Marketing firm Taradel is on a high-growth run

When Taradel founder and CEO Jim Fitzgerald says the company is “growing like crazy,” that’s not an understatement.

The Richmond-based marketing company has been on the Inc. 5000 list of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies for the past eight years. Taradel ranked No. 2,126 on the 2015 list with 2014 revenue of $7.8 million and a 3-year growth rate of 184 percent.

Last year, revenue rose to $10.9 million, and Taradel is on target to hit $20 million this year, Fitzgerald says. The company currently has 31 employees and expects to add more. 
Begun in 2003 under the name Print & Deliver, Taradel today has more than 10,000 customers in the U.S. and Canada, providing direct-mail, printing and integrated-marketing services.  Most of its customers are small business owners, including health professionals such as doctors, dentists and chiropractors.

The majority of Taradel’s revenue comes from its direct-mail business, but it’s ramping up its integrated marketing business, Fitzgerald says.

“Even though direct mail can be complicated, [most small business owners] intuitively understand how it works. But many of them struggle with the nuisance associated with digital, so we think we’ve got a perfect opportunity to build a bridge from direct mail and hold their hands through the digital process,” Fitzgerald says.

Taradel is building a dashboard where customers can see results from an integrated marketing campaign, including phone calls received from print advertising and impression, click-through and conversion rates for digital campaigns. The company also is putting together a psychographic segmentation system, which will provide customers with reports detailing consumers’ attitudes, values and opinions. Both services are expected to begin this summer.

Taradel’s rapid growth hasn’t come without challenges. Fitzgerald says the company’s biggest obstacle is finding web programmers and engineers.
“Growth isn’t a problem,” he says. “We could grow faster still if we could find … acquire and train more people to build out the solutions I’ve talked to you about.”