Magnificent Seven

Meet the digital marketing company which made it big by giving big – Search Seven on its 10th birthday.

Famous for its popular fundraising events – there have been 16 memorable ones so far – and for donating the equivalent of seven per cent of profits to charity every year, founder Gavin Willis spills the secrets of an innovative business which mixes SEO with CSR, and has raised £77,000 in its first decade with the help of fundraising events and donations. 

There are plenty of businesses with extensive CSR strategies, but there aren’t many which embed their commitment to ‘giving back’ right there in the company name.

Brighton & Hove-based Search Seven, a successful digital marketing agency, is an exception.

The ‘seven’ in the title is an in-your-face promise to donate the equivalent of seven per cent of annual profits to charity, and it has been there from the start. 

The business achieves this through a mixture of organised fundraising events and donating money from its profits to ensure it meets the target of seven per cent every year. In fact, over the last ten years Search Seven has managed to generate the equivalent of 10 per cent of its profits for good causes.

That decision was an ahead-of-the-curve brainwave from founder Gavin Willis because it came in 2011 – long before businesses realised that company ethics and culture were not just a ‘nice to have’ but a ‘must have’ if they were going to survive long term and bring Millennials and Gen Z customers and employees on board with them.

Fast forward a decade and Search Seven is still growing, serving local, national and international clients, and still giving back. In fact, it is almost as famous for its popular fundraising events as for its SEO and PPC expertise.

This last year has seen record income and record staff numbers despite the pandemic, and when the team enjoyed a 10th birthday party at Brighton’s Malmaison they were also celebrating reaching £77,000 raised for good causes – the culmination of a successful #share77k campaign.

In total £50,000 of money raised has gone to the company’s flagship charity, the Rockinghorse Children’s Charity, which improves the lives of the most vulnerable children in Sussex.

So, what drives Search Seven’s passion for fundraising? How else are they innovating in terms of company culture? What does the future hold? And, just why has the number seven proved so lucky?

We asked Gavin, founder and Managing Director, to provide the answers. You may find some of them surprising….

Let’s start at the beginning, Gavin. Why number 7? You could have gone for any number!

“Believe it or not, it was just a number I liked. It was 2011, I had been working for Propellernet in Brighton and was playing football with the number seven on my back – and I guess I thought it was lucky and that it sounded good. Literally, that was it!

“When I left to start my own business, I always knew I wanted to make sure it gave back to the community. So, having that commitment in the company name made sense.

“The important thing was we based that promise on profit and not turnover. I know there are businesses out there offering up 1% for the planet based on revenue, but if you don’t make a profit that can leave you in trouble – and a lot of tech-based businesses fail in the first two years. It’s a bigger incentive for staff to know that if they make profit then they contribute to the community too.”

Did it become a major driver  for you to build the business?

“It did. It’s been my driving force and even more so in the last year during the pandemic. You need something to keep you going – and doing it for charity helps you crack on and keep on pushing as a business. Maybe I wouldn’t have been as productive if we didn’t have that 7% commitment.”

What is it in the life story of Gavin Willis that made you so committed to charity and giving back?

“I don’t know is the honest answer! I’ve always been very driven and once I decided that I needed to give something back to the community, it became my focus.

“But you’re right that many people have something happen in their lives which prompts the same reaction, and for me it came later. In the second year of the business, my godson Ted Macdonald was born and that’s when the Rockinghorse Charity, and specifically the Trevor Mann Baby Unit at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, became very meaningful for me.

“Ted is my close friend’s little boy and when he was born he was scoring 0 out of 10 on the Apgar scale, which tests how ready a new-born is to meet the world. He had swelling on the brain and they had to freeze it and warm it back up again, which was a hugely difficult time. 

“Thinking back, there’s a connection for me, too. A few months after I was born, I had pneumonia and was seven weeks premature, so I was in The Trevor Mann Baby Unit too.”

Can you remember your very first customer?

“It would be one of the businesses we brought with us from Propellernet, with the blessing of their owners. In fact, one of the founders there, Jim Jensen, is still a mentor for me and a good friend. I can think of two particular customers. One was Tilsun, a car leasing business, and then Loucas, an accountancy firm based in Maidstone.

“The business really took off when I was invited to talk about SEO and PPC at a meeting with large media agency in London shortly after, and it went down well. Suddenly we had lots more new business coming in.

“Even in that pitch it wasn’t only about the core business. We presented Search Seven as a unique offering that could help a business bring the community together as well as look after your SEO expertly. To this day we talk about being a company that offers ‘digital marketing with meaning’.

It’s incredible how much money you have raised over a decade. Do you have to pinch yourself sometimes?

“I do! I never thought at the start we would be where we are now. When we launched the #share77k campaign in 2020 to raise £77,000 by our 10th birthday it hit home – but getting to the finish line hasn’t been easy. We had six events lined up which had to be cancelled or postponed during the pandemic and we’ve had to pivot to host things online. But we’ve got there – and that’s hugely exciting.”

Are there any other events you’d like to stage in future?

“There are loads! We are always having ideas. One thing I really want to do is a dodge-ball style table tennis event where you come along and there’s a DJ and music and you get given your own colour headband as a team. Table tennis is great because anyone can play it and you have mixed teams. That’s one I’m keeping up my sleeve! Some of the staff are also talking about Three Peaks challenge – we’re open to all ideas.”

Do your employees get involved in fund raising?

“Definitely. When people join, we match £250 of their fundraising in the first year and £150 a year after that. We always encourage them to raise money for charities which mean something to them. Recently our new paid media executive Amber bravely embarked on a skydive and we donated £250 to The Children’s Respite Trust.”

If you fast forward to the current day, are you finding that the culture of Search Seven is winning you business? 

“It’s a big selling point because a lot of companies like to be aligned with a business that gives back. 

“Around 67% of businesses are now purpose-driven or based on a sustainability agenda, so we have been ahead of the curve.

“But we’re still different. Our events are innovative and engaging, they bring people together, it’s not just about handing money over to charity.”

How can you stay ahead of the curve?

“A lot of businesses are going down the B-Corp route and that’s something to consider. But the important thing is we’ve been involved in this sphere for a long time and we need to keep innovating.

“We’ve put a model in place which made us unique but there are many other businesses now which can talk about their own efforts, too. One of the things that interests me is telling our story to other people – entrepreneurs for instance – and helping them to start their own journey with purpose at the heart of it.”

What about recruitment? Does your business model of giving back make it easier to recruit?

“It really does. Whenever we interview anyone for a position it’s always led by the difference we can make in the community and how employees can make a difference for their own choice of charity, too. It adds a totally different dynamic that you won’t get elsewhere.

“People want to come and work for us. In fact, sometimes the demand is hard to keep up with!”

When you are so heavily focused on organising events, is there ever a concern that messages about the core business could get lost?

“It’s a valid question and one we’ve thought about because sometimes people do believe mistakenly that we’re an events business! We’re very much a digital marketing agency and we’ve put together a leadership team to ensure our client offering is strong. 

“We regularly survey our customers to get feedback – including the key NPS (Net Promoter Score) question ‘would you recommend Search Seven to a friend or colleague?’

“Our current NPS is 88%, which is great. An NPS over 70 means your customers love you and your company is generating a lot of positive word-of-mouth from their referrals.”

Financial stats during the pandemic

• 36% increase in turnover year on year between 2019-20 and 2020-21

• 126% increase in monthly revenues May 2020 to March 2021

• 500% increase in monthly operating profit April 2020-March 2021

• 300% increase in new business enquiries April 2020 to April 2021

• Size of team doubled since January 2021

When it comes to new business, do you look for clients that share your culture?

“We do, and the good news is that these days when people come to us, whether they are potential clients or potential employees, they already know what we’re about. Certain types of company want to work with us, ones that share our values and our ethos – and that makes relationship building easier.

“It’s also why our retention stats are so good. Our clients come and they want to stay.”

What was the pandemic like for the business and how did you get through it?

“Well, a lot of our clients are in the travel and hospitality industry, so at one point in March 2020 we lost 50% of our revenue overnight. 

“At that stage we made a decision not to hold clients to their contract. We just said ‘don’t worry about it’ – in fact we even continued to support some of them for free when they needed it. It was a gamble but it’s one that paid off because almost all of the companies we lost have since returned. If they could come back, they did – and the relationship is now stronger than ever before. On top of that, our business has grown – both in terms of staff numbers and turnover.”

Innovative internal culture: unlimited annual leave, no timesheets, flexible hours

It’s not only in its giving-back model that Search Seven has proved different and innovative. 

Under the eye of new COO David Hatton, the company has embraced a range of initiatives to transform its internal culture, improve client service and make it a place where employees love to work.

David said: “We’ve had a big refresh of everything that we do from a cultural point of view.

“We wanted to set new standards of best practice to make sure that clients were being looked after properly and that our staff had a good experience of working here.

“Part of the solution was giving them more autonomy to shape their role, knowing they are trusted.

“The results have been remarkable because productivity has skyrocketed and the feedback is amazing.”

One of the headline changes has been to offer staff unlimited annual leave.

“That policy will probably make other businesses raise their eyebrows, but it’s been a big success,” said David.

“It shows that we have ultimate trust in our staff and that we treat them as adults. If you need to take time off, for whatever reason, then that’s fine with us. Just make sure that other team members are not going to be snowed under.

“It’s been a year since we implemented the policy and there have been no issues.

“Probably the most anyone has taken is 30 or 32 days across the year – and that was me. That was deliberate because I wanted to make sure that people knew it was ok.”

It isn’t the only innovative policy in place, either. 

The company has just signed up to HEKA, a digital wellbeing assistant, and launched a scheme which provides everyone in the team with a £50-a-month allowance to spend on wellbeing activities.

David added: “We also have a flexible time policy and we’ve done away with timesheets. Our employees know how many days our clients are paying for but it’s up to them how to deliver the service.

“Sometimes they might do a bit less but still get results, on other occasions they may need more time to get results. We trust them to make the right choices.”

The challenge now is how to maintain company culture when the business grows, as it looks destined to do.

“We know that growth is going to continue, and we’re ambitious, but we’ll do it responsibly and carefully,” said Dave. “Growth needs to be achieved sustainably at the right rate to ensure that nobody is overwhelmed in the process. But we’re ready for it.”

Search Seven is not only about charity. You also have a reputation for helping local, national, and international brands improve their online visibility on search engines. Do the financials look good in that area too?

“It’s going well. The target for next year is to achieve £600,000 turnover for the first time – and £750,000 by 2023 – and we think that’s do-able. So, we’re very pleased with where we are – especially considering the challenges of the pandemic. 

“Achieving the £77k target for fundraising shows we are heading in the right direction, too. The next target is £100,000 and that would be a magical one.”

Current annual turnover: £500,000

Looking ahead to 2022, what’s next for you personally?

“I’d like to spend more time networking, because that’s what I like to do – bringing leads back to the team for them to progress. I’m keen to do even more in the community, perhaps something this time that is not sports related – getting business owners together and creating a community hub, raising money for charity together. 

“I’d also like to go into colleges to speak to students. There’s a gap in the market for digital marketing skills so it would be good to do some mentoring with the team, and help people along that route and get through their Google exams. Maybe we’ll even end up hiring some of the best ones.”

Where does Search Seven go from here?

“Well, it’s all about evolving, learning, and growing in the right way. There’s a lot of untapped potential in the business and I believe there’s still so much more to come – and, of course, what makes it extra special is knowing that every time profits go up, so do our contributions to charity. That’s the beauty of the model and it works to inspire everyone in the business. We’re very proud of it. It’s been a very exciting 10 years and we hope there are many more to come.”

www.searchseven.co.uk