Why we changed our name
Rebecca explains how Realise Agency has evolved to Realise Marketing; a consultancy helping agency and business clients grow effectively through well-targeted and planned digital marketing strategy.
So, what's changed?
Our name has been updated to Realise Marketing (from Realise Agency).
Why the change?
'Realise Agency' suited us in the beginning. When I started the company up back in 2014, it's fair to say, like many start-ups, I wasn't certain of how things would evolve and the type of customers I wanted to work with. Based on my experience, I knew that we could offer a high quality, efficient and trusted marketing service, but it wasn't until embarking on a number of projects (nearly 200 since 2014) that I could be more certain on how we could best serve our clients.
In 2014, I coined the term 'micro agency' to help explain what we did; effectively plan and execute digital marketing that creates valuable connections between the brand and the customer, on a smaller and leaner scale than a larger agency. Whether B2B or B2C, we (either alone or in partnership with other expert consultants, marketers or freelancers) delivered website projects, content strategy, social media plans and SEO strategy.
However, almost four years later the name no longer fitted our business model.
Why a marketing 'consultancy' rather than an 'agency'?
Whilst I've received good feedback about the term 'micro agency' and clients said they appreciated our specialisms and the value-add remote model in comparison to other more traditional agencies, I felt that including the term 'agency' in the company name could add unnecessary confusion. After all, Realise enjoys relationships with both agency and direct business clients. Our services have also broadened to include resources, coaching, training and courses, and we are now much more focused on our offer. We operate a remote model and flexible teams rather than a premises. We are not a full service agency; people work with us on specific aspects of digital projects for our expertise.
Therefore, the term 'consultants' now is a much closer fit than 'agency.' We also continue to manage all projects in-house and don't ship overseas to reduce costs or employ juniors instead of carefully-selected experts. We've always kept purposefully small and chosen to streamline and focus on what we're really good at within a small team, rather than take on a lot of staff and become more of a cross-discipline agency. We prefer to work with larger agencies who specialise in sectors such as PPC, website design and development, creative, design and PR, and are often a seamless extension of their team.
We've gained an excellent reputation and feedback so far and will continue to run this way, specifically as a digital marketing strategy consultancy.
Our agency services are now exclusively remote consultancy-based, where we find that there are many reasons our agency clients really appreciate the services and model we provide.
Our services working directly with businesses are also delivered via remote marketing consultancy, and we find that many clients appreciate the flexibility and transparency we continue to provide them with.
Does Realise still have the same values?
Updating the name is something I was considering for a long time, but a complete name change didn't seem necessary. We're still Realise, and the name still means that we help businesses achieve their aspirations; whether that be to better understand and reach their customers, or gain better visibility and spend from their marketing budget. Our overall name, approach and values remain the same.
What's next?
Realise Marketing continues to offer services to our clients across:
- Digital marketing strategy, audits and planning
- Social media strategy (organic and paid)
- Content marketing, keyword research and planning
- SEO and website healthchecks
- Research analysis, key themes and recommendations
- Digital marketing resources, training, coaching, courses and our work with the CIM and other independent marketing education providers.
As we approach our four year anniversary later this year, I'm looking forward to the next four years owning and managing the consultancy.
Like everyone, we're busy putting the finishing touches on our updates with GDPR just around the corner, so stay tuned!
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