Swype®: A Yorkshire Success Story, Defying Market Trends with 40% Growth!

Overcoming a crowded market sector and fierce competition, top design and marketing agency, Swype® has experienced exceptional growth over the last 18 months. During this period turnover has increased by over 40%, their customer base has grown and diversified, the team has expanded, and they have relocated to a prestigious Head Office on Park Row in Leeds, whilst still retaining their Sheffield presence.

It certainly has been a breathless period for the business who have also found the time to pick up multiple awards, including the Clutch Global 1000 B2B Leaders, DNA Paris Design Awards 2023, the Global Web Excellence Awards 2023, Yorkshire Prestige’s Branding Agency of the Year 2023/24, inclusion in the Clutch Top 100 SEO Agencies in the UK and the Clutch Top 100 Creative Agencies in the UK.

Founder and Head of Digital, Wesley Ashton Holmes says “It’s been a challenging period for us but ultimately generating growth, enhancing our reputation and delivering an unbeatable service is what Swype® stands for.” Certainly, the expansive range of services offered and the way they are delivered is enticing companies to come and talk to Wesley and his team.

So, what exactly does Swype® bring to the business community, how is it different to other, often larger competitors and why is it working so well? Their approach is to offer a multi-disciplinary team, a collective of creative thinkers and digital marketing experts that specialise in Branding, Websites and Digital Marketing. The key is to offer a personalised and collaborative approach where the design and marketing teams work seamlessly towards their client’s objectives. This unified framework is something that is frequently lost with their competitors resulting in an often-disjointed approach and unsatisfactory outcome. Wesley actively manages all client relationships thus ensuring a personalised approach throughout. Collaborative and transparent relationships mean that customers are encouraged to participate at all stages of a project should they wish to do so and be involved in shaping the strategy and project outcomes.

Swype® has a very results-based approach, focusing upon demonstrating how, where, and why their input is benefitting the customer’s business. What the customer is getting for their money and demonstrating this is a priority for this team. Take the following examples:· in a single client 360 Marketing Campaign, the team generated over £1m in revenue representing 19x return on investment (ROI).· the average Google Ads Campaign return on advertising spend (ROAS) across all clients both lead generation and eCommerce is an impressive 400%.Nor do the team stand still – a pre-requisite in the Swype® business model is ongoing proactive work with customers ensuring that the agreed strategy is always agile and fluid, changing with customers’ aspirations and/or external market conditions.

The business portfolio is diverse across sectors and those services delivered. Private and public sector clients ranging from Commerce to Logistics, Universities, Lifestyle and Leisure to Management Training, Retail and Personal Care.

The expansion in the client base has been particularly strong reflecting the growing reputation and the subsequent plaudits that Swype® have been experiencing. “Just through sheer hard work, focusing upon giving the customer what they want in what I see as an innovative and refreshing approach has clearly made an impression in the marketplace and fuelled our growth” is how Wesley explains this success.

Linked to this approach is the fact that the business has niched down into what they do best which can be summarised as Branding, Websites, Search Engine Optimisation and Paid Marketing. They focus upon these disciplines and do not pretend to offer a one-stop-shop for everything where quality might be compromised. This is what they do, and they do it well!

So, who is this young entrepreneur and digital marketing trailblazer?

At just 25, Sheffield-born Wesley Ashton Holmes started creating websites at the age of 16 and gained a BA(Hons) at Sheffield Hallam University Graphic Design in 2021, then adding to his qualifications by graduating from the Digital Marketing Institute in 2022 and being awarded the Certified Digital Marketing Professional, CDMP. Now his business, Swype® has blossomed both creatively and commercially. According to Wesley, the creation of a team of talented thinkers, marketeers and designers has been key in taking the business to the next level. The team offers a diverse skillset, innovative knowledge, application and a customer-centric approach giving measured outcomes and demonstrable value.

The future certainly looks bright for Swype® with a healthy new business pipeline, attracting enquiries from a wide range of sectors. A recent initiative that has been successfully launched is the offer of a £1500 grant to a start-up business every quarter. This allows new businesses to save costs in the most important part of building a new digital business, their brand, website, and route to market. To apply, contact the team on their website or email directly.

An office in London is planned to follow the recent Leeds expansion and a further, ambitious plan is to enter the US with an office in California to support the growing base of overseas clients. Linked with this is that one of their most recent clients, (a leading UK teeth whitening brand), having experienced huge UK growth in partnership with Swype®, are looking to launch their marketing strategy into the US in 2024.

These certainly are very exciting times for this Yorkshire-based independent agency.