The technology age has brought with it a long list of business related success stories. There are plenty of cases where a small startup has managed to grow into a billion-dollar company.
While most people will think of companies such as Facebook and Amazon, GoDaddy.com is actually one of the greatest successes in recent history. What started as a small company has since grown into an easily recognizable brand which owns a significant portion of its own market.
GoDaddy was created in 1997 as Jomax Technologies by Bob Parsons who had recently sold his other company, Parsons Technology Inc., to Intuit.
At the time, a company called Network Solutions was essentially the only place from which people could register domain names. That changed in 2001, however, and GoDaddy.com quickly grew.
In 2005, GoDaddy.com became the world’s largest ICANN-accredited registrar on the internet. In addition to being one of the most popular domain registrars in the world, it also offers website hosting and a whole range of business related technology solutions.
In 2011, 65% of the company was sold to a group of private equity firms for approximately $2.25 billion. GoDaddy’s rapid rise to prominence and continued success are due to a few key factors. Studying what they did right can help business owners of any type discover new ways to grow their own companies.
Lesson #1: User Friendly Innovation
Innovation has been at the heart of everything GoDaddy has done since its creation. What it has managed to do is take something which is ordinarily very technical, in this case domain registrations, and make it appeal to a wide range of customers.
It was not very long ago that most people were unfamiliar with the Internet. The idea of marketing domain registration and web hosting to everyday people was unheard of at the time. This is part of what has made them so successful. Their effort to bring these services to the average person effectively opened up a vast new market.
Lesson #2: Cutting Edge Branding
Part of what has made GoDaddy so successful is its ability to create a readily identifiable brand. Nearly every person on the Internet has heard of GoDaddy and a majority of sites are registered with the company.
The power of this brand has come from its extensive advertising. Buying up expensive advertising space during events like The Super Bowl, GoDaddy made a name for itself with racy and often controversial marketing efforts. Its commercials, utilizing seductive women and star athletes, brought a sexy and exciting feeling to what could otherwise be a dry and technical company.
Lesson #3: Soups-to-Nuts Offering
GoDaddy is far from just a domain registrar. It offers a number of services including website hosting and ecommerce solutions. This has helped make it successful because it essentially offers everything someone might need when starting a website.
The domain can be registered, the site hosted, the platform installed, and upgrades can be added as needed. When a customer comes to GoDaddy for domain registration they immediately have access to everything else. This allows the company to offer upsells and products with recurring payment options that are relevant to what customers have already purchased.
Lesson #4: Customer Service in Layman’s Terms
GoDaddy’s customers may not always be experts at information technology. There are a number of different problems that a customer might run into. GoDaddy has made a point of offering outstanding customer service that explains complex technology solutions in layman’s terms.
Due to its high level of customer service, in a way customers understand, GoDaddy.com has become one of the most trusted hosts and registrars around.
Lesson #5: Upfront, Competitive Pricing
Unlike make technology service providers who bury prices in obscure parts of their website or require a call for a quote, GoDaddy publishes its prices very visibly.
Furthermore, its pricing is competitive, and it has prepared numerous product bundles to make it easy for customers to find what they need.
Rather than demanding money for a number of different services, almost everything is optional and customers can spend as little or as much as they want. This competitive pricing, coupled with constant discounts and coupons, has made it difficult for other companies to compete.
What to Take from This
Owners of businesses of any type can learn a lot from the GoDaddy. Its rapid rise to the top is something which is enviable in any industry and implementing a few of its key strategies can help any business. While not every company will have a budget as large as GoDaddy, there are still several concepts, discussed below, which can be useful.
A. Challenge Accepted Notions
At a time when many people were still unfamiliar with the Internet, GoDaddy targeted their advertising towards regular, every day people. This was a risky move, at the time, but actually showed incredible foresight.
Look at your business model – where have you been playing safe? Are there bolder strategies you can test?
B. Invest in Marketing
Many of GoDaddy’s biggest critics claim they bought their market dominance through expensive advertising. While this is not entirely true, marketing has been a major source of success for it. GoDaddy advertised mainly through inexpensive online banners for years before it was big enough to implement sexy and eye-catching ads during The Super Bowl.
Dust off your branding and marketing plan and review it. Is it relevant in today’s market? Are you getting the results you want? If not, it may time to go back to the drawing board and perhaps invest in expert guidance.
C. Offer Everything You Can Do Well
Specialization can often be a good thing in business, but the possibility of branching out into related products and services should never be ignored. GoDaddy started as a domain registrar but soon included a variety of other services as well.
Offering related services can boost profits and avoid losing customers to competitors with a full-service solution. For example, a car repair shop that doesn’t replace tires can lose their regular oil change customers when those customers need new tires and find a full-service provider.
The caution is to only branch out if you can provide excellent service in all categories. Adding more services, but doing it poorly, will hurt rather than help you grow.
Father Knows Best
GoDaddy is a familiar name on the Internet and with good reason. Growing from a small start up to a multi-billion dollar company, it has proven it is expert at predicting future trends, understanding its intended audience, and delivering on what it promises.
Your job is to learn from GoDaddy. Take the time to review your business model using the concepts in this article. Outline steps you can take to promote your own growth, then take actions. Carefully track your results to learn what works best in your market.
Over time, you will have a proven recipe for strategies that generate growth for your business. How long before I write an article about you and your stellar success?
