If you talk to DOM360 founder and CEO Robert Donovan for any length of time, it quickly becomes apparent that having both his digital marketing company and his family based in Greenville is important to the success and health of both.
Homegrown talent
After DOM360’s founding in 2007 in Greenville, the company grew to include offices in Boca Raton, Florida, and Los Angeles. It was while working from the office in southern California that Donovan met his wife, Jennifer, who now serves as DOM360’s chief marketing officer.
The couple moved back to Greenville in 2020, and Jennifer says the warm reception they’ve had here, including a tour of the city by Greenville Mayor Knox White, has only deepened their desire to give back to the community that has proved so welcoming.
Robert Donovan says he could have located the company anywhere, but the strong sense of community that characterizes Greenville made it an easy decision.
“We believe in this community,” Jennifer says. “We want to invest in it and grow with it.”
That sentiment prompted the Donovans to donate $250,000 toward a toddler playground at Unity Park earlier this year.
The hospitality of the people here also makes for a good fit for a customer service focused company like DOM360, which is why most of the company’s creative team were hired locally, the Donovans say.
“You can’t beat the hospitality of Greenville,” Jennifer says. “The people who were raised here have that skill.”
The caliber of the people coupled with cutting-edge technology equate to a bright future, Robert says.
“We are 110% participating in the fourth industrial revolution,” Robert says. “We’re doing that in Greenville, South Carolina, with Greenvillians … It’s really exciting.”
Content wedded to technology
The technology Robert Donovan finds so exciting first took shape in 2015. It’s software that uses artificial intelligence to sift through a client’s first-party data on their customers and performs a comprehensive analysis to find patterns and trends, Robert explains.
Using that exhaustive set of analytics, the company’s Contology software — described as content wedded with technology — enables the company’s creative team to be more effective and efficient in tailoring its products to the client’s specific needs.
“The technology released our associates’ creativity,” Robert says. “Imagine marrying all that data to relevant creativity.”
As an example of how Contology helped the DOM360 team fine-tune their messaging, Robert points to work for Greenville’s Big “O” Dodge. While the dealership’s ads highlighting its big American flag were good, the software revealed that customers resonated more with Gunner, a photogenic dog belonging to one of the owners.
“The big American flag was good, but Gunner was great,” Robert says.
Managing by exception
One of the other powerful tools Contology brings to the creative marketing process is how it prioritizes data analytics. Robert describes it as “managing by exception.”
The software sifts through a company’s data and pulls out poor reviews — for instance, Google 1- and 2-star reviews — that haven’t been addressed. Robert says this helps clients identify potential problems at an early stage so they can take steps to find a remedy before the problems worsen. The software gives users an easy-to-understand initial overview of data but also has the ability to drill down into fine detail.
All that data ultimately serves one purpose, Robert says: effective communication.
“Storytelling is never going to go away,” he says. “Our company was first and foremost created for creativity.”
