By Alan Perkins
Managing Director
SilverDisc
THIS has been a seminal year for Kettering-based SilverDisc, the full service Google Premier Partner and Bing Select Partner digital agency, not least because we turned 25 in March and have spent much of the year celebrating “The Silver Anniversary of SilverDisc”! We have had some fun times celebrating as a team and with clients, but certainly the wildest was our day off-roading at Woburn Safari Park getting up close and personal with lions, monkeys and tarantulas among many other creatures.
Throughout the year we have held several seminars to help clients and the wider business community in Northamptonshire and London get to grips with digital marketing and the opportunities that are being created as the technologies develop. The highlight of these was in June, which saw Google visiting Kettering to co-host a ‘Predicting the Future’ seminar with SilverDisc. A roomful of Northamptonshire businesses heard how assistive technologies based on smart speakers, mobile phones, tablets and PCs are changing the way that people use the internet to help them complete tasks; how this change is affecting marketing; and what that means for their business. We have more Google seminars planned in 2019.
Keeping up to date is core to SilverDisc’s business, as it’s a key part of keeping our clients ahead. We attend events and conferences all over the world. This year we were at Google and Bing in San Jose, London and Dublin, discovering the technologies, products and business processes that are coming soon, and getting early access to beta releases and educational material.
As digital technology and marketing matures, local business has much to gain. For example, local customers want same-day, in-stock availability.
2018 has seen SilverDisc’s clients achieving more success at a local level, including SilverDisc Client Gardenlines winning Website of the Year at the SME Northamptonshire Business Awards and progressing to the National Awards that will be held at Wembley in December – with a website designed, built and managed in partnership with us. Among the reasons it won, the judges commented that the website was not an add-on but a central part of the business process which was especially pleasing as it’s exactly what we set out to do.
Local charities are also important to SilverDisc. In 2018 we became the first Charity Partner of Cransley Hospice. SilverDisc is using its digital marketing skills to help the hospice, including using Google Ad Grants of up to $10,000 per month which we as a Google Premier Partner are able to take full advantage of. We also took part in the annual Dragon Boat race at Wicksteed Park on behalf of Cransley, winning two of our three races and raising over £600 on the day, and we’re looking forward to the Santa Saunter on 9 December.
Here ends looking back at 2018. If you would like to explore a future partnership to get more from digital technology and marketing for your business – locally, nationally or internationally – contact SilverDisc by calling 01536 316100 or visiting silverdisc.co.uk