Tag Archives: Digital Agency

Appointments, News

CTI Digital appoint WPP’s Justin Bland as Chief Operating Officer and Laura Packwood as Human Resource Director

CTI Digital has appointed Justin Bland as Chief Operating Officer to bolster the executive leadership team. In his remit, Justin is charged with developing and enhancing the delivery of work for CTI’s clients and improving operational performance across the full suite of services offered by the integrated digital agency.

Justin joins CTI with over 13 years in the marketing industry, working at agencies such as Razorfish, R/GA, Essence and Wunderman, and, most recently, at an agency and group level at WPP and GroupM as Global Executive Director of People, Operations and Transformation.

He’s an experienced and versatile operator. At Wunderman North America, he helped establish the Operations practice and led the Design Kitchen business as MD of the SF office, focusing on social content creation. He then went on to design, launch and grow Essence and GroupM’s offshore product, scaling it to over 1,000 specialists in four countries within a two-year period. Most recently, Justin was part of WPP’s Open-X team, partnering with Coca-Cola to drive its marketing transformation across the entire customer journey. He was a leadership team member who designed and built a brand new fully integrated studio operating model specifically for Coca-Cola, which included a 1,500-strong team deployed across nine global studios.

On his role at CTI, Justin said, “CTI is well positioned in the market to continue its track record of sustained success, and I look forward to helping accelerate its growth rate. Its core DNA, talent, tech capabilities, and proposition are all very strong, along with the opportunities to integrate client needs across the digital marketing ecosystem. I’m thrilled to join the outstanding team of people at CTI, and I look forward to partnering with the executive leadership to power the company through the next phase of its exciting journey.”

Justin will focus on agency client delivery, business growth and margin. He leads Operations across the entire CTI portfolio, including its project management, facilities and IT teams. In addition, he will optimise the design and utilisation of the business’s talent and resources for maximum productivity and growth.

Laura Packwood joins as Human Resource Director and will sit as part of the agency’s Senior Leadership Team. Laura joins from AppLearn, a global tech business that has recently undergone a successful sale. At AppLearn, Laura was the Global VP of People. Laura joins CTI at a time when the agency is reinvesting in its global people strategy and will be driving significant change to enhance the employee value proposition to ensure that CTI becomes a destination employer for digital talent across the UK and also internationally.

Laura said: “I am delighted to join CTI during this phase of growth. I’m looking forward to championing our incredible teams, nurturing their talents and fostering a culture of growth and innovation. It’s an exciting time to join CTI, and I’m optimistic about what we can achieve together with our employees.”

CTI CEO Chris Woodward said: “With the arrival of Justin, we have now completed the transformation of our executive leadership team in less than six months. Justin brings substantial international experience, and it is a testament to our organisation’s ambition that we can attract someone of his calibre. He will make a very fast impact on our organisation and benefit our people and clients.

“It is equally pleasing that Laura is joining us at this important moment; Laura also brings significant experience that will benefit our people and our clients as we seek to scale the business over the next two years. Her track record speaks for itself, and I look forward to working with Laura to build the strongest employee value proposition of any agency in the UK.” Chris added.

News

Leeds Marketing Agency and North Yorkshire Council partnership adds up

Leeds-based marketing firm The Marketing Optimist has partnered with City of York Council and North Yorkshire Council on a marketing project to promote MultiplyNYorks – a new, free adult numeracy project for York and North Yorkshire residents.

The full-service digital marketing agency is supporting the council with marketing strategy, social media marketing, SEO, website design and copy on the programme.

Multiply was created to help people over 19 years of age who don’t have a maths GCSE at grade C (or equivalent). It’s a national programme which offers courses and activities in the local community that help people manage their money better, improve their confidence, and open up better employment opportunities.

Employers and businesses can also access these adult numeracy courses to upskill their workforce or request bespoke training sessions to meet employee needs.

The MultiplyNYorks project will run until 2025 and is led by a dedicated central team created as a partnership between the Adult Learning Service of North Yorkshire Council, City of York Council’s York Learning, and a consortium led by Better Connect.

The overall project has been given £2.6 million from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund to improve the numeracy skills of working-age people in the UK.

Lois Calvert, Multiply Development Manager for North Yorkshire Council and City of York Council, said, “We are delighted to be working with The Marketing Optimist on this programme. The collaborative work has allowed us to reach individuals who would not usually engage in learning activities. The dedicated website has allowed us to showcase the fantastic work that is happening across York and North Yorkshire.”

Working on the client’s brief, The Marketing Optimist has delivered a new website for MultiplyNYorks – focusing on accessibility, design and usability. The team will also work on an in-depth SEO strategy and ongoing optimisation, writing compelling web copy and delivering a social media strategy to raise awareness of the Multiply programme.

Richard Michie, CEO of The Marketing Optimist, explains, “This project is one of our biggest to date, and we are thrilled to be chosen as the marketing partner for such an important initiative. This project requires a thorough, collaborative approach to deliver an extensive multi-channel marketing strategy, as there are over 20 delivery partners across York and North Yorkshire.”

The Marketing Optimist is a full-service digital marketing consultancy based in Leeds and founded in 2016. The agency works with a range of local, national and international clients. 

With a team of experts specialising in digital marketing, social media, SEO, copywriting,  website design, video marketing, marketing strategy and PR, the business offers a strategic and agile approach to help clients achieve meaningful results from their marketing activities.

News

Get Found, a Leading Birmingham Black-Owned Digital Marketing Agency With Strong Community Roots.

Get Found is a Black-owned digital marketing agency that works closely with the community to create equal job opportunities through comprehensive, well-designed training programmes. Founded in 2019 by Alex Davis, a seasoned SEO and digital marketing expert, Get Found joins this year’s Black History Month celebrations as the company prepares for its official launch later this autumn.

“Get Found has always been about transparency, customer service and giving back to the community. Coming from a sales and digital marketing background, and having worked in several companies before starting my own venture, I believe that clear communication with the client, along with providing high-quality services, is one of the most important factors for the success of a digital marketing agency – and probably for any other agency too! At the same time, at Get Found we’ve made it our mission to make the digital marketing industry more accessible to those who want to change their career path. Through our dedicated training and apprenticeship programmes that focus on developing real-world skills, we have done that,” shares Alex Davis, Founder and Managing Director of Get Found.

From the start, the agency has always put a particular emphasis on employee wellbeing and personal development. During their first year of operations, which coincided with the start of the global Covid-19 pandemic, Get Found provided training to four apprentices, with one of them joining the team on a permanent basis. 

“Since Get Found was founded, we have aimed to not only provide excellent services to our clients, but also to give back to the community and provide fair employment opportunities,” adds Jason Jackson, Co-Founder & Director of Get Found. “When Alex and I started Get Found, we built our apprenticeship programme in the first year to give people who have never worked in digital marketing the opportunity to make a career change and join our growing team. As of today, our team consists of thirteen professionals, most of whom went through our training.”

Get Found also recently partnered with Digished, creating a digital marketing training programme designed specifically to upskill people looking to change career paths. The programme combines several months of intensive training with real case studies and practical advice to help students land a new job right after graduation.

For more information about Get Found visit: https://get-found.co.uk/

News

Cosmetic powerhouse Trinny London enlists Excellent Zephyr and Patchworks to beautify business operations

One of Europe’s fastest-growing D2C beauty brands, Trinny London, has modernised its business operations and in turn enhanced its customer experience with the help of the leading digital agency, Excellent Zephyr and Patchworks (iPaas) platform.

Since 2017, Trinny London has exploded onto the beauty and skincare scene with its innovative and high-quality products. Founded by CEO Trinny Woodall, the brand uses a unique diagnosis tool, Match2Me, to generate a personalised combination of products distinctive to each consumer.

Built for a diverse customer base, 43 percent of customers are between the ages of 45 and 54 years old; 22 percent, 22 to 34 years old, and 20 percent are 55 and over. The brand is supported by a loyal, online community, the “Trinny Tribes,” which attract over 100,000 members in over 30 countries worldwide.

Originally conceived as a digital-first business, Trinny London now sells its products instore through the British department stores Fenwick and Harvey Nichols, and has just announced its first permanent retail presence in the U.S at Saks Fifth Avenue. Retail spaces are powerful at driving brand engagement and loyalty in the age of ecommerce, and last year’s Sak’s pop-up was proof of just that, as hundreds of the brand’s Trinny Tribe community members traveled to New York City from across the East Coast and as far as the Midwest to purchase products in-store.

To support the brands projected business growth, Trinny London implemented NetSuite’s solution to optimise its back-end operations. “With a growing product portfolio and multiple sales channels we needed to have real-time visibility across the entire operation, accessible from anywhere at any time. As the UK faces a cost of living crisis and impeding financial challenges, the ability to streamline our operations and make strategic business decisions at speed and with agility is vital to our growth,” commented Taher Khaliq, Chief Technology Officer at Trinny London.

However, due to multiple project complications they looked for additional support and after a competitive pitch, Excellent Zephyr was selected to provide much needed expertise and advice to get the project live.

Having evaluated Trinny London’s technical requirements, Excellent Zephyr prepared a cutover plan and provided the brand with experienced consultants, dedicated technical resources and project management to achieve a successful go-live.

Khaliq continued: “Prior to Excellent Zephyr’s involvement the project had been running for 10 months with no sight of completion. When Excellent Zephyr got hands on, they spent time learning about elements of our business, how we work and what the issues had been to-date. Working around us and our processes, they then took ownership of the NetSuite implementation and got us live within three months of taking the lead.”

In order to seamlessly connect the software to Trinny London’s existing technology stack, Excellent Zephyr enlisted the support of the cutting edge retail integration platform, Patchworks.

Ady Collins, Chief Operation Officer at Patchworks said: “The challenge that many retailers currently face is having an existing, diverse and established tech stack, that struggles to connect and provide strategic data insights. We’re thrilled to have been able to seamlessly connect Trinny London’s software, allowing them to make informed decisions and improve overall business performance, based on data across the entire business. We’re excited to see the results over the coming months!”

Trinny London grew by 330 percent in 2020, with revenues reaching 55 million pounds at the end of 2021. Skincare, which launched earlier this year, and in less than five months now comprises 32 percent of sales.

Ian Moore, Head of Services at Excellent Zephyr concluded: “We’re delighted to be working with such an innovative, fast growth and disruptive brand like Trinny London. Their integrated NetSuite solution can scale to support their ambitious business operations so that they can overcome any challenges head on and can continue to grow their business with confidence.”

News

Bobble Digital appoints a duo of senior specialists to their team

Leeds-based media-focused digital marketing agency, Bobble Digital, has welcomed two senior digital marketing specialists to their growing team – to support the agency’s increasing client roster and ambitious plans for the future. 

The two recruits bring extensive experience in their specialist areas of SEO and pay-per-click and paid media advertising. 

Senior SEO Executive Priya Mistry joined the Bobble Digital team in August, moving from a previous Marketing Manager role at Peterborough-based fleet management firm, Fleet Serve. 

Guy Mains also joined the team this month as Senior Paid Media Manager after specialising in pay-per-click and paid media advertising for over ten years. 

CEO & Founder of Bobble Digital, Manpreet Singh, commented: “We are so excited to welcome Priya and Guy to our team, who will play key roles in the business – supporting other team members and clients. Both our recruits are highly skilled professionals who are already an asset to our close-knit team.”

The digital marketing specialists at Bobble Digital continue to achieve significant growth over the last couple of years, so the new hires are joining at an exciting time in the business. 

Commenting on their plans, Manpreet added: “Growing our team is a necessary step to achieve our ambitious international growth plans. Priya, Guy and the rest of our team have key responsibilities that will shape the future of the business and their careers in the agency”. 

Senior SEO Executive at Bobble Digital, Priya Mistry, commented: “I was so happy and overwhelmed when Manni called to offer me this role. This position is a brilliant opportunity to further develop my digital marketing career in a company that truly cares about its staff and clients. In my new role, I will work alongside the Head of SEO at Bobble, supporting the team and clients with their SEO accounts and conducting SEO and technical audits for businesses.” 

Guy Mains, Senior Paid Media Manager at Bobble Digital, shared: “It was an easy decision to make when I received the call from Manni offering me the role. Upon meeting Manni and researching Bobble, I instantly bought into the business, Manni and the team. I feel that Manni and I have the same beliefs, work principles, and outlook on life. In my new role, I will help to support and develop the Paid Media team – ensuring we have efficient processes in place to be leaders in our industry. I’m confident we have the right people here to achieve that.”

The agency, established in 2017, works with clients locally, nationally and globally to drive digital growth, including Panintelligence, School of New York Times, Sotheby’s Insitute of Art, Partner Plus Media, LifeCycle Transitions, Eatons Solicitors, Mayfair Worktops and Pinnacle Body Rejuvenation.

Health, News, North of England, Tech

How a life-threatening diagnosis and kidney transplant motivated entrepreneur to build a business

Leeds entrepreneur, Manpreet Singh found a new lease of motivation after a traumatic personal battle behind closed doors gave him a whole new perspective that he used to drive his business forward. 

Manpreet founded his business, Bobble Digital – a media-focused digital marketing agency in 2017 at 27 years old, following a terminal diagnosis of IgA nephropathy, also known as IgA disease or Berger’s disease – a kidney disease that causes inflammation and kidney damage, which can ultimately lead to kidney failure – as it did in Manpreet’s case. This led him to make the risky decision to have a kidney transplant in the height of the pandemic in spring 2020.  

Telling his story to help raise awareness of IgA nephropathy and to inspire other entrepreneurs facing uncertain health issues, Manpreet explains: “The idea to start Bobble Digital originally came midway through 2016, when I was forced to move to part-time hours at my job due to my symptoms progressing. I needed to earn the same level of income in a way that allowed me to work more flexibly and at my own pace. 

“For four to six months leading up to my kidney failure I experienced chronic fatigue, tiredness and lack of appetite. I had very little energy to get out of bed each morning. In December 2016 however, things took a drastic turn for the worst. I caught pneumonia and what little function my kidneys had was killed off. I spent New Year’s Day of 2017 seriously ill in hospital with pneumonia and kidney failure, and was told I would start dialysis within a week.  

“It was completely devastating and took a long time to come to terms with. I was told dialysis treatment isn’t a permanent solution, as the body can only handle so much and that I’d be lucky to live for another 15 years. To hear this at just 27 years old was a total shock, it took a huge toll on my mental health, I lost all sense of purpose, and felt the best years of my life and plans for the future were being robbed from me.

“Going through dialysis was exhausting and life-altering. I could no longer travel far, go on holiday, I couldn’t even drink much fluid, I struggled to walk long distances, sleep, dealt with many infections with my dialysis line, I was in hospital multiple times a week and had multiple surgeries. I had to take lots of medications every day, my life felt like it revolved around a box of pills. It didn’t feel like living anymore, it felt like a life of just surviving. 

“Setting up Bobble Digital gave me purpose again. It gave me something to be passionate about and a reason to get out of bed in the morning. In the early days of the business, it was a way to help me survive. However, when I began to build a pattern and control of my treatment – my mindset shifted to ‘what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger’ and I became focused on improving. I learned I needed a positive mindset to keep moving forward and that became a powerful tool I use in my daily life now – to keep fighting on even through the toughest of times.

“Of course, there’s been times when I thought running a business was too much whilst dealing with all the symptoms and side effects of treatment and the mental toll. The initial economic impact of covid even nearly ended the business, but I took this as a lesson and accepted that sometimes you have to take a step back to move forward again, there are always good days and bad days but the good days give you the energy and enthusiasm to continue.

“There were many difficulties that came with running the business whilst going through dialysis, I had to account 6 hours 3 times a week for dialysis – so fitting when I could work around this was hard. However, once settled into a routine and moving my treatment pattern into evenings meant I could work whilst on dialysis.”

In order to make Bobble Digital a success, Manpreet also sold assets including his beloved Mustang so he could invest funds into the business. He shared: “Things like the Mustang are just materialistic, they hold no value in the grand scheme of things and I knew I had the skill set and expertise to rebuild everything I had, so it was an easy decision to make”.

In March 2020, Manpreet was given a life-changing opportunity to go ahead with a kidney transplant. He shared: “It was a scary decision to make, as although the odds of surviving a kidney transplant are high (around 99%), there was the risk of my body rejecting the kidney. The biggest risk, however, was catching covid, as this was during the worst of the pandemic when a lot was unknown – other than if I did catch it, there was a high risk it could be fatal. 

“After a lot of thought about the risks, the extremely tough road to recovery and also the financial impact it would have on the business and support from amazing friends, family and doctors, I decided to go ahead. Ultimately the doctor’s confidence gave me enough hope that it was worth the gamble, and I’m lucky to say it has changed my life, I will be forever grateful to all the doctors, surgeons and nurses and everyone else who has helped me through this journey.”

Now, five years since being dealt the blow he potentially had only 15 years to live, the charismatic entrepreneur, whom listeners to marketing advice podcast BobblePod – will know as #MrBobble – Manpreet has guided the business to achieve astonishing success. The agency has grown into a fully-fledged agency team, achieving a 300% growth in turnover from 2020 to 2021, through supporting local, national and international brands with their digital marketing.

On Bobble Digital’s success, Manpreet commented: “Making the business a success has been what’s kept me going through these incredibly testing times. However, the business wouldn’t have been able to achieve what we have without our fantastic team and clients”. 

Since having his transplant, Manpreet still lives with the risk that the IgA nephropathy may come back and impact his transplant and has to take daily steroid medication indefinitely – but he doesn’t let this get in the way of living his life to the full and is working towards plans to open international Bobble Digital offices in the near future. 

What is immunoglobulin A (IgA) nephropathy?

IgA nephropathy, also known as Berger’s disease, is a kidney disease that occurs when IgA deposits build up in the kidneys, causing inflammation that damages kidney tissues. IgA is an antibody and protein made by the immune system to protect the body from foreign substances such as bacteria or viruses. 

What are the symptoms?

Each person can have different signs and symptoms, but the most common are:

  • Hematuria: Having blood in your urine that can sometimes make it dark brown or cola-coloured.  
  • Proteinuria: Foamy urine due to large amounts of protein leaking into your urine.

Kidney Donation

Donating a live kidney can potentially save someone’s life. Find out more and register your interest to become a kidney donor here.

Marketing, PR and SEO, News, North of England

Forme Bikes partners with The SEO Works to take their search visibility to the next level.

The multi-award-winning digital agency The SEO Works have been chosen to lead the SEO strategy for specialist UK bike manufacturer Forme Bikes.

The Derbyshire-based brand has a broad multi-category range from children’s bikes through to full-suspension electric mountain bikes, all designed with the vision to encourage everyone to get out and ride more.

Forme sells its bikes through a carefully selected network of independent bike dealers and is investing in a range of new support initiatives to assist their dealers, including driving web traffic to their dealer locator to direct consumers into stores.

Following the investment from Forme Bikes into a brand new website, they approached The SEO Works to assist them in making this brand new platform even more visible to the online community. The award-winning team carried out an extensive audit and identified that although the website had a fantastic user experience and a slick design, there were crucial areas of SEO technical compliance that needed improvement.

Following the detailed audit and competitive pitch process, it was clear that the agency was the right choice to ensure the website’s full compliance, and take its search visibility to the next level. Encouraged by the technical expertise and proven track record of The SEO Works, Forme bikes appointed the Sheffield-based agency as their chosen SEO partner. 

On the decision to appoint, Lee Flanaghan (Head of Brand and Communications) added: “The team at The SEO Works felt like the obvious choice, not only local to us but with a real pedigree in delivering commercially successful eCommerce SEO campaigns for many sports and equipment bands. They met our brief perfectly and showed a real desire to work with us.”

As well as focusing on the technical SEO compliance of the website, the award-winning team will refocus and optimise the content on the site constantly keeping in mind the need to ensure that lucrative keywords are targeted – all helping to contribute towards the end goal of improving search visibility for Forme Bikes.

“The opportunity to lead a strategy for a company like Forme Bikes is incredibly exciting for us here at The SEO Works. As cycling is a passion of mine and many colleagues, it’s great to work with a company that creates such amazing bikes and also helps to support the local cycling community at the same time. We believe that by appointing us and allowing our award-winning SEO team to lead this strategy, we can deliver exceptional results that Forme Bikes expect from us.” said Alex Hill, Sales Director of The SEO Works.

The SEO Works specialises in SEO, PPC, Digital PR, Web and Paid Social advertising and has many clients within the sporting and outdoors sector, including Rideminded, Rab, Lowe Alpine, All Rounder Cricket and Towsure.

 

Creative News, News, North of England

TrunkBBI opens Leeds office and sets ambitious targets

TrunkBBI, an award winning creative and activation agency, is going from strength to strength as it opens their third office on Greek Street in Leeds city centre.

The agency, which reported a turnover of more than £5m last year, is headquartered in Manchester with clients including Greene King, GE, Halewood Artisanal Spirits, Halfords, Hollister, and American Golf.

The agency chose to open an office in Leeds as the city has become a haven for the digital marketing sector and is keen to attract even more of the UK’s talent.  With ambitions to grow their turnover to £8.1m within the next 18 months, TrunkBBI will be looking to recruit more creative and digital talent as well as onboard new clients in the B2B and B2C sectors.

 

Adam Britton, MD of TrunkBBI commented on the opening of the Leeds office. He said, “We are excited about our expansion into Leeds, and our office has already been buzzing as some of our staff live closer to Leeds and are balancing their time between working from home and in our new office. Our hybrid model of working allows our staff the flexibility to work from any of our 3 locations.”

Adam continued, “With our expansive portfolio of B2B and B2C clients and our desire to host more collaborative meetings, having multiple locations makes it convenient for our clients to choose which office suits them best.”

 

Katherine Shoesmith, Account Director, commented on the opening of the new office. She said, “Having worked in Leeds throughout my career I know first-hand how strong the talent pool is here, so I’m really excited to be helping TrunkBBI set up this office, alongside our Group Account Directors, Andy Warner & Paul Wainwright. Following our recent rebrand we’re bringing a unique proposition to an already competitive market that I think clients are really going to be interested in.”

 

TrunkBBI is an agency that does everything under one roof, and offers clients a full range of services in-house, spanning film, animation, and creative technology, to strategy and insight, organic and paid social, influencer activation, SEO, paid search, PR, copywriting, and user experience.

For more information and employment opportunities, visit www.trunkbbi.com

 

 Photo Caption: L-R: Paul Wainwright, Andy Warner, Lauren Kirkland, Adam Britton, Phil Cardwell, Katherine Shoesmith, Paul Munro

 

News

What’s in store for digital in 2022?

The senior leadership team of award-winning digital agency The SEO Works have released a review of 2021 and outlined what’s in store for the coming year, in ‘2022 in Digital’.

“2021 was another year of twists and turns, and consumer behaviour has perhaps changed more in the last 18 months than ever before” said Managing Director, Ben Foster. 

Looking more at general trends in digital, he discusses the acceleration of existing trends within online shopping and subscription services, thanks to more hybrid working. Not only this, but as the world’s relationship with data adapts, the marketing world will have to respond accordingly.

Paul Friend, Head of SEO, says “Google’s ever-expanding comprehension of search queries will likely be a major consideration for SEO strategies in 2022”. Not only this, but looking at where target audiences are discussing brands will be crucial for any strategy.

When taking a look back at 2021, he analyses major developments such as the Core Web Vitals update, and more.

The limitation of data escalated throughout 2021, and “2022 will be no different, with automation and AI continuing to evolve and pick up speed over the next year”, says Kathryn Pearson, Head of PPC.

Although a world with less data is one many are anxious about, Kathryn insists that it’s just crucial to establish a more direct relationship with our customers and build better first-party data. As well as this, she takes a look at some important developments in the Google Ads world during 2022 and beyond.

For Graham Jones, Web Team Leader, 2022 will continue to see a mobile focus –  “as much as 54% of the Internet traffic consumed is with mobiles and tablets. So no surprises that web design trends tend to be more about small mobile screens than horizontally-oriented desktops”.

As well as this, he thinks that “the ‘headless’ website architecture will continue to gain traction and popularity and we will no doubt continue to see a clearer adoption for a ‘decoupled’ approach in web architecture.”

Beyond this, he looks at WordPress developments, the effect that the growth of Ecommerce has on Web, and more!

Finally, Sales Director Alex Hill looks at how the service offering developed over 2021 and how The SEO Works will look to adapt and develop it further in the coming year.

“We’re delighted to have developed our Digital PR offering into a standalone service this year, and have gained some really amazing backlink and publication success for a number of our clients.”

He also sees a positive return of more face-to-face sales for the business development team, saying “hopefully, some form of normality around pitching/meeting again in person, and establishing a real-world rapport in 3D, something I’ve always been a huge advocate of”.

You can read the full article here.

The SEO Works specialises in SEO, PPC, Web and Paid Social advertising and has many clients within the B2B and eCommerce sector, including Decathlon, TJ Hughes, Denby, Rab, Towsure and many others.

Marketing, PR and SEO, News

The SEO Works launches digital academy for the next generation of digital experts

‘SEO Agency of the Year’, The SEO Works, are investing in the future – as they launch a digital academy with spaces for ten apprentices before the end of the year. The Sheffield-based agency intends to build a foundation for the next generation of digital marketers, invest in the agency’s culture, and lift the bar for digital in Sheffield.

This comes as they move into a brand new HQ in the heart of the city centre, complete with a £250,000 fit-out, creating state-of-the-art workspaces for the growing team.

Recent research showed that over half of UK businesses are concerned about missing out on key strategic deliverables as a result of digital skills shortages. The pandemic has also accelerated the use of digital marketing, and the lack of future digital talent could have a large impact on business success.

Managing Director, Ben Foster, said – “Here at The SEO Works, we’ve always put people at the heart of what we do. For us, there’s no better way to develop future digital talent than through apprenticeship programmes – being able to experience that professional and personal development within the agency is amazing.

As well as this, the ability it gives us to contribute to the future of Sheffield’s digital economy is fundamental. Part of our decision to move into a new HQ was a vote of confidence in our city, and this is an extension of that.”

The SEO Works have been supporters of apprenticeship schemes for many years with Senior Business Development Manager Ryan Fox beginning his career on one of their schemes. In the years since he has developed from Apprentice Sales Coordinator through 4 further roles, up to Senior Business Development Manager.

He said – “I think that having progressed through almost every position in my department gives me a unique perspective on what it’s like to be in each role, allowing me to empathise with and help guide others. To me, this has been far more advantageous than coming in at a senior level and having to learn what each function does. The apprenticeship was the perfect way to kick off the journey.”

The academy already has its first pupils – with three people currently on the course and more new starters due over the coming weeks.

Jack Downs is a few months into the scheme and said “the main thing I like about The SEO Works’ apprenticeship scheme is the opportunity I have to learn from their digital marketing professionals. Working within the team, I have been able to take part in projects that I am immensely proud of.”

The SEO Works specialises in SEO, PPC, Web and Paid Social advertising and has many clients within the B2B and eCommerce sector, including Decathlon, TJ Hughes, Denby, Rab, Towsure and many others.