The Tao Days of Christmas! | 2021 Highlights
As we come to the end of another really challenging year, the team here at Tao Digital are keen to focus on the positive highlights of 2021.
Amidst all the doom and gloom, it’s easy to forget all the great things that businesses across the UK have achieved, but we wanted to focus on the amazing work done by our dedicated team.
To give a bit of a festive flavour, we’ve broken it down into… The Tao Days of Christmas!
1. Our first award win
In October, we were lucky enough to receive our first award win, Digital Agency of the Year (Under 16 employees) at the MPA (Manchester Publicity Association) Awards, which took place at the prestigious Midland Hotel.
It was a fantastic evening and lovely to celebrate with the whole team – hopefully the first of many to come!
2. Held two Business Over Beers events
As the world semi-returned to normal during the summer, we could finally host our long-overdue Business Over Beers events again – one in August and one in November. We saw 25 attendees in August and 39 in November!
Hopefully, we’ll continue to grow and support business owners from Bolton and beyond through these events. We’ll announce details of 2022 dates on our blog. For now, you can watch the video of our August event below.
3. Hired three new team members
We started 2021 with five full-time members of the team, and hired another three throughout the year as we continued to take on clients and expand the power of Team Tao even further!
Our newest recruits include Charlotte, our Content Writer, Jack, our Web Designer, and Catherine, our Operations Manager.
4. Tao Turned Four
We celebrated our fourth birthday on 4th May earlier this year – another great milestone for the business!
Whilst not all of us have been around that long, it certainly feels like we’ve been around longer, especially when you look at the progress we’ve made in such a short space of time.
We celebrated with plenty of cake and a look back at our highlights over the years.
5. Fiveeee client winnssss!
Thanks to the constant hard work of our amazing team, we were able to celebrate a further five client wins. Plus, many of our existing clients increased their spend with us to allow us to work our magic even more! Read some of our case studies here.
6. Six awards nominations
We were lucky enough to receive six awards nominations this year, both as a business and as individuals.
Our shortlists were as follows:
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Business Person of the Year – Matt Tomkin (Greater Manchester Business Awards)
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Digital Agency of the Year (Under 16 Employees) – Tao Digital Marketing (MPA Awards)
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Entrepreneurial Success – Tao Digital Marketing (Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce Awards)
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Green and Sustainable Strategy – Tao Digital Marketing (Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce Awards)
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Women in Leadership – Chloe Mitchell (SheInspires Awards)
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Rising Star – Lydia German (SheInspires Awards)
7. Seven hour journey to Brighton SEO
In September, some of our team travelled down to the edge of the country for Brighton SEO, the biggest industry conference in the world. It was a great few days of talks from leaders in all areas of SEO, accompanied by lovely beach views – and a seven hour drive back!
We’ll be attending again next April, so watch this space…
8. Eight full time team members
As mentioned, we now have eight full time team members, and are hoping to increase this even more in 2022 as we continue to upskill and take on more clients.
Although we started the year locked down, not able to welcome Charlotte to the team properly in January, we have loved being back in the office when possible and finally being able to engage in team building events.
9. Nine months in the making – our upcoming rebrand…
You may have already seen some of our new branding pop up across social media. That’s because we are planning a total rebrand early next year. You heard it here first!
We’ll be having a newly designed site complete with up-to-date messaging and a look that feels much more ‘us’, with help from Utter Creatives Ltd. Keep your eyes peeled!
10. 10/10 service, say our clients
One of the factors that makes us stand out amongst other agencies is our ability to really drill deep into the needs of our clients and understand their businesses from the inside out. We have really focused on case studies this year, both written and visual.
Our most recent case study, featured on Moz, explains how we increased AFG Law’s leads by 174% using content optimisation.
Our clients also benefit from the personal touch we have with our work, extending from a great relationship between client and agency. Jackie Hyde, Managing Director of Stanmore Insurance Brokers, explains more below.
11. Eleven months of community work
The lockdown at the start of the year made it difficult for us to really get involved in community work, however we did start to have conversations with Bolton Lads and Girls’ Club about becoming a patron.
Since then, we have been involved in a variety of activities, such as a Dragon’s Den day with NCS, where students had to pitch business ideas, and a variety of fundraising days, such as the patron’s football match, Bolton Beer Festival, and the Big Bolton Santa Dash.
We have also continued our existing support with Lagan’s Foundation and Bolton Pride.
12. Twelve months climate positive
We reached our one year anniversary of being a climate positive business!
As part of our Ecologi membership, trees are planted monthly on behalf of each member of the team in order to tackle our individual carbon footprints. So far we’ve reduced just under 70 tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere!
That’s all for this year – have a great Christmas and see you next year for even more highlights!