The technology age has brought with it a long list of business related success stories.\u00a0 There are plenty of cases where a small startup has managed to grow into a billion-dollar company.<\/p>\n
While most people will think of companies such as Facebook and Amazon, GoDaddy.com is actually one of the greatest successes in recent history.\u00a0 What started as a small company has since grown into an easily recognizable brand which owns a significant portion of its own market.<\/p>\n
GoDaddy was created in 1997 as Jomax Technologies by Bob Parsons who had recently sold his other company, Parsons Technology Inc., to Intuit.<\/p>\n
At the time, a company called Network Solutions was essentially the only place from which people could register domain names.\u00a0 That changed in 2001, however, and GoDaddy.com quickly grew.<\/p>\n
In 2005, GoDaddy.com became the world\u2019s largest ICANN-accredited registrar on the internet.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
In 2011, 65% of the company was sold to a group of private equity firms for approximately $2.25 billion.\u00a0 GoDaddy\u2019s rapid rise to prominence and continued success are due to a few key factors.\u00a0 Studying what they did right can help business owners of any type discover new ways to grow their own companies. Innovation has been at the heart of everything GoDaddy has done since its creation.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n It was not very long ago that most people were unfamiliar with the Internet.\u00a0 The idea of marketing domain registration and web hosting to everyday people was unheard of at the time.\u00a0 This is part of what has made them so successful.\u00a0 Their effort to bring these services to the average person effectively opened up a vast new market. Part of what has made GoDaddy so successful is its ability to create a readily identifiable brand.\u00a0 Nearly every person on the Internet has heard of GoDaddy and a majority of sites are registered with the company.<\/p>\n The power of this brand has come from its extensive advertising.\u00a0 Buying up expensive advertising space during events like The Super Bowl, GoDaddy made a name for itself with racy and often controversial marketing efforts.\u00a0 Its commercials, utilizing seductive women and star athletes, brought a sexy and exciting feeling to what could otherwise be a dry and technical company. GoDaddy is far from just a domain registrar.\u00a0 It offers a number of services including website hosting and ecommerce solutions.\u00a0 This has helped make it successful because it essentially offers everything someone might need when starting a website.<\/p>\n The domain can be registered, the site hosted, the platform installed, and upgrades can be added as needed.\u00a0 When a customer comes to GoDaddy for domain registration they immediately have access to everything else.\u00a0 This allows the company to offer upsells and products with recurring payment options that are relevant to what customers have already purchased. GoDaddy\u2019s customers may not always be experts at information technology.\u00a0 There are a number of different problems that a customer might run into.\u00a0 GoDaddy has made a point of offering outstanding customer service that explains complex technology solutions in layman\u2019s terms.<\/p>\n 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. 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.<\/p>\n Furthermore, its pricing is competitive, and it has prepared numerous product bundles to make it easy for customers to find what they need.<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0 This competitive pricing, coupled with constant discounts and coupons, has made it difficult for other companies to compete. Owners of businesses of any type can learn a lot from the GoDaddy.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 While not every company will have a budget as large as GoDaddy, there are still several concepts, discussed below, which can be useful. At a time when many people were still unfamiliar with the Internet, GoDaddy targeted their advertising towards regular, every day people.\u00a0 This was a risky move, at the time, but actually showed incredible foresight.<\/p>\n Look at your business model \u2013 where have you been playing safe?\u00a0 Are there bolder strategies you can test? Many of GoDaddy\u2019s biggest critics claim they bought their market dominance through expensive advertising.\u00a0 While this is not entirely true, marketing has been a major source of success for it.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n Dust off your branding and marketing plan and review it.\u00a0 Is it relevant in today\u2019s market?\u00a0 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. Specialization can often be a good thing in business, but the possibility of branching out into related products and services should never be ignored.\u00a0 GoDaddy started as a domain registrar but soon included a variety of other services as well.<\/p>\n Offering related services can boost profits and avoid losing customers to competitors with a full-service solution.\u00a0 For example, a car repair shop that doesn\u2019t replace tires can lose their regular oil change customers when those customers need new tires and find a full-service provider.<\/p>\n The caution is to only branch out if you can provide excellent service in all categories.\u00a0 Adding more services, but doing it poorly, will hurt rather than help you grow. GoDaddy is a familiar name on the Internet and with good reason.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n Your job is to learn from GoDaddy.\u00a0 Take the time to review your business model using the concepts in this article.\u00a0 Outline steps you can take to promote your own growth, then take actions.\u00a0 Carefully track your results to learn what works best in your market.<\/p>\n Over time, you will have a proven recipe for strategies that generate growth for your business.\u00a0 How long before I write an article about you and your stellar success?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The technology age has brought with it a long list of business related success stories.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14885,"featured_media":15193,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12552],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\n
\nLesson #1: User Friendly Innovation<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n
\nLesson #2: Cutting Edge Branding<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n
\nLesson #3: Soups-to-Nuts Offering<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n
\nLesson #4: Customer Service in Layman\u2019s Terms<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n
\nLesson #5: Upfront, Competitive Pricing<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n
\nWhat to Take from This<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n
\nA. Challenge Accepted Notions<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n
\nB. Invest in Marketing<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n
\nC. Offer Everything You Can Do Well<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n
\nFather Knows Best<\/strong><\/p>\n