Browndog Agency is Growing!

Laura Dean

Laura Dean

One of the few positive takeaways from the global pandemic was that many businesses realised what we’ve known all along – marketing is really important.

Because of this, like many agencies, we’ve been busier than ever servicing over 150 clients. Over the last few years, we’ve been inundated with requests to build websites; brand and rebrand clients; and provide full marketing strategies.

We quickly realised that in order to maintain our high levels of service and continue the personal touch that sets us apart from other agencies, we needed to invest in some new members for our team.

In just the last couple of months, we’ve expanded, creating new roles and bringing in new experts to add value to our clients, old and new.

Here’s the new faces that we’d like you to meet:

We’re passionate about supporting students from our local schools, colleges and universities.

Sam joined us for work experience during his time at college and he has recently come back to us for his university placement year.

He sits quietly in our energetic office, but he’s bringing tons of personality and a fresh approach to design and animation.


Talk to Sam about: football and his rare trainer collection!
He’s part of the dog club – Sam has a Maltipoo named Henry.

Browndog has been built on lasting relationships, and we look for people rather than roles.

Alex came highly recommended by our Digital Marketing Manager, Josh. He’s joined us to head up our content department and has already overwhelmed us with his work so far!

He’s quickly become an essential part of every client meeting, providing detailed SEO analysis and setting everyone up for success with comprehensive content plans.

 

Talk to Alex about: his love of food, exercise and his competitive power lifting days! Alex has two Daschunds named Frank & Penny.

Our latest addition to the team has worked with us as a client for the last 8 years.

We recognised that we were so focused on doing everyone else’s marketing that we weren’t taking our own advice. Laura has joined us to head up the internal marketing for Browndog Agency and our e-commerce business, FWDirect.

You can expect to start seeing more regular updates from us on our website and across our social media channels as we dedicate the time to shout about our own work.

Talk to Laura about: the latest yoga move she’s failing to master and what food festival she might be visiting at the weekend!
She’s part of the ‘wants a dog’ club.

Did you know we also have our own e-commerce business?

It’s become so successful that we often reference FWDirect to our clients. As our specialist soundproofing and insulation website, it has grown substantially in recent years. So much so, that we needed to employ another Customer Service Executive.

This time we’re keeping it in the family, bringing Luke and his years of professional customer service experience from the Bradbury family!

If you’re in need of soundproofing or insulation materials and want some help with your order, Luke will be more than happy to chat to you!

Talk to Luke about: snowboarding and Manchester United.
Luke has a Collie named Scout.

What does this mean for you?

We’re proud to say that Browndog Agency is growing and evolving year on year, always maintaining exceptional staff and client retention. This means that we are constantly able to offer added value and bring new services to our clients.

We’re creating more and more animations and videos than ever before, designing social media strategies, and producing more content marketing (in addition to all of our usual services). In fact, we doubt there’s an area of marketing that we can’t support you with. So why not challenge us?

Talk to us about your latest project.

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Security and Hosting

It’s important to consider where your website is hosted and if other websites are hosted on the same server. When you use our hosting service, your website is hosted on a dedicated server with 24/7 support, should anything go wrong. We know that understanding server security and website hosting can be complex, so our experts are here to talk you through it all and find the best plan that works for you.

To read a recent review of the WP Engine platform by Digital.com please click here.

We’re pleased to say that the majority of our clients choose to host their websites with us.

 

How much does a good website cost to build?

  • A brochure site (a place to share information about your products or services) will cost between £6,000-£12,000 depending on the volume of pages, functional elements and any bespoke design requests you may have.
  • An ecommerce website (a place where you can sell your products or services and visitors can complete their transaction online) will cost from £10,000.
  • If you’re looking for completely bespoke design or just a website refresh, we’ll be happy to chat with you and provide a quote for your requirements.

We’ve developed over 200 websites. You can look at our catalogue of work here and chat with our clients if you’d like to get a feel for what it’s like to work with our team before we become partners in your project.

When you work with us, you’ll get that perfect combination of great design and technical development from our whole team, not just one person.

How long does it take to build a website?

Before we start any work, we’ll share a project plan which will include deadlines for providing content, and we’ll keep you updated if the expected times change.

Writing keyword-rich copy will keep visitors on your website and encourage them to work with you. If writing isn’t for you or you just don’t have time, we can produce a content plan on your behalf.

Why you need a website

Most customers will expect you to have a website and may question your legitimacy as a business if they can’t find you online. When a potential customer does find you, what should their first impression be? You want them to be confident when buying from you and to have a good feeling about your brand.

If growing your business is a goal, then having a website is a great place to gain leads. Using the right mix of keywords and a thorough digital marketing plan, you can become good friends with Google! Google will play a significant role in helping your customers find you online and giving you a positive return on investment for the cost of your website and online strategy.

Even the most basic of websites should serve as an informative tool to answer frequently asked customer questions and offer your first port of call for customer service. Your opening times, address and latest news or offers should be easy to find. Ultimately, the better your website is, the easier it will be to find, and a great website will help you to reach more customers.

Being online helps you to reach a much bigger pool of customers than a bricks and mortar store. Your website can be the key to extended success, with no limits on the scope of your customer geography other than your product/service capabilities.

Working with an agency like Browndog will give you a technically sound, fresh and functional website which is responsively designed, and provides consistent brand messaging for your customers. We’ll also take the guess work out of your online strategy and make sure your website is targeting the right customer segments to increase sales opportunities and raise brand awareness.

How much does it cost?

  • A marketing campaign animation or company/product introduction between 90-120 seconds in length will cost between £2,500 and £3,000. This will depend on the length of the video, the content, and any additional options such as a voice over or music. Don’t worry, we can guide you through best practice and find a plan that fits for you.
  • If you’d like us to produce a logo ident or gif animations for you to use on social media and in smaller campaigns, you can expect to pay between £250-£300. This will be a much smaller brief and will take less time than a campaign animation.
  • We’re more than happy to put together a bespoke package for you to include multiple campaign videos, logo idents, voice overs and photography or videography as needed. We do it all!

You can look at our catalogue of work here and chat with our clients if you’d like to get a feel for what it’s like to work with our team before we become partners in your project. 

How long does it take to produce an animation?

But here’s the kind of time you can expect your animation to take:

  • Marketing campaign animations – this will usually take us about three weeks to prepare. We like to allow a week for content and styling, followed by storyboarding and revisions. Finally, we’ll take another week to animate your work. These things are a work of art, you can’t rush them (and we won’t).
  • Logo idents, gifs and short animations – we estimate that this will take up to two weeks.

Are you ready to get started? Send us your brief today or give us a call to talk through your ideas. We’re a friendly bunch!*

*If you visit us, our office dogs may take part in your meeting.

What kind of animations can we help with?

Ideally, your marketing strategy will include a range of media content to achieve the greatest engagement and response from your audience.

We can help with animations and videos that include company and product introductions, as well as content for specific marketing campaigns. These types of animations can showcase who you are, and what you have to offer. Plus, they are an exciting way to launch a new product or service and get your customers on board.

When you work with us on your branding, why not include a logo ident to add that extra bit of personality to your business and content, setting you apart from your competitors.

Another growing area for animated content is social media and your website. We produce gifs, short video clips and motion graphics for use on web pages and in social posts. This is a great way to captivate the viewers’ attention, share your brand values and advertise your latest campaign or event.

Finally, when you work with us on your website, we highly recommend adding a range of graphics, animations and videos to keep visitors on your site and share your messaging in captivating ways. We’ve provided many website banners and short looping animations for our clients.

We will guide you through each of your animation journey, from assessing the content that will work best for you, to how long your animated content should be and where it should be placed.

Why is animation an important element of your content strategy?

Not only is it effective but using animation can be a cost-saving way to grab the attention of your audience and keep them looking at your content for longer. It’s considerably cheaper than producing recorded video footage because it can be easily edited and updated when needed.

Animation is the fastest growing type of content created by marketers for use on websites and social media, so if you’re not doing it yet, now is the time to start…

We understand that sometimes it can be difficult to explain complex ideas, products or services in text form or with images. That’s why many of our clients work with us to produce animations that take the information off the page and jump out at the audience.

Most importantly, animation has been proven to boost conversion rates on your website. Users are significantly more engaged and more likely to spend longer on your site or complete an action, such as filling in a contact form.

How will animation help my marketing strategy?

Animation is a powerful marketing tool and a great way to show some personality in your brand, making you more memorable (think: the Aldi carrot or the Netflix Tudum).

One of the great benefits of animation is that it can help you to share a lot of information in just a few seconds, because sometimes that’s all the time you have to attract a user’s attention.