By
Pamela Watson
Marketing Coordinator - My Business
Sparkling White Smile first started business in 2014. The brand has since grown and developed to become the leading mobile cosmetic teeth whitening company in Australia. Founder, Alison Egan talks through some of her experiences in business, the importance of marketing and how she was able to turn a dream of owning a successful business into a reality.
Looking back to where it all began for the business, what were some of your original goals?
I wanted to be a high-end teeth whitening company. I didn’t want to be cheap and compromise quality. We were copping a lot of slack from all the dentists during this time. We were like the new kids on the block, so we needed to make sure our teeth whitening treatment was high end and high quality. The company grew because clients were getting the results at a cheaper price rather than going to the $2,000 teeth whitening process at a dentist. After four years of growth, we had enough clientele to consider franchising.
What was your first major win or success?
Going back about six years ago, Kayla Itsines contacted me and asked to get her teeth whitened. At this point in time, Kayla was huge, she had 12 million followers on Instagram, the biggest celebrity influencer in Australia and I thought to myself, how does she know I do teeth whitening? I got on a plane, travelled to Adelaide and whitened her teeth. It was just so big to me. From then on, I was getting noticed by people and receiving opportunities that I didn’t even know were possible.
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What role does social media and digital marketing play in helping your business grow?
When I started eight years ago, social media was still emerging, and Instagram was just taking off. So, I had the opportunity to run with the growth of social media. With Instagram, you’ve got to be very authentic and that’s how we’ve been able to grow. Digital marketing is huge for us, we have an internal team dedicated to it. Our team reviews all the before and after photos, making sure there are no filters over the top of them and we’ve got an app that checks them before they go live on Instagram to quality check the images. You’ve got to have an array of different types of marketing streams to ensure your brand and company can showcase its authenticity.
From your experience, what sort of content and posts have you found work well and produce results for your business?
Before and afters will always win. Posting results of what the client is going to achieve and it being authentic. If you go on my Instagram, it’s teeth and smiles, and I’m not sure if it’s the nicest Instagram but it’s authentic and that’s what people want to see. They want to see what they’re going to receive and what’s going on behind the scenes. We keep all our stories up to date, keeping up with trends and new influencers. We want to really make sure the clients understand it’s a safe environment, we’re educated in what we do, and all our technicians are trained. That sort of stuff is all important to me and that’s what we’re showcasing on social media. Also, having regular clients, not just influencers, talk about our treatments and post a video of themselves having their teeth whitened and showing off their results.
Are there any successful marketing tactics you’ve tried that have cost you next to nothing?
Marketing is expensive anyway, so you have to put in the money to make money, as with any type of business. The best type of marketing is utilising your own time. For me, mine was to offer and complete a free teeth whitening jobs and to have the satisfied client talk about the service. If you never put money into marketing, you will never be successful.
At what point would you recommend a business owner to either reach out for help or outsource tasks to a specialist?
I think you should do it from the start. There are always people out there to help. When I first started the business, I found what I was good at and what I struggled with. Anything I wasn’t good at, I outsourced and that’s what helped grow my business. I was great at being hands on, great at the teeth whitening and I was good with the marketing. The legal side, operations and HR, these were the parts of the business I didn’t specialise in. You don’t want a business that you’ve worked so hard on but fails because you don’t have the right resources and help from people in the business. So, ask for help and reach out.
If you were to create your business now, what would be some of first and fundamental things you would start off with?
Today, there is so much opportunity with social media, digital marketing and influencers. We didn’t have that in the early stages of Sparkling White Smile, there were only a select few and if you were able to work with them, they’d cost about $1,000.
Today, there is so much reach and opportunities with starting a business. You must be very confident in what you’re doing, you have to love it and have a passion for what you’re doing, if you don’t have that then you won’t be successful today. Also, you need to understand you will have a lot of competition, if you open a business you will have competitors doing the same thing, but you have to stay in your own lane.
What have you got up next on the cards?
You guys are the first to know but during Covid-19, we did some revaluating, and decided to buy the franchises back and we’ve now adopted a structure, almost like an ‘Uber’ for teeth whitening. Since we’ve adopted this new structure, it’s been the most incredible business transition. We’ve been able to take the company global as the franchises are not exclusive anymore.
We’ve also come out with a new training course to bridge the gap between dentistry and teeth whitening. I’ve collaborated with an oral hygienist to create The Institute of Aesthetic Teeth Whitening. We’ve got face to face and online courses, we are also planning on taking it international and that’s unbelievable.
