Why Bang Get Seen separates advice from marketing services
CEO stephen Taylor built Bang Get Seen to give businesses an independent check of their sales and marketing, without selling them campaigns or websites. The conversation covers how referrals and Instagram brought clients, why a past SEO shortcut backfired, and why attention only matters when it leads to sales.
Businesses should understand how a marketing spend is meant to turn into customers and revenue before committing to it. Followers, traffic and short-term ranking gains are not substitutes for sales or sound judgment.
What’s the short story of how your business started, and what makes it genuinely different from the other options your customers have?
How it started
I started selling at 14 and ran my first business at 21. Over 35 years, I’ve built and sold several companies, including a promotional gifts business I ran for 30 years. I invented products sold in 10 countries and employed more than 300 people.
Along the way, I kept seeing the same mistakes. Good businesses losing customers, not because their products were wrong, but because people couldn’t see them or understand what they offered. I wrote BANG. GET SEEN. MAKE MONEY. to expose these mistakes and founded BANG GET SEEN to help businesses fix them.
What makes us different
Who’s going to tell you the truth? Not your agency. Not your team. Not your friends or family. We will.
We don’t build websites, run ads or sell marketing services. We identify what’s broken, explain why and show you how to fix it. Nothing to sell you but the truth.
We offer a free two minute marketing evaluation and a free fifteen minute consultation. Every full session comes with a money back guarantee. If you don’t see value in the first ten minutes, you get your money back. Very few consultancies are confident enough in their value to offer this.
How did you win your first customers, and where does most of your new business come from today?
How we won our first customers People were always asking for my opinion and advice about their businesses. It grew naturally from there. Friends recommended me, word spread, and those conversations turned into paying clients.
Where new business comes from today Word of mouth remains important. Our Instagram account, @banggetseen, attracts business owners looking for an honest assessment of what’s holding them back. We offer a free two minute marketing evaluation, followed by a free fifteen minute consultation. Every full session comes with a money back guarantee. My forthcoming book BANG. GET SEEN. MAKE MONEY. will introduce the same practical thinking to a wider audience.
What’s one decision that changed the direction of your business, and one mistake that taught you the most?
Listening to other people’s opinions instead of trusting my own judgement. I’ve spent money on advice from so called experts without fully understanding the bigger picture.
Years ago, we hired a search engine optimisation company that used banned shortcuts to game Google. We reached number one, then disappeared from the rankings for a long time while we cleaned up the mess they’d created.
That taught me a valuable lesson. Just because someone calls themselves an expert and shows you impressive results doesn’t mean they know what they’re doing.
Businesses are constantly told to spend money on social media, advertising and websites. But what’s the point of driving traffic to a website that isn’t ready to turn visitors into customers?
Never spend money on something you don’t understand, and never confuse short term results with long term success.
One decision that changed the direction of my business. Deciding not to become another marketing agency. There are thousands of agencies selling websites, advertising and social media services, but who’s independently checking whether any of it actually works?
I wanted BANG GET SEEN to be different. We don’t build websites, run campaigns or sell marketing services. We identify what’s wrong, why businesses are losing customers and how to fix it.
We have nothing to sell you but the truth.
What has changed in your industry or in what your customers expect over the last couple of years, and how have you adapted?
The biggest change is that anyone with a camera and an Instagram, TikTok or Facebook account can now call themselves a marketing expert. Many lack the experience, skills or commercial understanding to deliver real results, but they’re happy to take your money.
Businesses are overwhelmed with people promising more followers, views and engagement, but none of that necessarily translates into sales.
I’ve spent over 35 years building and selling businesses across different industries. I understand what it takes to attract customers, win the sale and make money. That’s why BANG GET SEEN focuses on independent advice rather than selling marketing services. Businesses don’t need more people telling them what to buy. They need someone to tell them what’s working and what isn’t.
If you were advising someone starting out in your industry today, what would you tell them to do first, and what would you tell them to ignore?
First, get real business experience. Understand how businesses actually work, how customers think, why people buy and what makes a sale. Marketing isn’t just about creating content or getting attention. It’s about turning that attention into revenue.
Ignore the hype, the latest trends and the obsession with followers, likes and views. None of those necessarily mean you’re making money.
Don’t call yourself an expert because you’ve mastered a camera, social media or a few marketing tools. Learn how to sell, understand the numbers and experience what it’s like to risk your own money.
My advice? Learn business before you try to teach businesses how to market themselves.
Thank you to stephen Taylor and the team at Bang Get Seen for sharing what actually worked with Leaders Perception readers.
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