Case studies are a potent tool: they illustrate your point and demonstrate the benefits of what it is you’re trying to sell in a real life situation that people can relate to.
Last week I was discussing the problem of turning web browsers into buyers, and suggested starting a newsletter or blog as a possible answer.
This week I was able to find the perfect case study to illustrate my point; a case study which proves that even removing rubbish can be the basis for a dialogue with your customers.
The Telegraph newspaper ran a feature on Topskips.com – an online skip booking service whose initial investment of £5000 ballooned into a projected turnover of £3.5 million in just four years.
The success has attributed to finding a niche, and then using effective marketing to corner the field; the key being the Topskips.com website.
The website goes beyond being merely a billboard of pricing and booking information, and moves towards actually trying to solve their customers’ problems.
With a free Secrets to Successful Skip Hire guide, blog and video clips, Topskips.com aims to answer all the questions that could present hurdles to making a purchase.
What can I put in the skip? How much can it hold? Do I need a permit? Where will it need to go? – all questions answered in a manner which will not only assist the buying decision, but also develop trust and confidence in Top Skips’ expertise.
One response to the website was:
‘I can say without a doubt that your site really does make a difference to how skips can be ordered, compared and enquiries dealt with in an efficient manner well done!’
By providing visitors with the opportunity to learn more about skip hire the website sells through education, which surely in this evolving age of transparency and trust should be marketing’s objective.
So if you’re still unsure of how to turn browsers into buyers: Topskips.com is a great example of a website using their content to start a dialogue, help solve their customers’ problems and drive more sales through education.
Topskips.com’s ability to engage with customers might not be the only reason their business has grown so rapidly, but it will certainly have helped.
That’s right Ben. We can all learn a few lessons about the vale of selling through education from topskips.
Topskips aren’t the best example of an online skip agency as they went into administration leaving just under 700 debtors with debts almost £1million.
There are plenty of really successful skip agencies who have been in business in excess of 15 years…of successful trading.
More here:
http://www.i-com.net/blog/toptrianglecom-secret-of-an-internet-marketing-experts-success-243/
Nice article. Haven’t heard of topskips before. Will check them out.
We have currently had a skip blocking our driveway for six weeks because Topskips is in dispute with the contractor who delivered it and neither side is prepared to shell out the money to store it somewhere else until the dispute can be resolved. We’re currently in the process of taking them to the county court, but I couldn’t recommend them as an agency since they clearly aren’t prepared to do anything should things start to go wrong at the sub-contractor level.
Topskips seems to be a good example of this, they also made a funny youtube video about skip hire. They seem to still be trading as they are coming up for my google search.
The idea of trying to get inside their heads and solve the customers problems sounds good, better than just stating what your products and prices are.