Specialist taxi dealer The Taxi Shop grew turnover from a £3 million to £10 million in three years with my support.
The taxi market has seen huge disruption from Uber and other app players; and there are many legislative changes each year. It’s a market where buyers do a lot of research with price being a major comparison point. So how do you grow a business in such a sharp market?
Challenging an agency to drive sales
With vehicles costing between £25,000 and £70,000, buying a new private hire car or minibus or hackney vehicle is a serious business. Such big-ticket purchases mean a highly competitive market. Yet, even in such a cut-throat business, good margins can still be made for companies that establish a strong market position. My challenge (actually the challenge for my business, BuzzedUp Ltd at that time) was to prove this with increased sales.
The Taxi Shop already had a loyal customer base thanks to great customer service from the founding directors. But the management team had their hands full and, to take the business to the next level, a sales team was formed and specialist marketing advice sought.
Rob Breuilly, The Taxi Shop founder:
“We were doing well but knew we could be bigger and better. Initially I was looking for social media support and had a chat with Mick at BuzzedUp. Our relationship has grown over the last years and Mick now handles all our marketing.”
The winning mix of tactics
I focused on building deep credibility for the brand via a number of channels. The aim was to win trust in a wider market by highlighting The Taxi Shop’s excellent vehicles, fast delivery times and high levels of customer service.
Get leads with Facebook ads
The first weeks and months of any marketing engagement can be challenging and the pressure was certainly on. Here's what I said at the time:
“The client demanded immediate results! I used Facebook advertising to generate qualified enquiries and to build clean data. I set a mix of traffic and lead generation objectives which meant I was able to make the phone ring and enrich the database at the same time.”
Use marketing automation
At BuzzedUp I brought clarity to communications planning and restructured a lot of very confused and duplicated legacy data spread across several systems.
“I consolidated data onto the MessageFocus platform, a system I know inside out after managing customer email communications for a Japanese car brand for some years. Other rapid email development included devising several marketing automation programs, such as a 'welcome program' and a 'Re-engagement program' for taxi drivers and fleet owners whose connection with the client had lapsed.”
Valuable content via email on a regular schedule
The Taxi Shop’s regular email comms became more relevant and timely thanks to a segmentation project. For example, messages are tailored by product interest, age of vehicle and are localised from time to time.
Build community and gather data via competitions
I designed a number of special promotions, sweepstakes and other prize-winning competitions to maintain some excitement and also capture new or better data for the client. The referral program between taxi drivers worked well, too.
Brand messages via trade magazines
After a review of the taxi trade magazines and wider media I put in place a fruitful partnership with the leading private hire title and website. The magazine ran brand and product ads and this opened the door to some very good editorial contributions where I was able to position key staff at the client as industry experts.
Social media and the taxi trade
A brand new Facebook page has grown to over 9,000 likes. Paid campaigns—on surprisingly modest budgets—tended towards commercial messages. But a lot of effort went into community posts with taxi news, humour and helpful advice high on the agenda.
The client benefited from the systematic production of quality, impactful creative: videos, animated content, stories and reels, often showcasing taxi drivers and their new cabs, reviews and testimonials.
Does a joined up marketing approach work? Rob Breuilly (The Taxi Shop):
“We could immediately see the impact BuzzedUp was having on the business. It was brilliant to see named leads—contact details together with product interest—coming into the office on a daily basis from Facebook.
“Email used to be a headache for us but now it’s all taken care of. On the reports we can clearly see who’s interested in our vehicles. And I can directly monitor how email drives people to landing pages. I can see what I’m getting for my money. I can now focus on customer care knowing that we have a good marketing partner alongside.
“Mick works closely with the sales guys and, because they have grown to trust him, they will help him. We maximise all positive customer feedback now. Our ads look great too.
“After about a year working with Mick we asked him to redesign our website and have been delighted with the results. The new site is true to a brand that we did not want to change; most important we saw a big leap in enquiries from the site.”
The Taxi Shop’s brand refresh was delivered by my partner Lizzie Everard.
