Best Small Agency is a very special award that we’ve entered as it looks at our business as a whole. For the award, we highlighted who we are, what our objectives are, examples of work we’re proud of and the challenges we’ve faced and we have summarised that in a blog for you to read.
Naturally Social is a social-first communications agency based in the county of Wiltshire and we are on a mission to show the world that social media can be used as a force for good. We recently celebrated our 7-year anniversary and since launching in 2015, we are proud to have supported the impact of ambitious charities and ethical companies alike, optimising their communications, creating real results and generally blowing the socks of the digital world. We believe that if you can create profit from social media, you could create real change too and when done well, social media can inspire, motivate and drive change. We promote conversation from every angle while keeping social at the sharp end of what we do. Putting purpose before profit is what we’re all about.
We offer a wide variety of marketing and communication services. When it comes to social media and digital, we’ve been ahead of the curve ever since businesses started cottoning onto its potential and through its evolution ever since. We provide strategy, support its delivery, live event coverage, influencer marketing, smart advertising and integrated website management. With content marketing, we firmly believe that to be effective, it needs to be relevant, expertly crafted and implemented within a wider strategy that involves all communications. We’re capable of providing website copy, blog writing, sales pages, SEO research and strategy and website management and updating. We pride ourselves on creating timely content that speaks to relevant trends and hooks the right audience. We help establish brands as experts in their field, creating thought leadership pieces that are tactically positioned to bring you the results you need. It’s also our job to ensure that people know how great you are and so when it comes to PR, we provide press release writing, email marketing, advertorials, media relations, social listening and crisis management. Everything we do is designed with results in mind.
This year we took on an independent optician brand with a really strong CSR strategy to give back to their community, remain independent and support local causes. They have 20 practices across Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire and have donated over £150,000 to community groups through their charitable trust. When we began working with them, we pitched our ‘Sight for All’ campaign which we’re extremely proud of. This is a partnership between themselves and a South West homeless charity with the idea to support those marginalised in society and unable to access eye care by hosting Pop-Up clinics and giving free eye exams to residents, providing free glasses where needed. At the same time, we would educate the public and encourage donations of old unwanted frames that could be recycled and re-gifted, where possible, saving them from landfill and giving them a second life by distributing them to those in need. We utilised social media and PR to promote the campaign, securing live local radio and regional TV coverage on launch day. Since then, we’ve received over 3,000 spectacle donations and during our latest clinic, carried our 15 sight tests and dispensed 18 pairs of glasses.
Natalie is also the director of community interest company Wiltshire Digital Drive and commits a number of Naturally Social hours to the business free of charge every month. Since October 2020, we have generated over 6,000 device donations and re-distributed over 1600 of them to local families, schools and individuals who are impacted by the digital divide across the UK. We have built up £180,000 in revenue Since October 2020 alone through grant applications and crowd funder campaigns
Over the years, there have been challenges as any business will find, for us, building the right team has been the main challenge. After 3 hires that weren’t quite right, Natalie has learnt a lot about herself as a leader and understanding people and since our rebrand in 2019, we now have a clearer recruitment strategy with a focus on recruiting complimentary skill sets and culture fit. Understanding someone’s personality and internal drivers have become an integral part of this process and enabled us to grow the thriving team that we are today.
We entered this award because we’re a small agency that packs a big punch. We have heart and we have modest budgets to work with. We ensure our services are accessible, but we still deliver results. We don’t sell posts; we sell outcomes and we strongly believe our entry demonstrates this and we’re really proud of that. We also believe that it’s our dedication to achieving a positive social impact and staying true to our values that gives us an advantage over our competitors. There are undoubtedly hundreds of digital marketing agencies that share the same skills as we do, but what they don’t have is the same vision and values. This year we submitted our application for BCorp status so that clients know that when they choose to work with us it’s more than money; it’s about creating positive change.
We’re thrilled to be finalists because the UK Social Media Awards are an amazing way to celebrate the creativity and innovation that is involved in achieving outstanding social media campaigns, judged by an esteemed panel of industry leaders and experts. It’s incredible to be finalists alongside some incredible campaigns. It means a lot to be recognised for our hard work.
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