29/04/2024
Building relationships with side hustle founders for Sage
Sage is one of our most valued and long-standing supporters of The Pitch. Over the last three years, their accounting and software solutions have empowered entrepreneurs to reach their financial ambitions by providing the tools they need to make accounting simple.
Last year, Sage worked with us to build brand trust and awareness by reaching tens of thousands of UK startups. They were able to offer The Pitch contestants financial advice to get their businesses bossing it.
Highlights
Delegates joined The Pitch online and at in-person events in 2023
Views garnered across seven influencer clips
Reads on Sage's articles and Sage's guide was downloaded 57 times
Impressions received across Sage's social media content (excl. video posts)
The go-to brand for side hustle founders
Our 2022 campaign targeted solo-founders and side-hustle owners on a mission to turn their part-time passion into a fully fledged enterprise. We wanted to build on the success of this campaign in 2023, aiming to establish Sage as the go-to brand for these business owners.
Boosting engagement
In order to increase Sage’s reach, we had to boost their engagement. We ensured Sage’s logo appeared across all marketing material for The Pitch, from our website to emails, articles, event branding and social media. We also created a package of high-quality marketing materials, from advice-led long-form video to influencer marketing.
Generating results
By understanding Sage’s mission and the needs of small business owners in our community, we were able to generate significant results for the third year in a row.
- Sage’s guide was downloaded 57 times, while articles were read an average of 578 times each
- Three long-form educational videos, which provided advice for side hustle founders, were watched almost 1.5k times – four times the original campaign target
- Several articles achieved prominent search engine rankings, eg. “Turning your hobby into a side hustle” ranks number one for several terms
- The seven micro-influencer clips gained five times the original campaign target, eg. this Talk Twenties TikTok video received over 11k views
- The reach of long-form videos was four times the campaign target
- Running hybrid events meant we had 29k online and in-person delegates (each event included Sage branding and an introduction to their tools)
Methodology
Building on the success of our 2022 campaign was essential, so we started by asking our community members about their challenges. This research enabled us to develop a content strategy that met the needs of our members.
We then considered which content formats would resonate with Sage’s audience. The channels had to complement each other and take community members through the marketing funnel.
Downloadable guide
In-depth advice on creating a business plan for side hustle founders
Short and long-form videos
Micro-influencer founders in The Pitch network promoted Sage and campaign content to engaged audiences
Written articles
Written content offered accessible advice, including how to turn a hobby into a side hustle and tips to improve productivity.
Growing alongside The Pitch
The success of the Sage campaign was also nurtured by our own growth. The Pitch programme progressed significantly in 2023, including a four-fold increase in delegate numbers, a 157% increase in YouTube subscribers and a 79% increase in LinkedIn followers. All this helped Sage to reach more startups.
Testimonials
What our partners think
Results
guide downloads
views each on articles
long-form video views
views on short-form video
Gallery
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