DIY becomes Do It For You: Tiger Pistol finds businesses need more help in social marketing

Melbourne-based social marketing startup Tiger Pistol, which existed primarily as a DIY platform for small businesses, has launched a Do It For You package, making it the first platform in the world to help small businesses with a full social marketing suite that includes organic, advertising and reputation management.

Tiger Pistol, which is global preferred marketing developer for Facebook, will use its recommendation platform to power the service, identifying not just what to post and when to post it, but how to build campaigns that deliver results.

The service is still marketed at small businesses, with Do It For You packages starting from $249 a month.

The change came about after it became evident a much larger number of its customers wanted more help than a DIY option.

Through the Do It For You packages, a Tiger Pistol social expert will manage a customer’s reputation across Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Instagram, Yelp, Trip Advisor, LinkedIn, Urbanspoon, Pinterest, Foursquare and Yellow Pages. The new service is an extension of the Tiger Pistol Do It Yourself packages that launched late last year.

Cofounder and CEO Steve Hibberd says that Tiger Pistol is still technology-driven.

“We provide this level of service at such low pricing due to the efficiency we get from our technology, especially our patent pending recommendation engine that drives what we do for customers across content and advertising,” Hibberd says.

“Our social experts don’t have to spend hours on strategy or reinventing the wheel, the activity is guided by a deep understanding of our customers coupled with real time data.”

Hibberd says that “this semi-automation is the key to success in the small business space” by using both a super simple software and an efficient service layer.

“We can still have infinite opportunity to scale while our customers receive great results.”

Hibberd says no other product on the market gave small businesses the power to conduct sophisticated advertising campaigns.

“Others focus on content posts whose organic reach is rapidly declining or, at best, promote posts using real cash to generate a few more likes and comments which are generally wireless,” he says.

“Social ad platforms are great for experienced marketers but very few small businesses have the time or experience to do that, so they need help.

“Reputation management is the other key pain for small business…90% aren’t aware of the online reviews around their business, yet 79% of consumers trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation.

“People are talking about their buying experiences across a variety of social channels every day, small business operators simply don’t have enough time to be across this, so Tiger Pistol wraps this up in a single, simple package.”

Tiger Pistol, announced in October last year that it had closed a $1 million round of funding from the $6m local venture fund Rampersand.