The Garlic Marketing Show is heading overseas to Britain (virtually) on this week’s episode to learn how the CEO of Designcuts.com used one EASY marketing metric to acquire 400,000+ customers. Tom Ross is the Founder & CEO of Design Cuts, a website for buying the resources and tools for everyday website design. With his first business, Tom accomplished steady and lively traffic but soon came to realize it wasn’t the right traffic. He learned even if traffic is scalable it doesn’t mean it’s valuable. Tom shares building a successful company isn’t about gaining the most traffic, it’s about engaging with the right and best community for your brand. Throw out the vanity metrics and surround your brand with traffic that will actually convert on this week’s episode.
It’s not about the vanity metrics. I don’t want the most traffic I just want the right and best community for my company and brand.
The Golden Marketing Metric
At 12 years old, Tom and his friend started their first online business. His mom would monitor their sales while they were at school. As he grew older he started freelancing. His design blog was successful, but it didn’t guarantee long-term financial stability. He was chasing meaningless traffic instead of targeting a specific audience. From day one at Design Cuts, he marketed to a specific audience. The #1 metric he chased was engagement. His level of engagement gained him an unlimited amount of referrals which turned into 400,000 customers.
Tom shares that engagement with existing customers creates the best kind of referrals, “don’t use your audience, serve them.” By serving your audience you create a level of trust. Your potential prospects are already pre-sold on your brand because of friend’s recommendations. Customer engagement is key to gaining the right traffic.
The David Bowie Marketing Strategy
As entrepreneurs, it’s easy to get stuck brainstorming the best marketing techniques for your brand. Sometimes you need a creative outlet to let yourself brainstorm effectively.
Did you know David Bowie would sit on the ground surrounded by creative imagery and words to trigger songwriting?
Tom was in the midst of making Design Cuts the #1 service for creative designers. He channeled his inner Bowie by surrounding himself with his competition’s statistics, branding, logos, etc. The Bowie strategy was the most systematic approach to his marketing. You can visualize and brainstorm as you’re solving market pain points. Learn how Tom’s inner Bowie and customer engagement turned into the best marketing strategy to grow Design Cuts to 400,000 customers!
P.S. Every listener for Tom Ross’ podcast has the opportunity to message Tom on Instagram and ask for help on any business problem they’re facing RIGHT NOW. Don’t miss Tom on this week’s episode of the Garlic Marketing Show!
What You’ll Learn:
- How he started his first business at 12 years old
- Why the vanity metrics really don’t matter
- How to grow 400,000 customers fast like Tom
- The David Bowie marketing strategy
- Why customer engagement is bulletproof
Connect with Tom:
Links and Resources:
- How a Dishwasher Became a CEO from 39,000 Followers on LinkedIn: How to Build a Following on LinkedIn and Move Up in Your Industry in One Month with Cory Warfield | CEO of ShedWool
- How to Quickly Fix the Two Marketing Mistakes that are Hurting Your Business and Costing You Referrals | Aaron Walker, Business Coach & Mastermind Facilitator
- GarlicFace.com
- authenticWEB | Video Storytelling, Marketing, and Production