in Peter’s own words “that wasn’t going to happen overnight.”
Since October 2008, Gradwell’s turnover has increased from £2.2 million to £4.1 million and their staff has grown from 18 employees to 45 employees. They have also won the following awards:
– Deloitte Technology Fast 50 in 2009 and 2010. Fifty fastest growing UK technology companies
– 2010 Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) – Best Internet Telephony
– 2009 Internet Telephony Service Providers Association (ITSPA) – Finalist in the Best Business ITSP Category
– 2009 Federation of Small Business (Bath) Most Innovative Company (Highly Commended) and Young Entrepreneur of the Year (Winner).
Client quote: “Marketing was something that I did on the rainy days, I picked it up when it was interesting, and then dropped it again. I was doing it on a piecemeal basis that just wasn’t efficient. Now, having worked with Clear Thought, we’re much more structured, we have a regular cycle of communication – marketing has become part of business as usual, it’s embedded in every activity that we do.” Peter Gradwell, Managing Director
Activity going forward: “The key to all of this has always been understanding cause and effect. Clear Thought drummed into us that we needed to understand exactly how we win, and keep, profitable business. We’ve worked hard in the time since the initial project to gather and understand our marketing analysis, on beefing up our customer service, and on the reliability of our systems – now we’re bringing it all together.” Peter Gradwell, Managing Director
From a lead generation perspective Gradwell is focusing on digital and referrals. They’ve also made significant investments in sales people, and sales skills, to make sure those leads are nurtured through the process. But, as marketing is only as good as the product at its heart, the company has also invested in a support triage team and detailed ongoing customer satisfaction research to make sure that customers get what they pay for.
