At Manchester Digital we like to interview our members to find out a bit more about what they do and their work in the Greater Manchester digital and technology sphere. This week we're speaking with Phil Dunster, MD of Numagoo, a full service, integrated digital agency who help to build successful online businesses.
What does your organisation do?
Numagoo designs, builds, and delivers the solutions that help businesses to continue to succeed in an increasingly complex digital ecosystem. We specialise in taking a ‘whole business’ view of digital, working with our clients to understand their internal systems and capabilities as well as their market and competitive landscape.
Our clients are typically successful SMEs looking at how digital can transform their business. We are a small agency but, thanks to our flexible culture, we are able to provide a genuine full service offering. Digital doesn’t work in a vacuum and, as an organisation, we are passionate about making sure that our clients are able to integrate digital into their business in a healthy, sustainable way. We want to deliver the growth they are looking for, but also that improves systems, productivity and efficiency.
We are a full-service agency, so we take care of everything from digital marketing strategy and branding through to web design and bespoke software development.
What do you think is currently the biggest issue facing the digital and tech industry?
The biggest issue that we see in the digital and tech industry, currently, is that market saturation and the rise in popularity of digital as a career has led to a lot of inexperience in the field. We have spoken with a lot of companies that have written digital off as ‘not right for their business’ or simply a waste of money because they partnered with agencies (or worse, hired people inhouse) that didn’t have the experience or strategic capabilities to deliver results.
It has always been a problem to explain the value of digital to businesses that have been successful for a long time without it. It is harder still when their ‘foot in the water’ has left them damp, unhappy, and out of pocket.
What is your organisation’s biggest achievement?
We consider our most important KPI to be client retention. Our biggest achievement as an organisation is that our retention rate is so high that it’s difficult to believe isn’t made up. We do a lot of work that would be outside the scope of an ‘average’ digital agency, thanks to the client-side experience of our senior team, and our client relationships are almost never with a single point of contact or even a single department. We really do become an extension of our clients’ business and the strength of the relationships we build with our clients is our biggest asset.
What would you consider to be your organisation’s biggest challenge?
Our biggest challenge as a small agency is really one of our own making. We are committed to always delivering the right solution for a client, even when it isn’t the easiest one or the one that best fits our workflow. Every client is different and has different needs, and that means we need to be agile enough to deliver the very best solution, without compromising.
What do you think the future looks like for Manchester’s digital and tech sector?
Digital and tech talent will end up more spread out through the country due to more acceptance of remote working models, particularly if the exodus from cities into countryside locations continues. I think that the future of digital and tech in Manchester will involve recognising that talent isn’t going to concentrate as heavily in a single area and there will be a need for creating a destination for digital nomads to meet up, exchange ideas and learn from each other.
I hope that when it is possible, there will be even more opportunity for affordable face-to-face events rather than a continuation of remote conferences and webinars. I think that Manchester will lead the charge in involving all businesses in the digital conversation and recognising that in 2021, every business needs to have a foot in the digital and tech sector.
Tell us something we might not know about your company?
Our senior team have all managed highly successful marketing and ecommerce teams for SMEs and been part of the senior leadership team within those businesses. As an agency, we have a unique insight into how digital needs to sit within the wider business structures and systems, where it can help and where there might be hurdles and challenges that need dealing with.
Thank you Phil!
To find out more about Numagoo, click here.
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