WebHummel celebrates a successful yet challenging year

WebHummel, a small York-based digital marketing agency has celebrated its 2^nd birthday this month. They have helped more businesses ‘bee’ found online this year and look forward to further growth despite the current economic doom and gloom.

Starting a business is never easy

According to the Office for National Statistics a staggering 80% of UK businesses fail within their first year so starting a business is never easy.

The founder, Tom Harrison grew up in a local family business and used many of the skills and knowledge he acquired from family, friends and peers to establish WebHummel in December 2018.

In the first year “new business optimism” and some existing contacts drove initial business, but it was tough. Tom continued reaching out & building brand awareness on a limited budget with varying success.

“Once we got through out first year, it was like someone flicked a switch. New clients were seeing our work, we were getting recommendations and our inbound marketing was starting to bear fruit. Our monthly work multiplied each month for the first quarter of 2020… then COVID hit.”

Everything stopped.

Emails & calls came in one after another pausing or cancelling contracts as soon as a national lockdown was announced in late March. It was an incredibly anxious 3 months with little work to complete and nothing coming in.

Having experienced a recession 2007/2008, Tom realised that WebHummel’s services would be required again and used the time to work to review and improve the business’ offering, processes and marketing.

Going online in 2020

Many traditional businesses switched their focus to online presence and sales following 3 months of closure, the result was a boom for WebHummel as soon as restrictions eased.

WebHummel soon moved into their office on Blake Street, York and put plans in place to grow without compromising their service. Six months on, they now have 5 more specialists, each taking care of specific niches of digital marketing to offer their clients a more comprehensive, high quality service.

What will 2021 bring for this local business?

The aim for WebHummel is to continue their sustainable growth and offer more to local businesses.

“We’re exceptionally excited about the forthcoming year, we’re reinvesting in the business to keep up-to-date with the latest tech & trends and aim to help lots more businesses with their online presence in 2021” – Tom Harrison, Founder & Chief Drone.

Opportunities for local people & businesses

If you want to help your employment prospects or learn how to promote your business online there are loads of free learning resources. Try some of the courses from the likes of Google, HubSpot & Facebook.

If you have experience in digital marketing and want to join the WebHummel team, they would love to hear from you. please email careers@webhummel.co.uk.