Mark Pearson, founder of MyVoucherCodes.co.uk
MyVoucherCodes.co.uk attracts ten million visitors per month, sees revenues of some £12m a year and employs 150 staff at its London Bridge HQ, just six years after launch.
By Gabriella Griffith
From this site, founder and award winning entrepreneur Mark Pearson has created Markco Media with the intention of spawning more innovative digital businesses. I caught up with Pearson to find out the story behind his burgeoning digital empire.
So Mark, how did it all begin?
I came down to London at 18 believing the streets were paved with gold. I became a commis chef at Claridge’s and worked long hours for pretty small pay. I worked as a chef for a couple of years eventually running my own gastro pubs. Having grown it to three venues I realised they weren’t scalable, it was really tough and so I decided to take the money I had made and do something else.
I didn’t know what I wanted to do but knew I wanted to start an online business. I had watched the dotcom boom and seen teenagers turned into millionaires. I decided on a retail business and found a rather cheesy product from China. It was a machine that printed messages on rose petals.
I launched Roses by Design – without knowing anything about tech. I outsourced the website building to India and learnt everything else through forums and advice guides on how to run an eCommerce business. I was a self-taught one man band.
I became pretty good at SEO and the site started ranking first and second for key search terms. I realised that the internet is a level playing field. You can be the biggest business in the world and it still doesn’t mean you will naturally come first. I started to get a lot of traffic and wrote a press release around Valentine’s Day. I got a message from ITV asking me to come on. I had TV exposure only nine weeks after launch!
We had a manic time around Valentine’s with my friends and family working flat out. I was approached by InterFlora who asked if they could advertise on the site. They said they’d offer me commission if they got clicks though and sent over some banners and voucher codes.
I didn’t really think about it too much and then after the Valentine’s mayhem calmed down I checked my account. I had made thousands from commission, way more than I made from my products. This inspired me to look into vouchers and becoming a referral business rather than offering a product.
Was that how MyVoucherCodes.co.uk was born?
I researched vouchers and realised that while it was a huge industry in the States, no-one was really doing it here. I realised that I could be the middle man with the user getting good deals, the merchant getting the sale and me getting commission.
I created the site in 2006 with £300. I outsourced it again and it came back a little rough around the edges but ready to go. I started listing all of the best discounts, gathered them from around the web. I added a subscribe for more button, added a widget to refer a friend and instantly the website gained traction. From 100 subscriptions to 1,000. Around November 2006 I had 5,000 subscribers. The business moved faster than than I could keep up with. Soon merchants were approaching me looking to be listed.
Did your SEO experience help to push the business?
Yes, 100% there’s no secret to it. I just read all of the theory on it that I could. I also did PPC around the discount terms. Suddenly the recession kicked in which was really scar for me, I had around 20 staff at this point. But we benefited from it. Before 2008 people were frivolous with their money.
As soon as the recession kicked in people started to reign it in – but still had to spend. We rode the crest of the wave as people started to spend smarter and merchants approached us realising they had to offer discounts. It was an amazing catalyst. Six years on we have ten million visitors a month and have replicated our UK success in other countries such as the US, Australia, Canada and Europe.
Have you had any investment at all?
No, our growth has been completely organic. I started out on my own with £300 and it grew from there. There has been a lot of interest from investors down the years but I didn’t really need any – it was nice that big companies wanted to throw money at us but actually, I didn’t want to have to start answering to someone else.
It just shows how powerful the internet is. It’s just you and the web and when you find a niche, a great product and create a site – there’s nothing stopping millions of people from visiting you.
Have you noticed any big trends in eCommerce at the moment?
Definitely mobile. We knew it was coming, I go to all of the eCommerce conferences and it has been predicted for years but this year mobile has finally hit and it is really moving. We find that 30 – 40% of our visitors are coming from mobile and tablets now. It is amazing to think that a year ago no-one knew what a tablet was.
Another thing is that paper is not cool anymore. People was to use their vouchers with their mobiles rather than pull a crumpled piece of paper out of their wallet. The idea that people can scan their mobile – like they are doing with contactless payments, and get the discounts is far cooler and the mobile proposition takes us to the next level.
Another thing is social. This is working massively well for retailers – if people like your product they will share it, tweet it, like it etc. We have lots of sales coming from Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest etc. It is certain an area where businesses can focus – if they are the right kind of consumer company with an interesting product – it doesn’t work for everybody. You have to excite people.
What is next for you?
We will continue to grow internationally. The US and the UK are very advanced when it comes to eCommerce and vouchers. France and Germany are a bit behind us and Spain and Italy a bit behind them. It is a case of waiting for the markets to catch up.
Some countries are going straight to mobile which is interesting, like Brazil for example where it is huge. We will very much be working on this mobile proposition, tied in with payments. Being able to pay and use a voucher at one is exciting. With Markco Media I have just launched Hush Hush which offers a flash, exclusive sale discount model.
Internally we are looking into lots of other businesses. I have a bunch of young people here coming up with unique business ideas. I thrive on that – it breeds innovation. I’m 33 now and these younger people have the hunger and flexibility to work really hard to achieve success. It is something we like to encourage.
For more check out: www.MyVoucherCodes.co.uk
