Reflecting back on 2021, a year of challenges, learnings, and big leaps
Dear customers, colleagues, and friends
It’s time to wrap 2021 and year 2 of living amidst a global pandemic. While we were all better prepared to work remotely, welcomed the vaccination roll-out and have become adept in the art of social distancing, the year was not without its highs and lows.
We celebrated incredible milestones as a team and came together to support each other through painful death and loss too. On a personal level we have all been challenged but with that has also come powerful personal growth. On a professional note we are incredibly grateful for our dynamic, innovative and brave clients who continued to weather the Covid-19 storm with us and show up for the customers online. Together we celebrate the positive impact this has had on your business and the economy at large. Here’s to more of that in 2022!
But before we wish you well on your festive season break, we wanted to share a handful of highlights from the year that was and some inspiration to take into the new year.
Win with Google
Year 2 of the Covid-19 pandemic saw many organisations fighting to survive and retain business. To sign up north of 90 new customers against this backdrop is not only humbling but speaks volumes to the most important lesson of the year. Intent online is stronger than ever. As the dust settles on the pandemic and businesses begin to plot the way forward, we encourage you too to continue to ensure that Google is not only part of your strategy, but at the forefront of it.
People come first, always
Like many business owners navigating the last 2 years of uncertainty, we reaffirmed what has always held true for me when I started this business – we, at our core, are a values-driven organisation. This has meant really taking the time to find the right people. I am proud to say that we hired 8 talented and brilliant people in 2021, growing our staff complement by 35% which included bedding down our exceptional new creative design and development team and personnel with sales and strategic capabilities.
Now with a team aligned with who we are as a business, deeply rooted in our core values and in with the power of technology, we have built incredible trust – allowing us to roll out a successful hybrid employment model that is purely output driven.
Feeling inspired about how we work? We have 5 exciting roles available in Q1 2022 – why not introduce us to someone in your network and we’ll give you one month’s management for free or R5000 in hard cash. And for those customers who can recommend a gem of a candidate, we will waive our management fee for a month. And if you’re not a customer, how about a R5000 finders fee for a great hire?
I cannot wait to see how we succeed as a team and unlock your success online in 2022.
New offering launching in 2022
In 2021 we saw massive growth amongst verticals like e-commerce, B2B professional services and automotive services. Helping our customers in these industries has been incredibly rewarding and insightful.
We have tested a new offering specifically aimed at service-based businesses. Service businesses tend to experience a lower return on ad spend for the first 6 months compared to e-commerce or product-based businesses. Contributing to this is that the online experience needs to result in a relationship being formed and not simply a transaction being fulfilled.
Our new offering will entail your website receiving a “Lead Generation Health Score” out of 100 based on a formula we use, backed by empirical research. Once we know your score, we’re able to develop an action plan to adopt a new website approach that has the potential to increase your conversions by 10x as was experienced with a customer in November after following through with our new offering.
We will send out communication in January 2022 to give you the once-off opportunity to receive your Lead Generation Health Score for free, and then you’ll be able to book the “Clarify Your Message” package where we will provide a recommendation
Mindful moments
We kicked off our mindful initiative (kudos to our Mindfulness King KG Mangoale for spearheading this) within the business earlier this year in a bid to empower ourselves as a group of people to be present at work and at home. Not only is mindfulness a way to re-engage employees and drive productivity professionally but it offers a moment for all of us to stop and be grateful in our personal lives too.
Having platforms for growth and development should be key to any talent retention approach. This is why we have also committed as a team to each build personal and professional development plans with quarterly goals we want to achieve and to hold each other accountable for them.
Better together
We have experienced the power of strategic partnerships in the Kingdom over the years and spoken about these proudly too. But this year we baked this learning into our way of working, bringing on Grant Greeff as Head of Strategic Partnerships.
Grant will bring to life our belief that partnering with companies and individuals where our combined value is greater than the sum of the parts promotes collaboration, accelerates access to opportunities, and offers sustainable, long-term value to all involved
And of course, being better together means sharing what we know. The big hairy audacious goal for 2022 here in the Kingdom is to finally get the SearchKings™ Africa Academy off the ground as we look to invest in digital skills in Africa. Watch this space!
Finally, 2022 will be a year in which we continue to put the well-being and health of our people first. This year’s Google – Year in Search 2021 video revealed the most searched phrase was ‘how to heal’ – a clear indication of the struggle and hardships people continue to face. Empathy and compassion remain front and center to how we support each other.
Take care, stay safe and see you in 2022!
