Resource type: Case study

Long-term support for an evolving charity

Background 

The Social Tech Trust work to realise the potential of technology to create a fairer and more regenerative future. Since 2008, they have supported almost 800 socially motivated initiatives in the UK, providing more than £31m of funding to transform lives with tech. 

Through this work, they have played a vital role in developing the social tech ecosystem and have built an extensive track record of successfully supporting social tech ventures to deliver financial and social returns. 

The Trust provides investment, grant funding and support to organisations that are addressing social challenges using tech to transform lives. 

Get Ahead have supported the Social Tech Trust since 2020. 

Challenges 

The Social Tech Trust team usually work remotely. They knew they needed support but the variable workload meant they didn’t want to take on a full-time administrator. Because they’re a charity, their funding is limited and they have to account for their spending to their trustees. This means they sought a cost-effective and agile option to enable them to deliver their strategy. They came to Get Ahead looking for affordable, flexible, high-quality business support. 

Like many of Get Ahead’s clients, the Social Tech Trust is growing and evolving, meaning their needs change over time. One such development was the arrival of a new Operations Director who immediately saw a need for a personal assistant to their CEO. 

Solutions 

Get Ahead supports the Social Tech Trust with board and committee meetings and general ad hoc administrative support. One of our virtual assistants, Debra, has worked with them throughout our partnership and their team has grown during that time with Debra’s support across their recruitment activities. 

Another of our VAs, Sara, has joined in the role of PA to the CEO. More than just diary management, Sara’s role has expanded to include research, diary coordination, collating CRM data into spreadsheets, organising the team away day and setting up induction meetings for new starters. 

Outcomes 

Debra has supported the Operations Director with recruitment for specialist team members, as well as administrating board meetings. This helps the charity to grow their team and expand the number of projects their work can support. Meanwhile, Sara’s remote PA services have helped to free up their CEO to deliver the strategy. They are delighted to have the benefit of proactive, thorough support through an affordable service they can flex as required. 

Marketing support for a long-standing family business

Background

Wellingtons Home Electrical is an independent retailer of small electrical items, and has recently branched out into supplying and fitting kitchens. They are a family business founded one hundred and twenty five years ago with shops in Erith and Bromley on the outskirts of London. The 2nd oldest business in Kent.

Challenges

Kate at Wellingtons was introduced to us by another member of our business family. She was facing two key challenges and needed our help. The business is in a period of growth, connecting with a younger market. Firstly, her own background is in accountancy but she was also delivering all the marketing too. As with anything that is outside our skill set, marketing was proving time-consuming and stressful. Secondly, Wellingtons has always prided itself on being at the cutting edge of new technology. However, Kate felt that they were lagging behind other retailers when it came to social media – a particular issue given that they are trying to attract younger customers. She’d also noticed how AI was progressing and wondered how to harness this power to drive Wellingtons forward.

Solutions

Kate initially asked for support with social media management. The relationship has grown from there! We connected Kate with one of our social media and marketing experts, Becca. Becca has lots of B2C marketing experience and fitted in well with Kate and the rest of the team. Becca travelled to Bexleyheath to look at the products and plan how best to tell Wellingtons’ story on social media. She also met the team which was a win in itself – she established a relationship with them, opening channels of communication to help them support her efforts. Becca and the in-house team are now all working towards the same overall goal. Becca also took action herself to ensure the social media was effective. One of the key selling points for Wellingtons is their customer service and product knowledge. This is what she wanted to bring to life on social media. She hoped to drive sales to the website by shining a spotlight on the employees. She continues to visit the shop every six weeks to take further photos and videos. Becca is building relationships with other relevant businesses, following other social media accounts to generate interactions and build a community. Her work soon expanded into other areas too, including e-mail marketing, design, advertising, sponsorship packages, events and content writing (blogs/website/emails). She’s supported Wellington’s Kitchens with web design direction, providing a professional second opinion and constructive suggestions, whilst writing all the content. A big help has been managing Trustpilot reviews. Kate had struggled to keep up with acknowledgements and replies. Fortunately, Becca took over this area, not only
keeping up with interactions but using the reviews as social media posts to create more varied content.

Outcomes

Support from Get Ahead has been a success all round! Kate has been able to focus on finance and admin, performing better in both areas now she’s passed on social media to someone else. Becca fits in really well and loves working with the Wellingtons team. Becca’s thorough approach to marketing has yielded the great results the business was looking for. Every element of has fitted into the overall marketing strategy. Becca is always mindful of the bigger picture, maximising the impact of each step to ensure the best return. Wellingtons has seen an almost immediate return on their investment, with more interactions online leading to more sales in their shops. Wellington’s social interactions have gone from under 100 to up to 22k views. Becca has also entered Wellingtons for a business award – with clear marketing message and a defined direction, they’ve already made the shortlist! We know you’ll join us in wishing them all the best for the final.

Branding a start up

Background

Step Up Overseas Business was started up in June 2022. Consultant Richard Towns provides expertise in helping UK businesses extend overseas and open new branches.

Challenges

We joined Richard at the very beginning of his journey when he was starting his business from scratch. Before he could even market it, he needed to decide exactly what it was that he was offering. With that established, we then needed to deliver a variety of marketing services to help him reach his first clients. We are thrilled to be on this journey with Richard and watch his business start to grow. New challenges pop up all the time and we are continually delivering new solutions to meet emerging needs.

Solutions

The first challenge was supporting Richard to find the right direction for his business. Our graphic designer and branding expert, Kate, did a thorough analysis of branding in the industry, as well as discussing Richard’s offering with him in detail. Through this process and with the support of his own business coach, Richard was able to identify his business direction. This helped him refine his offering, as well as informing Kate’s branding. With the branding in place, the Get Ahead team has supplied other support to help Richard market his business.

Web designer Carrie has created his website, ably assisted by copywriter Liam. Liam and Richard work very well together with Liam writing in Richard’s voice to share his message with his clients. This kind of copywriting is particularly important when one person is the business, and a client’s decision to work with them might be quite personal. In addition to website copy, Liam has also produced case studies and social media content.

With the basics in place, Richard is now looking at the details. Our team have used Kate’s branding guidelines to produce business cards, a PowerPoint template, email
signature, Calendly and Zoom background so that all his communications show his brand consistently.

Outcomes

Richard is thrilled with the work we have produced…and we’ve been thrilled to be on his exciting business journey with him. He has completely embraced outsourcing,
knowing that we can quickly deliver jobs that might take him twice the time. This attitude is really helping his business – he can spend his time connecting with his own clients instead of getting bogged down with the small jobs. Richard has the reassurance of a strong, outsourced team to support him. We have the privilege of watching his business grow and seeing the impact of our work as the journey continues.

What the client says…

“I have been working with Fiona and the Get Ahead team for several months now, as I start up my business from scratch.

I am indebted to the support and help so far to get things moving. I am very impressed on the range of support and expertise available such as website design, social media content writing, Branding and logos, business card design, marketing advert designs. It has truly been a “one stop shop” for my outsourcing needs, and I’m sure it will continue to be so.

It is a great comfort to myself knowing that I have an expert team behind me supporting me along the way.

I would thoroughly recommend the Get Ahead services to anyone wishing to grow their business and requiring marketing support.”

Richard Towns

Taking a new product to market

Background

Insight Delivered, based in Herriard, just outside Basingstoke, designs, builds and deploys data analysis and scenario planning products. Established in 2016, Insight Delivered now has a global client base. In 2022, chief executive Vijay Iyer decided to expand the business, introducing a new product stack and connecting with new markets.

Challenges

Recently, Vijay and his team of expert developers created an innovative financial planning and analysis application in response to client need.

Although Insight Delivered already had a high-quality product and have been successful in growing their business organically, they lacked the expertise in-house to take their new software-as-a-service solution to market.

Solutions

Insight Delivered were already working with a freelance strategic marketing consultant, Kara. Kara approached Get Ahead to provide hands-on support to market and sell the new SaaS solution.

Vijay had initially wondered whether to conduct a survey to help them launch the product. However, the Get Ahead marketing experts felt that other approaches were worth considering.

To find an alternative route, we led a commercial strategy workshop and developed a lead generation campaign including telemarketing, social media, and email marketing. The Get Ahead team created a targeted account list, met with their target audience, and set up and tracked the CRM solution.

Armed with this strategic information, we developed the core marketing messaging. Louise, our commercial strategy expert, was instrumental in understanding how Insight Delivered could make the most of their CRM system.

Get Ahead also created online marketing collateral, wrote articles and designed a new website to refine the business messages. The team researched keywords to maximise SEO and enabled tracking across Insight Delivered’s website and through to their CRM solution.

While the website was under construction, we ensured there was a consistent online presence to drive traffic to. We built the company LinkedIn page, making sure the Insight Delivered brand was consistent and professional. This also meant we could increase brand awareness and direct people somewhere while the website was being refreshed.

Over time, the relationship between Insight Delivered and Get Ahead grew, as did the project. To support building the marketing and sales pipeline, Insight Delivered engaged Get Ahead team members with the relevant skills and experience. In addition to commercial strategist Louise, we also brought in copywriter Claire, web developer Jennie and customer relationship manager Helen.

Outcomes

The relationship continues. Helen is nurturing the product pipeline, working closely with clients and prospects.

The new website looks brilliant and has raised the profile of Insight Delivered with new and existing clients alike. During the first six months, we increased their social media followers by 100%, established regular online activity, scheduled five client meetings, and developed a pipeline of eighteen accounts with engagement, and over fifty more still to explore.

It’s been a valuable experience for Get Ahead too. We have embraced the opportunity to work with other expert freelancers like Kara, ultimately delivering a complete marketing and sales approach through a collaborative process. Skill, teamwork, collaboration, and communication have combined with great outcomes for Insight Delivered.

A flexible social media solution

Background

The Wow World Group provides classes for babies, toddlers and pre-schoolers. The business is an umbrella brand for a range of programmes including Baby Sensory, Toddler Sense, Mini Professors and Reading Fairy. The classes are delivered by franchisees up and down the UK.

Challenges

Abi is the in-house marketing manager at the Wow World Group. She was becoming overstretched and thought it would be beneficial to outsource some of her workload. She was also aware that social media is both time consuming and essential, as it is an important way to connect with new consumers and potential franchisees.

Solutions

Abi decided to outsource the social media to Get Ahead. Social media content expert Eleanor would create regular Facebook and Instagram posts, and schedule them once Abi had approved the work.

Meanwhile, another Get Ahead social media expert, Angela, would check activity and interactions regularly on the Wow World Group’s accounts.

Both Eleanor and Angela’s work and performance is managed by Get Ahead regional director Sarah, taking pressure off Abi and freeing her up to focus on other important areas.

Sarah’s management does not mean that Abi is completely cut off from the process. Abi still has regular contact with the virtual experts, particularly Eleanor, as Abi needs to brief her and approve the content Eleanor has created.

Outcomes

The working relationship between Wow World Group and Get Ahead is going from strength to strength. Abi recently asked Get Ahead for support with Wow World Group’s branding book – an essential tool for franchisees to help them with their marketing. Virtual assistant Fliss provided a fresh perspective on the branding book and helped Abi to achieve the right tone.

Eleanor is about to go on maternity leave but is creating and scheduling posts to cover the entire period she will be away. And because Angela will be continuing with her “reactive” social media role, there will still be someone available to troubleshoot and tweak the content if necessary.

Angela’s daily check-ins amount to just a few hours every month. This makes great business sense – we all know how easy it is to get distracted and spend more hours on social media than we need to! Now Abi doesn’t have to look at social media platforms at all on busy days, but she can still feel confident that comments are receiving replies and any issues can quickly be resolved.

Abi is delighted with the outcomes. Having the social media posts scheduled ahead of time frees her up to focus on other areas of marketing. Abi finds working remotely with virtual experts very liberating and is also pleased that she can give honest feedback to the social media managers. Ultimately, this means the work is done as she would like without compromise on either standards or professionalism.

The partnership between Wow World Group and Get Ahead has been a great success, providing a flexible option as well as great online communication

With maintenance and updates

Background

A web design agency based in Leicestershire joined Get Ahead’s business family when they met East Midlands regional director Emma Barratt at a networking event.

Challenges

The business owners love creating websites. It’s their passion and their forte and they’ve built their business around it. However, over the years some of their clients have asked for additional services that the agency didn’t have the capacity to deliver. These additional services included web maintenance, uploading content and social media management. In some cases, projects were held up because clients needed support to create and compile content. However, the business’s priorities are web design and building their portfolio.

This created a problem. The additional requests left the web designers with the choice between taking their business off in a direction they didn’t want, or refusing to help and lowering their standards of client care. As neither of these options align with their ethos, they needed a fresh approach.

Solutions

They asked Emma for help. Emma suggested that the clients worked with some of Get Ahead’s team, who would update web content and make minor changes to keep websites current and projects moving forward.

Now Get Ahead supports the web design agency on a variety of individual web projects, providing a service tailored to the client’s needs. Our virtual experts provide web maintenance, updates, corrections and more, releasing the business owners to concentrate on web design.

Outcomes

A number of successes have emerged from this working relationship.

A fantastic example of how Get Ahead has supported this web agency is a local football club website. The volunteer-run club didn’t have the time or expertise to deliver regular web updates, including fixture lists and team news. Get Ahead’s web expert Carrie stepped in to fulfil this role, keeping the club’s website current while also freeing up the web designers to focus on their core offering.

The football club is delighted with the outcome. The club work directly with Carrie, which keeps communication simple. As a small club, it’s important that work is delivered within budget and is easy to keep track of. Fortunately, as a dedicated outsourcing agency, it’s easy for Get Ahead to support the club in the right way at the right price.

It’s a success for the web agency too. Get Ahead’s proven track record means that they can introduce our services with confidence, knowing they’re providing an excellent standard of client care. Having Carrie and other virtual experts providing remote support also helps keep projects on track.

Above all, the agency has achieved what was previously impossible: by referring their clients to Get Ahead, they’ve met their clients’ needs without compromising on their own business direction.

Here at Get Ahead VA, we are privileged to work with a wide variety of clients who recognise the value of outsourcing. Here’s 60 seconds with one of our clients, Lee Lomas, from Excalibur Healthcare; a supplier of high-quality medical products and services, founded by Professor Sir Christopher Evans OBE.

What situation was your business in when you first came to Get Ahead VA?

We launched XP21 under our parent company, Excalibur Healthcare Services Ltdan established healthcare business which supplies products to the Government & NHS.

XP21 was launched to provide high quality PPE and medical supplies to organisations and individuals dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

We had an agency who built our website and were using digital channels for growing web traffic, but we needed to reach more businesses and organisations in the UK to tell them about our products and how we could help them survive and continue to operate.

What difference did this make to your business?

Having the Get Ahead team as our partners has allowed us the band width to get on with growing our business.

Starting this new division of the business in a difficult economic period has been a challenge and having a reliable marketing partner with specialist expertise has ensured we have confidence in our marketing plans and that our campaigns are working towards our ambitious targets.

We are continuing to work with Marie and the Get Ahead team to develop our ongoing client communications and grow our customer base with further marketing campaigns.

How did we help solve the problem for you?

Marie from Get Ahead took our brief and put together a 3-month plan to support our launch using email marketing and a radio campaign.

They handled every element of the campaign which included:

  • Planning & buying digital radio spots most suited to our budget and target audience
  • An evaluation of tech platforms and recommending the most suitable solution for our email marketing needs and future CRM requirements
  • Sourcing data for business email marketing, producing compelling and engaging content and managing the broadcasts in line with the agreed plans
  • Reporting on results and making recommendations for future optimisations

Marie and the Get Ahead team worked really closely with our web agency in a collaborative way to ensure all of our marketing efforts were aligned and we got the most value from each of our partner agencies through sharing assets and learnings.

Client introduction

Tamson is the founder of Amara Coaching and Training. She is a team and leadership coach, trainer and inspirational speaker. Tamson has a decade of experience in psychological coaching; helping leaders and teams increase self-awareness, improve engagement, and maintain resilience to support wellbeing. Based in Bristol, Tamson started her business in 2017 and has worked with renowned brands Twitter, Hotwire, Spotify and TikTok. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many of Tamson’s clients paused working with her. After realising that she could pivot her business online, Tamson continued to provide an important service to her clients. Tamson runs webinars to support businesses to build resilience, deal with uncertainty and maintain a sense of collaboration and ‘togetherness’ whilst working virtually.

The Outcome

“Kristy really helped my business to grow and I see her as a strategic business partner. She’s very positive and supported me to think more objectively. In the dark months having someone to talk things through during an isolating time has made such a difference.” Tamson has worked with Janette for a month. “She is really reliable, consistent, efficient, professional and friendly.” Tamson continues to have monthly catch-ups with Kristy to provide reassurance and support. “Having Kristy as a sounding board is amazing, particularly with areas that I don’t feel as confident in.”

The Brief

Tamson wanted to rebrand and develop a marketing strategy for her business but it wasn’t an area that she felt confident in. She wasn’t initially looking for support but was contacted by Kristy Roff, Regional Director of Berkshire and North Hampshire for Get Ahead VA, in February 2020. “I needed reassurance around marketing, it’s a massive growth area for me. In my mind I needed help but I didn’t feel ready to commit.”

Working Together

Tamson worked with Kristy for eight months before Get Ahead VA matched her with a Virtual Assistant, Janette. In addition to providing ongoing marketing support, Kristy gathered feedback from the Get Ahead network and set up a KPI tracker to help Tamson with managing capacity and financial targets. Janette has provided assistance with diary management, sending mailouts, promoting webinars and managing her database.

Why Get Ahead?

“Working with Get Ahead has made a significance difference to my outlook and how to think about business. I have built a great rapport with Kristy; it’s fun and we have a good relationship which is really valued.

“It’s one of the best things to come out of 2020.”

Social media & PR for SCE Solicitors, Leeds

Who are SCE Solicitors?

SCE Solicitors are a legal firm specialising in HR and employment law, with a particular focus on mental health in the workplace. Since its foundation in Leeds in 2011, the business has grown dramatically, particularly during the pandemic. SCE has expanded geographically as well, and now supports businesses across the whole of Yorkshire.

Challenges

SCE’s founder, Samira, had been struggling to balance her casework with marketing the firm through social media. She approached us in October 2019 to manage her personal LinkedIn profile, following a recommendation from an existing client. Towards the end of 2020, Samira needed marketing and PR support as the firm prepared to celebrate its tenth anniversary. The SCE team had been managing the business social media pages but as the business grew, they no longer had the capacity. Building on her existing relationship with Get Ahead, Samira asked us to help.

Solutions

Working closely with Samira, we created a dedicated marketing plan around the anniversary. It included updated graphics to use on social media and other platforms and a content plan for themed blogs. The new content aligned with the overall PR and social media campaigns.

Get Ahead’s content experts also identified that SCE’s newsletter would benefit from a refresh. Samira welcomed the idea and the newsletter was included in the updated content strategy.

The process – working together to achieve SCE Solicitors’ goals

  • Social media expert Hazel was already managing Samira’s personal LinkedIn profile and had a good understanding of the business. Building on her client knowledge, she seamlessly took over SCE’s business pages too. She managed the increased workload by adapting the existing Trello board to improve communication across the marketing team.
  • Content marketing strategist Claire has a background in professional services and, liaising with the team, she came up with a complete list of blog ideas for the year, which she delivered according to the timescale and uploaded to the website.
  • Caroline worked on the PR campaign, writing the press releases and working with Samira to identify the most appropriate publications to approach.
  • Kate designed the graphics for the ten-year anniversary, to be used on social media and to bring the written content to life.
Outcomes

SCE’s ten-year anniversary was featured in the following publications

  • Growth Yorkshire
  • Business 247
  • Yorkshire Times
  • Yorkshire Business Daily
  • BDaily
  • Business Mondays

SCE are also delighted with the social media results: engagement with Samira’s personal LinkedIn profile has increased by 90% and the company page 4-fold.

Deborah Ogden – your personal branding expert

Background

Deborah Ogden is a personal branding and impact expert based in West Yorkshire. She works with business owners and team members, empowering them and improving their performance and authenticity. Deborah has also established an online members-only offering for her clients, called the Impact Club. Members can access weekly calls and receive regular updates, information and masterclasses to help them develop their personal brand and achieve more. Deborah started working with Get Ahead after a recommendation from a mutual connection.

Challenges

Deborah is very busy. She has many strings to her bow: meetings with individual clients, interviewing industry experts, recording podcasts, delivering workshops, public speaking and more. Working alone, she was not managing her diary and time effectively and often she was over-committing herself, leaving her feeling overwhelmed. In addition, Deborah had had a bad experience with outsourcing in the past. This meant that while she needed some back-office support, gaining her trust posed extra challenges.

“I can’t recommend Fiona Ibbetson and her team at Get Ahead VA Leeds highly enough! I had a tricky project that was making me crazy and creating loads of stress, so knew I needed to get help. Fiona and her team solved the issue on time and on budget, responding with a solution that was better than I expected. The communication was always quick, professional, friendly and ever so helpful. With so much varied talent on her team, I’m sure Fiona can help with most any admin, tech, marketing, or other business support need you have.”

Deborah Ogden, Personal Brand

Solutions

Regional Director Fiona Ibbetson decided that the best way to rekindle Deborah’s trust in outsourcing was to take it slowly. While there were many ways Get Ahead could support Deborah, Fiona and Deborah both felt that the process should start with some basic diary management. Virtual assistant Mel set up a default diary so Deborah could feel confident time was allocated to each month’s regular tasks.

With Deborah’s time management under control, she was able to relax and give focus to growing her business . With the advantages of outsourcing established, Deborah went on to outsource CRM management and automate her email marketing, podcast management and communications. Get Ahead also supports her with social media structuring and the setting up of project management software. Altogether, Deborah works with three different virtual experts from Get Ahead.

Outcomes

Deborah now has more flexibility because her administration is under control. Her huge bank of content is now rolling out on social media in a coherent, informative way that gives real value to her followers. The podcasts tie into Deborah’s overall strategy and feed into other areas of her marketing. Best of all, she is no longer fire-fighting; instead, she can choose where to direct her energy. This helps her give a great service to her clients and take her business in the direction she wants it to go.