Ah, the end of the year. For the last 12 months, you have been heads-down, cranking out work, and trying to nail your goals you set forth the year prior. By the time December comes around, you have attended (okay — survived) holiday celebrations and family dinners on top of numerous Q4/New Year planning calls. It’s a blur, and you and your team are most likely sharing the same thoughts: what in the world did we accomplish this year?
This reflection is going to do just that for us. From the bottom of our hearts, we are immensely grateful to our clients, partners, network, and friends for their support in 2023. This year has been an exciting one for Agency 102 and we’re proud of the work we’ve completed for our clients.
Enjoy this walkthrough 2023 highlighting a few of our favorite client wins and team moments from the year.
Video content days at KVFD and Janoskie Financial
We celebrated another year of partnership with our client Kensington Volunteer Fire Department as they continue drawing in volunteers and community awareness of their department. New in our collaboration this year were quarterly on-site content days where our content marketing specialists traveled to Kensington, MD to capture social media videos and photos at the firehouse. Each quarter our team would visit on a different shift day to capture a diverse volunteer group.
Check out some of our top-performing posts from this year:
Meet the KVFD Tuesday Night Crew!
- Over 4,700 plays
- Over 300 likes
- Over 3,00 plays
- Nearly 200 likes
We also continued our work with Taylor Janoskie of Janoskie Financial & Associates developing educational video content for clients and prospects. Most rewarding in our work so far is hearing that he’s received at least 3 new clients as a result of our videos. We’re thrilled to be renewing our partnership with him in 2024, continuing with engaging, compliance-friendly social media management.
Enjoy a few of Taylor’s top-performing videos from 2023:
Fueling organic growth for SECU through high-value content
Our content marketing partnership with Maryland’s largest credit union has been a journey marked by exciting wins. Through targeted search engine-optimized blogging and a strategic member newsletter, we’ve contributed to notable gains in organic traffic.
Here’s a snapshot of our success:
We collaborated closely with the SECU team to develop an email marketing strategy that reimagined their member newsletter, aligning it more closely with member needs and the credit union’s goals for sustained growth. The result was a more engaging, informative, and value-driven marketing tool.
Our SEO blogging efforts helped secure a spot among the top ten Google results for a high-value keyword. Remarkably, we outperformed well-established sites like NerdWallet, Freddie Mac, and Capital One.
These efforts contributed to a noticeable uptick in key metrics:
- Ranking keywords jumped from 18.7k to 20.1k since last year, expanding the credit union’s digital footprint.
- Organic traffic steadily rose, climbing from 121.6k to an impressive 123.7k, signaling increased visibility and brand relevance.
This successful partnership underscores the power of strategic content marketing and SEO in fostering organic growth and achieving measurable results. We look forward to building on this momentum and exploring new avenues for greater impact as we expand our partnership with SECU in 2024.
Building a community around wine brands
We’re toasting some big wins for our long-time client, Wines that Rock, this year as well. As a lifestyle wine company that connects fans to brands, a core goal is to build a community around each brand of wine they sell. Two of those brands, Hallmark Channel Wines and Joyful Heart Wine, celebrated huge engagement on a collaboration post with actress Chrissy Metz, who is the face and founder of Joyful Heart Wine.
Check out the collaboration post that reached 147,511 people and received over 145,000 plays on Instagram.
Partnerships galore!
This year, we also prioritized forming strategic relationships with industry and community organizations. In the summer, we became a member of the Towson Chamber of Commerce where we can participate in discussions and support the community where many of our team live and work. Through this partnership, we co-hosted a Small Business Marketing Lunch & Learn at the StarTup in Towson to help businesses develop their 2024 marketing plan. Watch our event and access our free Small Business Marketing Workbook here.
We also were voted in as partners to the Financial Planning Association of Maryland where we can be a valuable resource to their members who are looking to create compliance-friendly marketing strategies to grow their business. In October, we attended their Fall Symposium where we got to meet members and guests face-to-face while hearing insights from guest speakers.
Becoming a certified woman-owned small business
Most recently, and probably most excitingly, Agency 102 (finally!) became certified by the Maryland Department of Transportation in three significant programs:
- Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) Program
- Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Program
- Small Business Enterprise (SBE) Program
As a woman-owned small business, these certifications mark a major milestone for Agency 102 and the marketing industry as a whole. Research shows women make up over two-thirds of marketing and advertising professionals in the United States, yet men make up 73% of managing director roles and CEO-level positions within those companies. These certifications allow us to make our mark in the Baltimore community and beyond, bringing our team’s unique and diverse perspectives to our client’s marketing needs.
More details can be found in our press release.
What are we most excited about in 2024?
Our team has a lot to be excited about in the year ahead, including continuing our partnerships with the Financial Planning Association of Maryland and the Towson Chamber, while exploring some new collaborations within different industries like healthcare.
But most of all, we’re excited about continuing our mission to help our clients build relationships with their customers through impactful digital marketing solutions. Follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook to keep up with the fun in 2024!
Wishing you and your family a wonderful new year!
