The seven marketing steps that landed us with 30,000 clients

From humble beginnings meeting my co-founder in an online chat room, we’ve grown Bigcommerce to the fastest growing eCommerce platform in the world that helps SMEs get online and sell more.

We’ve secured $35 million in venture capital funding, built up offices in Sydney and Austin with our brilliant 200-strong team, and stores that use Bigcommerce have now made $1.5billion.

From growing our own business and helping over 30,000 small businesses grow theirs, we’ve experienced a lot, and really enjoy sharing our stories and what we’ve learnt.

We know Australian start-ups are doing amazing things and can really compete on the global stage. We’d love to see more of us showing the world what Australians are capable of!

So how can you achieve the kind of growth that will see your venture prosper in Australia and beyond?

By most accounts, the fastest-growing segment of the global economy is eCommerce. Even organizations not normally known for internet retailing now have an online presence to sell merchandise — even if it’s just to promote their own image with customised products.

The worldwide interest in eCommerce presents a huge opportunity for entrepreneurs of any size. Unfortunately, many of today’s entrepreneurs just don’t have the know-how to get their venture off the ground.

This series was written for those budding entrepreneurs. In the next several entries, to run on StartupSmart in the next few weeks, we’ll outline a seven-step, customer-driven marketing plan that will at least double your sales within the next 12 months and get you on your way to bootstrapping your budding company to seven figures.

First, about us. In 2004, my co-founder Eddie Machaalani (who will trade off with me on this series) and I started a company with no funding. We now have 30,000 clients, with annual revenues in the high seven figures.

While we recently took on venture capital, we made it to seven figures with no outside investment. How? We learned all there was to know about customer-driven marketing the hard way — through trial and error.

Some of you might think the information in this series is too simplistic to be of much use. But in business, there’s knowing and there’s doing. This is a call to action – get out there and start doing.

Story continues on page 2. Please click below.