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12 Days of Taomas – 2023

Here we go again… Another year, another 12 days of Tao-mas. Let’s recap what Team Tao got up to in 2023!

1. We expanded the team!

New Team Member Daniel Abi

Daniel [AKA Dan the Man] joined the team in July. He’s currently completing his Apprenticeship and learning with the team in all things tech SEO. He’s made a real impact at Tao (and is finally shooting shots back at Matt when he winds him up). 

He also always has chuddy (translation: chewing gum for normal people) on his desk for everyone, which is great.

2. Lucy graduated!

Lucy Jackson Graduating

Our Creative Content and Media Producer Lucy graduated from her Apprenticeship in April, with a Distinction of course. We took a trip out to celebrate in Manchester, with the graduation being held by The Juice Academy and a talk from Andy Burnham. We couldn’t be prouder of her.

She also really loved wearing the hat and gown and loved that we screamed obnoxiously loud when her name was called. Proper loved it.

3. Team Tao Golf

Tao Digital Founder Matt Tomkin Playing Golf

One of many activities throughout the year was virtual golfing. Literally the most ridiculous activity we could have chosen as non-golfers, but incredibly funny nonetheless.

Matt successfully ‘kaboomed’ the house on the kids game we were playing. Big win for him. The professional golf instructor was very proud.

4. We launched our new site

Eco Affect Branding

Eco Affect was born in October, our newest ‘own project’ that aims to support people with sustainability, environmental concerns, carbon footprint reduction and cost savings. This is a huge project for us, and one we see being a really big part of Tao in the future (so keep your eyes peeled).

5. We hosted 5 Business over Beers Events

Image of 3 team members and a client

Our Business over Beers events are casual, no-bullshitting networking events held at a local micro-brewery (and we LOVE hosting them). We had many great nights this year, from ordering a ton of Carrs pasties and peas with no spoon to serve, to 5 of our clients belting out ballads on karaoke at stupid o’clock in the morning afterwards. Classic.

We also nicknamed an attendee ‘pea-man’ after he dipped his pasty straight into the tub of mushy peas. A great way to get them to return, of course.

6. We turned 6!

Graphic of Tao Digital's 6th Birthday Party

In May, Tao Digital turned 6 years old. We ate cake, probably ate too much pizza, Charlotte drank the Domino’s garlic and herb dip, spoke about Tao’s future, reminisced about the past… all that nonsense. It was great.

7. Tao Video Studio was born

Tao Video Logo

In September, work started on our new video studio. Located literally above us, we started clearing out an old office ready for work to begin on our video space (watch out for more on this in 2024!). We also started working with Jack Savage, an amazing videographer and creative producer who’ll help us bring our, and clients’, visions to life.

Bonus: Jack immediately started to sass Matt which is always hilarious.
Con: He ate so much of the selection box chocolate considering he’s only in the office one day a week (rude).

8. Team Tao members bought houses!

Image of a wreath on a front door

This October, we celebrated 2 of our team members buying their very first homes. This was a HUGE milestone for them, and one that Matt is incredibly proud of. Tao is all about providing opportunities to our team, and this year was a biggie.

9. Celebrated 4 New Clients

Graphic of a person in a paper plane

Client wins are always worth celebrating. The hard work, pitching, panicking that you said ‘spub and hoke content’ instead of ‘hub and spoke content’. We’ve onboarded some wonderful clients from a wide range of industries this year, and some are already absolutely flying. Can’t wait to see what lies in store for them in 2024.

10. Matt ran around

Image of Tao Founder Matt Tomkin Running in a Marathon

Matt is an avid runner, and he ran a lot this year. He ran in the forest, he ran in the desert. He almost died (not funny) but we’re still really proud of him. The marathons are pretty gnarly, so big props to him for cracking on with them.

11. Catherine completed courses

Image of Team Member Catherine Hayes Holding a Certificate

Catherine was on it with the courses this year. She completed her FAA Level 2 Award for First Aid in Mental Health in order to better support the team. She also became our resident Keith Lard (fire marshal for non-Boltoners or non-Phoenix Nights enthusiasts).

She also completed a cocktail making course. Just as important as the above, obviously.

12. Dog

Image of Megan the Black and White Springer Spaniel

Simply just Meg. That’s the highlight. Meg frequented the office. Enough said.

Business Over Beers 

Business Over Beers - Bolton networking without the pressure

Clear your schedule for the next edition of Business Over Beers! Dates now booked for the rest of 2024.

Tailored for the business-savvy minds and key decision-makers of Greater Manchester, Business Over Beers offers an opportunity to uncover new horizons while bolstering local enterprises – all within a relaxed, sociable environment. Fancy a glimpse of our previous gatherings? Feel free to dive into the video of one of our past events below.

It’s time to say farewell to traditional 60-second ‘speed networking’. Our approach is all about fostering genuine connections with other business owners in the area, all in a pressure-free, relaxed setting.

We’ll be back at our original venue, the Northern Monkey Bar, Pack Horse on 17 Nelson Square, Bolton BL1 1AQ , offering a vibrant backdrop for our engaging meet-up for the Greater Manchester business community.

Tickets, £20 as much as you can drink for 2 hours and we also have the non-alcoholic tickets for £1o too.

We can’t wait to raise a glass and share business insights with you!

Tickets can be secured from this link. Be sure to snag your spot!

Here’s a video of one of our previous events… Screenshot from Video of Business over Beers

Vofio Media has acquired Join Run Social

Tao’s sister company Vofio Media ltd have acquired the online business Join Run Social.

Founder + MD of Tao Digital Marketing and Vofio Media ltd is an avid runner.

Competing in numerous Ironman Triathlons along with multi-day ultramarathons, the platform is the perfect vehicle to merge both passion and business.

Join Run Social helps thousands of Americans to find a local running club along with providing a wealth of useful resources to help with training, finding running races and a whole host of other information.

Vofio plan to expand what the platform offers over time to include the UK and potentially the rest of the world.

But for now conquering the USA is the priority.

Over the coming months we will be building a list of potential content creators for the site. If you know anyone who might be interested in contributing to the site please make sure you send them our way.

How we’re revamping the Simply Electricals website after acquisition

We’re excited to announce that we’ve acquired the digital assets from a well-established local business to help relaunch it as an electronics reviews and informational platform!

Simply Electricals will specialise in honest, trustworthy and detailed online product reviews and updates to consumers through the new website, as well as providing a wealth of information to help consumers get the best out of their technology purchase.

The business, which until recently had a store not far from our offices in Bolton, has been operating for more than 70 years.

Simply Electricals will have the best, most experienced tech reviewers to help consumers make the choice that is best for them.

The website will feature a wide range of products, from coffee machines to the latest OLED TVs and popular brands, from Samsung to LG and Siemens.

Through the site we’ll offer expert advice and technical support via in-depth, quality reviews of a huge range of audio/visual equipment, along with domestic and commercial goods. 

We want to help consumers feel confident in making the perfect choice to suit their needs when purchasing potentially expensive electronic items – this will help to reduce the risk of products being returned.

All the information provided is always accurate, honest and helpful, and this is even more important at the moment as people look very carefully to ensure that the limited money they have to spend is used in the most effective way possible.

The Cheese Emporium website is now live!

Exciting news – the brand new website for The Cheese Emporium is now live!

Image showing a laptop and mobile version of the new Cheese Emporium Website

Earlier this year, our client The Mouse Trap decided they wanted to split their business into two areas, and therefore needed two websites. 

The Mouse Trap, based in Ramsbottom, is a wine and cheese bar, offering corporate and celebration charcuterie platters. The Cheese Emporium will focus on selling cheese boxes for delivery across the UK, as well as platters for local pickup. 

This means that we now focus on The Cheese Emporium as an eCommerce B2C client, rather than mixing eCommerce and local SEO with The Mouse Trap’s website. The client also created separate social accounts for the two branches of the business. 

The client tasked us with designing and developing a simple, easy-to-use Shopify eCommerce site, built with SEO in mind every step of the way. The site will be hosted on Kinsta to make the site as fast as possible.

We’ve added filters such as ‘availability’ (some products are seasonal or sell out quickly) and a price filter. We’ll be making further tweaks and adding more content over the coming months as the website grows from its infancy, so watch this space! 

You can read case studies of our client’s more established websites here. 

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:

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!

No.1 spot in the UK; client beats the rest!

After some very turbulent and testing times, Tao Digital is thrilled to still be helping businesses grow online.

When we work with a client, we tailor our digital marketing efforts to suit their business.

Whether this is a long-term SEO campaign, a paid advertising campaign and anything in between.

However, the end goal is always the same.

At the heart of our business is the desire to help others succeed.

So, when we found out that we have helped one of our long-standing clients become number one in the UK for businesses sold in the first quarter of 2020, we were naturally over the moon.

According to the Global Small-Cap M&A review from REFINITIV, Hilton Smythe Group are ranked number one in the UK for the volume of businesses sold in the first quarter of 2020.

Hilton Smythe hit no.1 spot

This is an amazing achievement for Hilton Smythe and is a testament to their exceptional customer service, hard-working sales team and effective marketing strategies.

In this article, we would like to share some of the ways we have helped Hilton Smythe along their journey to number one in the UK.

SEO

When Hilton Smythe first came to us, we identified a huge potential to generate website visitors organically.

As a B2B business, this was really exciting to us as we saw the impact we could have by targeting the right keywords.

One of the main improvements we wanted to make to their website was to drive more sales through highly targeted traffic.

After working with them for more than a year, we have increased the number of organic enquiries which has resulted in more businesses sold.

We aren’t going to get into the nitty-gritty but building backlinks, digital PR, SEO content and much more have all helped build the brand organically on Google.

PPC

Similar to SEO, we have developed a well-researched and thought out, PPC strategy that has seen a huge number of sales for the business.

We have used paid advertising as a way of generating targeted, highly intent-driven leads to Hilton Smythe’s sales team.

This has ranged from form fills, to direct calls through to valuation requests. The most important focus for the PPC campaign was delivering a cost per lead that led to a positive ROI.

With this in mind, we managed to bring down the cost per lead from £638 to £73, whilst also increasing the number of sales.

Attribution

In order to accurately measure the effectiveness of each marketing activity, we developed a 360 degree attribution system for Hilton Smythe.

This gave them the chance to run a report at the end of every month that showed them how many sales they had received and which marketing touchpoints the sales had come from.

It’s such a crucial step in the digital marketing process as businesses need to know what is working for them and where they should be allocating their marketing budget.

Summary

Whilst we delivered highly targeted leads to Hilton Smythe, it was their sales team that had the ability to convert these leads into sales. Marketing and sales is always a joint effort and working with a company that has a fantastic sales team really made the difference here.

Once again, we want to say congratulations to Hilton Smythe for their achievement and we aim to keep up the good work for them. As another local business in Bolton, it is highly rewarding to be a contributing factor to their success.

If you are a B2B business that needs to generate sales and leads online, contact us and see how we can help you grow.