Andrew Cox of Reactive tells us how they offer professional web design London-based services including web design, graphic design, and brand identity.
Tell us about you, your career, and how you founded Reactive.
Andrew Cox: I’m the Creative Director & Founder of Reactive, an award-winning London digital agency. My career began after leaving art school in the late 90s. I was fortunate enough to start working in digital design when web design and digital design were first taking shape as a new medium. The internet was just becoming accessible to consumers. It was an exciting time.
I started my own digital agency in 2005. Since then, we’ve concentrated on web design and brand identity design with a focus on upmarket SMEs and small enterprise-level companies. Online marketing plays a big part in what we do too.
Do you have small habits that made a meaningful impact on your life and business?
Andrew Cox: I exercise most days. Getting regular exercise encourages me to take time away from my computer screen. I find I come back to work refreshed and better able to make business and creative decisions. As a result, I’ve always based our office near a swimming pool as that’s one form of exercise you can do in the middle of the city center.
How does Reactive market its product/services online?
Andrew Cox: Most of our work comes from referrals. We’re lucky to of been working in the business for nearly 20 years, and we’ve established some great working relationships with marketing professionals.
Another web design and brand identity design work comes through our online marketing channels, particularly through Google, with the help of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), a service we offer to our clients. This work involves making sure that our website ranks well on Google, and we do this with a combination of on-site and off-site SEO techniques. On-site SEO refers to the work we perform within the website by optimizing the pages as best we can in order to make them as visible to Google as possible. Off-site SEO involves ensuring that we are always in the online press by building our reputation and backlink profile on authoritative websites. These two methods, combined with the skills of our dedicated marketing team, ensure that we find a lot of new business on Google, especially for key search terms such as “web design London,” “London web designers,” or “London design agency.”
What specific tools, software, and management skills are you using to manage your online marketing?
Andrew Cox: Most of the Keyword research is done using Google tools. SERPS software we use includes software such as Ahrefs, Ubersuggest, and SEMRush. These are particularly good at checking domain authority and tracking keywords and key phrases on Google and Bing.
Good content writing is also very important, and that’s a creative skill that doesn’t come as a software package!
What is your hiring policy/process, and how do you retain your employees?
Andrew Cox: Most of our London web designers and graphic designers have pro-actively contacted us either because they admire our work or because they’ve been referred to us by previous employees. We retain staff by ensuring that we are always challenging their creativity and ensuring that they can develop in their career and gain the experience they need to develop their chosen career in the industry. We also have a pay review every six months and a yearly bonus scheme. Working from home is also encouraged for those who prefer not to commute to the office.
How are you funding your growth?
Andrew Cox: We fund growth in our business by re-investing profits. We’ve never sought outside investment. We believe in growing sustainably, and we do this by building strong client relationships that we believe are key to a successful business.
Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?
Andrew Cox: We have many competitors. There are a lot of digital agencies and web design companies in London. We target upmarket SMEs and small enterprise-level companies with a discerning client base. We’re a small design and online marketing agency producing quality bespoke design work.
Tell us a customer success story of yours.
Andrew Cox: One project that stands out for me post-pandemic is the small but I hope important contribution we’ve made in the global delivery of COVID vaccines through our work with Tower Cold Chain. Tower delivers proven physical and temperature protection not only for COVID vaccines but also other pharmaceutical and life science products. Their containers are designed to perform in all supply chains, regardless of the transport type or environment. We helped to take Tower Cold Chain from an SME to an enterprise-level client by supporting their rapidly growing marketing team in the delivery of a new website and order system to support the re-brand and growth of the business.
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