Building a business is one thing, but pulling it back from the brink after it falls apart is a whole other undertaking. Equifax knows this problem all too well even as it tries to rebound from its well-publicized customer data breach.
And while the company itself is putting a brave face on the issue, public perception is making some hesitant to put their full faith in the company.
I have some insight into Equifax’s woes because, before the economic collapse of the late 2000s, my own swimming pool business was booming; we’d started 2008 with our fullest pipeline to date, and I thought we were looking at record growth for the foreseeable future.
But you know what happened: After the Dow crashed, customers started canceling orders, and consultants told us it was time to consider bankruptcy. The stress kept building, culminating one terrible night when I called our bank’s automated line to hear we were overdrawn. In truth, we had been overdrawn for weeks, but I’d kept hoping things would turn around on their own.
That event stands out in my mind because, on the brink of depression and hopelessness, I was forced to start seeing things from a new perspective. Times were changing, and ours wasn’t the only company struggling to adjust, let alone survive. With customers making the internet and Google their trusted advisors, I figured it was time to channel my energies into a new approach that would revitalize my company and give it a stronger foundation for the future.
So “a new approach” was exactly what I undertook.
Starting anew
Until the crash, we tried every traditional advertising method available, from radio ads to commercials to the Yellow Pages. But every year, those ads became less and less effective.
Realizing this trend wouldn’t change, I recognized that our company needed to rethink our marketing philosophy, to survive. After that phone call to the bank, I consumed every internet marketing resource I could get my hands on. And I soon began encountering the same terms: inbound marketing, social media marketing, content marketing — each of which boiled down to the same tenet: People wanted answers — honest answers — to their questions online.
That epiphany changed everything, leading us to reconfigure our online approach around that premise. We didn’t become the most trafficked swimming pool website in the world based just on installing pools; we became thought leaders on all things aquatic.
My lack of a traditional marketing background didn’t make this an easy shift, so I put myself in our customers’ shoes. I saw things from their perspective and considered what content they wanted to read.
Reworking roles within the company to account for these new priorities felt…
