Category: Company News

2021 brought many challenges and many opportunities to the team at Air Marketing.

While we navigated the end of lockdown like so many other businesses, we also found it to be the most successful year in our six year history.

Here is our review of 2021 and what we’re looking forward to as we move through 2022.

The challenges that 2021 brought

Like all businesses, we were hit hard by the pandemic. At the start of 2020, many of our clients were forced to furlough staff and cease operations temporarily, which had a knock-on effect on the services we provide.

We’re not ashamed to say we lost revenue, as did many other businesses across the UK.

As the world started to open up once more during 2021, things began to improve. Admittedly, some clients were tentative, especially as new strains of COVID-19 started to emerge.

Despite this, our revenue grew more than 100% during 2021. This is not only a testament to the faith our clients put in us, but the hard work of our team.

Another challenge that 2021 brought was getting our team back to the office. When COVID-19 emerged, we immediately introduced home working to keep our team safe.

As a sales company used to working in a lively office, we found this hard at first, but our staff quickly got used to doing things online. Daily calls and regular meetings helped us all stay connected, and we even took part in virtual fitness classes!

We’re now formalising a return to the office, offering hybrid working that provides our team with the best of both worlds. While working from home has been an interesting experience, nothing beats seeing your team in person.

We had our first full team day in November last year, the first one since the start of the pandemic. It was great to meet all the new starters and the team members we hadn’t seen for so long.

How Air Marketing grew during 2021

As you can see, there were some challenges we had to rise above last year. However, many other success stories helped grow our business and made us one of the UK’s most popular lead generation companies.

A refreshed look and feel

We rebranded our business at the start of 2021. As we had been using the same branding since we launched in 2016, we felt it was time for a refresh to accurately represent who we were in a new decade.

This rebrand helped guide us to promote the new services we could offer prospective customers, as well as highlight our years of experience in the industry.

The 2021 rebrand included:

• An updated logo and colour palette
• The launch of our brand new website
• The introduction of our ON AIR: With Owen interview video series, where our Founder & CEO, Owen Richards, interviews prolific names in the sales industry
• The creation of an Instagram account to complement our other social media channels

New contract wins

In 2021, we found many businesses enquiring about our services. As their sales and business development teams had suffered from the impact of COVID-19, they needed external support to help bring in new leads and opportunities.

One of our exciting new clients in 2021 was Perkbox, who wanted to outsource a part of their sales development team to our business. We also partnered with the Exeter Chiefs to help the sports team find new sponsors.

As well as new contract wins, we were delighted to continue working with our long-standing clients. We signed a new contract with Funding Circle, with whom we have partnered for the past five years.

More staff and increased responsibilities

When Air Marketing started in 2016, there were two staff members on the payroll. Fast forward to the start of 2022, and we now have over 80 people on our team.

As our business has grown, so has our need for exceptional employees. As well as more SDRs to help our clients fill their sales funnels, we created several new positions, including Commercial Director and Marketing Executive in 2021.

The staff already in our business have also stepped up, taking on more duties and progressing to more senior roles. We’re especially thankful to our team leaders, who have helped onboard new team members virtually during the past year.

As well as over 80 staff, we now have a complete senior management team responsible for growing the business and engineering change, for the first time in our history. Not only this, but we have a board that consists of an equal number of men and women. Given that full gender parity in the boardroom is estimated to be over 14 years away, we’re pleased to be ahead of the curve.

What we want to achieve in 2022

We’ve come a long way over the past year… and we’re not finished just yet!

We have an exciting 12 months of growth ahead of us. Here’s what we want to accomplish.

100 employees at the end of year

We want to increase the number of staff we have by the end of 2022 to over 100 people.

We’re especially interested in building up our in-house sales team, to help us achieve our target of £1m of growth and bring in even more prominent clients.

If you’d like to know more about the jobs we’re currently hiring for, why not visit our careers page?

High-quality onboarding for employees

We’re proud of our sales reps’ expertise, and we want to expand on this even further. This year we plan to launch our Air Marketing Academy, helping onboard new staff and improving their potential.

As we’ve discussed in previous articles, a thorough onboarding experience is imperative in boosting team morale, increasing revenue and job satisfaction.

Improving the maturity of our processes

During lockdown, we had to think on our feet and quickly implement many of our processes. We want to review our procedures now that we have more time and a full leadership team in place. This way, we can ensure they’re not only right for our business needs, but futureproofed for the years ahead.

If 2021 was about speed, we want 2022 to be about longevity and accuracy.

A more comprehensive array of services

When we started in 2016, we offered one service: telemarketing. Our portfolio of services has now grown, and we offer our customers a wholly outsourced sales and marketing solution, everything from event booking to multilingual sales.

In 2022, we aspire to move into SDR recruitment, helping businesses assess candidates and build their own high-performing sales teams in-house.

Want to learn more about the services we have planned over the next few months? Watch this space!

Of course, we do have even more exciting plans up our sleeves that we can’t wait to share with you soon! We hope you will follow us through 2022 to find out what we achieve. Follow us on LinkedIn or sign up for our newsletter to keep updated with all the latest Air Marketing news.

I’m proud and a little in awe of how our team has stayed motivated almost a year into remote working. I’m also aware this is a well-trodden topic that has understandably had a lot of air time in recent months. But I do believe we must keep talking about it; people need to know that consistent motivation is not accidental; it requires investment in wellbeing and team culture to keep the momentum going.

When I look back, there are a few key things that meant we were well-prepped for challenging times. Our senior team have always had an element of flexibility where possible, so technology-wise, we were pretty prepared. But, like everybody else, the immediate shift to fully remote was a definite shock to the system.

In sales, culture and camaraderie stimulate motivation, so working ‘alone’ without the buzz of a physical office coupled with the additional challenge of dealing with lower contact rates, as everyone else is also working from home, was a worrying combination. Still, thankfully we’ve survived and, dare I say it, thrived. Video calls have emerged as a valuable means of building a relationship with our clients. As we all adjust to the blurred boundaries between home and work, and by allowing people into our homes, we’ve become a little more real, and barriers have come down, which has had a positive effect on working relationships.

We were naturally worried at the start of the first lockdown, but the past year has really encouraged us to embrace team communication and live our culture harder than ever before.

For example, we have cross-team daily calls and a company-wide team meeting every Friday, which gives everyone a consistent touch-point and a way of staying connected to the business. Our sales leaders hold a monthly meeting to discuss individual coaching and support. We’ve also had great support from our training partner, Sales Geek, especially around delivering multichannel campaigns in the current landscape. My department, Account Management, holds a virtual team meeting twice weekly (as a minimum) so that we can discuss strategy with peers. Each Account Manager also gets a personal 1-2-1 each week to discuss challenges.

And it’s not all work-related. We’ve even taken virtual fitness classes to help us stay well and keep the lockdown pounds at bay. All of this activity has given us all some feeling of normality, structure and focus on the future. Because of this sustained effort and consistency, we can feel confident that the business will adapt to life after lockdown.

And although we haven’t been physically together these past months, I personally feel like we haven’t lost any of what made our culture so special. We’ve supported each other, celebrated successes and worked through challenges together as a team. And while we’re all keen to get back to Air HQ, I think we’ll look back on this time with a mixture of memories, and view it as a time where circumstances really tested our culture, and we came out on top. We were all at home, yet we continued to hire, grow the business, win new clients (we’re actually delivering more hours for clients weekly than pre-pandemic) and launched a refreshed brand. It might be a cliché to say it, but I’m sure this whole experience has bought us even closer.

Opinion piece by Shaun Weston, Campaign Operations Director

Europe’s fastest growing global rewards and benefits platform Perkbox has partnered with outsourced sales experts Air Marketing to expand their sales development team and prepare for future growth.

Perkbox will partner with Air to outsource a part of their Sales Development team – an innovative move that will help accelerate their growth trajectory. A key rationale for the partnership was the current landscape where businesses find it harder than ever to hire, onboard, train and retain new talent. Growing a team based in Air’s office in Exeter to both compliment and collaborate with Perkbox’s own London based team will open up new opportunities for growth.

The leading employee experience platform has enjoyed fantastic success and counts top household names such as Nando’s, Whole Foods and Caffè Nero amongst its clients and currently has offices in the UK and Australia.

The partnership with Air Marketing forms part of Perkbox’s global ambition to bring its award winning platform to new territories. This will give organisations a unified way of rewarding and recognising employees globally whilst streamlining HR processes to help businesses thrive.

Perkbox’s CRO, Higor Torchia, who drove the decision to choose Air said of the partnership, “We were very impressed with Air’s whole approach; always transparent, easy and professional, with the ability to adapt to our needs. We also loved their company culture, and thought it related a lot to ours. We expect Air will help us grow in a measured and scalable way. I’m very excited about this partnership and truly believe it can be a step-change in the direction we will take towards our global expansion.”

Owen Richards, Founder and CEO of Air, is delighted to be working with Perkbox. “We’re excited to be working with Perkbox to support their growth plans. Not only are we confident we can help them take their fantastic offering to new markets, we’re also excited to be creating more jobs in our own organisation. It’s great to be working with an organisation that shares our passion for a strong team culture and we’re really proud to have been chosen as Perkbox’s partner. I look forward to what will we achieve through our partnership in the coming years.”

About Air

Air was formed out of a talent and a pride for great sales. Air Founder, Owen Richards, saw a gap in the market for professional, elite, outsourced sales services. From the outset, Owen was driven to find likeminded individuals who shared his passion (and obsession) for sales, while bringing their unique talents to the culture.

From those exciting early days, Air has grown and evolved into an organisation with an extraordinary blend of talent and experience. Air has proven processes, a strong focus on team development and a commitment to intelligent and transparent data reporting that has inspired successful long-term client relationships. Air learns to breathe the same air as our clients, understand their business and accelerate their sales success.

About Perkbox

Perkbox is a platform that provides a unique employee experience, enriching the personal and working life of employees. It offers access to best in class Perks, Perkbox Medical, and Perkbox Recognition. It serves companies such as Whole Foods, Nando’s, Caffe Nero and Levi Strauss & Co. Headquartered in London, with offices in Sheffield and Sydney, Perkbox has raised ~£25M in funding from the leading European venture capital firm Draper Esprit and angel investors.

Neil Clarke has joined Air Marketing in the newly created position of Commercial Director. This is a landmark hire for the fast-growing, Exeter based outsourced sales agency. Along with their recent brand and website launch, this marks a new chapter for Air as their brand matures in line with their client base and track record.

Neil joins Air from the CPI Group, one of Europe’s leading print production and multichannel marketing services companies and brings with him a wealth of experience delivering innovation to household names as well as an exceptional track record in sales leadership. As Commercial Director, Neil will be responsible for controlling Air’s top line, taking a strategic approach to revenue growth, sales and marketing and Air’s service offerings as we plan to diversify the services offered to our existing and new client base.

Founder & CEO, Owen Richards, welcomed Neil to the team, “We’re delighted to have Neil on board, he has a huge part to play in achieving our goals in 2021 and beyond. This represents a focused and strategic hire for Air. I look forward to working with Neil and the executive team over the next few months to drive our vision forward, and I can’t wait to see the innovation he will bring to our talented team.”

Neil is looking forward to a new challenge, he said: “I can’t wait to get started. I’m really passionate about delivering a step-change in customer experience, building trust and creating long-term customer relationships. Air’s culture reflects my own values, I’m excited to seize new opportunities, bring a fresh perspective and see how far we will go.”

About Air Marketing 

Air Marketing was formed because Founder & CEO, Owen Richards, saw a gap in the market and huge potential for professional, elite, outsourced sales services. From the outset, Owen was driven to find likeminded individuals who shared his passion (and obsession) for sales, while bringing their unique talents to the culture. In 2018, Air’s sister company Roots to Market was formed, providing clients with marketing strategy and execution. From those exciting early days, Air has grown and evolved into an organisation with an extraordinary blend of talent and experience. Air has proven processes, a strong focus on team development and a commitment to intelligent and transparent data reporting that has inspired successful long-term client relationships. Air learns to breathe the same air as our clients, understand their business and accelerate their sales success.

Our journey from a start-up to established agency has been filled with so many challenges and like any business that’s grown quickly, from a standing start it’s also been filled with a lot of change. Looking around at our team, our offices and our client base, it’s clear to see how far we’ve come as a business. But in the midst of all this change, there was one thing that had remained a constant; our brand.

We’ve actually had the same branding since our launch in March 2016. And there’s no doubt that our brand has served us well, especially in the early days when we were a small team and still building our culture and defining who we served as a business. But now feels like the right time for a change. We’re no longer a new business or a start-up but an established business with a strong track record in delivering for start-ups, SMEs and household names. To accurately convey the breadth and value of our services, the progression in our business journey and service offerings and compete with our esteemed competition, we need our brand to represent who we are today and show the value we deliver for businesses in all industries.

Introducing our new brand. Our brand now more accurately represents a more mature Air and shows how much we’ve grown since those early days. We’re now far more experienced and have valued long-term client relationships and amazing success stories that are a testament to the talents of our team. Our team represents a diverse blend of sales talent, and we wanted that to shine through in our brand refresh. It’s their hard work, dedication and commitment to delivering more for our clients that has driven our success and growth over the years.

Our brand has been developed from identifying our main archetype alongside 2 wing archetypes. A bit like a character in films and tv, ‘the hero, the villain, the lover’, an archetype aligns to certain business and brand characteristics. Our main archetype is The Hero, this archetype imbues the brand with strength and momentum, inspiring internal teams while also giving clients the confidence to trust in the process. Alongside this we one of our wing archetypes is The Magician, this archetype plays up the data, information, and skillset of Air, showing that with a little magic we can pull sales, leads or untapped markets out of ‘thin air’. And the final wing archetype is The Sage, this archetype shows strength in humility and demonstrates dependability, knowledge, insight, and support.

Then there are our services. We’ve grown from a telemarketing agency into a comprehensive outsourced sales and marketing solution, where we offer everything from demand generation and marketing support to complete end to end sales campaigns, SDR as a service and lead generation. Since 2018 we’ve worked with our Sister company, Roots to Market, to design multichannel campaigns that build brand, drive awareness and deliver opportunities to our clients.

We’ve chosen a brand refresh rather than a complete rebrand because we’re already established in the market and people recognise the name ‘Air’. It means a lot to us as a name and an identity and we’ve worked hard for that recognition.  There’s so much of the existing brand that we’re proud of and want to preserve as we start our next chapter.

Air Founder & CEO, Owen Richards, is excited to launch the new brand, “I can’t wait to share the refreshed look as it represents a step-change in how we communicate our services and more sophisticated and mature Air. You will see something new and different from us, as we launch our new website, which has a fresh and modern look and feel, conveys our breadth of expertise and tells fantastic client stories that show exactly how our brilliant team helps businesses achieve their sales ambitions”. Follow us on social media to stay up-to-date with the latest news and developments. If you’d like to hear more about our services and how we can help you accelerate your sales success going in 2021, get in touch today and we’ll guide you through the process: call 0333 250 3217 or email contact@air-marketing.co.uk.

Air is a brand synonymous with sales success. Their journey from start-up to established agency has seen their evolution through many changes including a much-expanded team, new offices and an impressive client base, Air Founder & CEO, Owen Richards feels the timing is right to refresh the brand. He said, “Now feels like the right time for a change. We’re no longer a new business or a start-up but an established business with a strong track record in delivering for start-ups, SMEs and household names. To accurately convey the breadth and value of our services, the progression in our business journey and service offerings and compete with our esteemed competition, we need our brand to represent who we are today and show the value we deliver for businesses in all industries”

The new brand represents a more mature Air, commensurate with their achievements and track record. Air has grown from a telemarketing agency into a comprehensive outsourced sales and marketing solution, offering everything from demand generation and marketing support to complete end to end sales campaigns, SDR as a service and lead generation. Since 2018, Air has worked with their Sister company, Roots to Market, to design multichannel campaigns that build brand, drive awareness and deliver opportunities to our clients.

Owen went on to explain the rationale behind a refresh rather than a complete rebrand: “We’ve chosen a brand refresh rather than a complete rebrand because we’re already established in the market and people recognise the name ‘Air’. It means a lot to us as a name and an identity and we’ve worked hard for that recognition.”

To create the new brand, the team identified and developed a main archetype alongside two wing archetypes, aligned to their business and brand characteristics. Air’s main archetype is The Hero. This archetype imbues the brand with strength and momentum, inspiring internal teams while also giving clients the confidence to trust in the process. Alongside this, their wing archetype is The Magician. This archetype plays up the data, information, and skillset of Air, showing that with a little magic they can pull sales, leads or untapped markets out of ‘thin air’. And the final wing archetype is The Sage. This archetype shows strength in humility and demonstrates dependability, knowledge, insight, and support.

After a stellar effort from the team, Owen is excited to share the new brand. “I can’t wait to share the refreshed look as it represents a step-change in how we communicate our services and more sophisticated and mature Air. You will see something new and different from us, as we launch our new website, which has a fresh and modern look and feel, conveys our breadth of expertise and tells fantastic client stories that show exactly how our brilliant team helps businesses achieve their sales ambitions”.

Follow Air on social media (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube) to stay up-to-date with the latest news and developments. To hear more about Air’s services: call 0333 250 3217 or email contact@air-marketing.co.uk.

About Air Marketing

Air was formed out of a talent and a pride for great sales. Air Founder, Owen Richards, saw a gap in the market for professional, elite, outsourced sales services. From the outset, Owen was driven to find likeminded individuals who shared his passion (and obsession) for sales, while bringing their unique talents to the culture.

In 2018, Air’s sister company, Roots to Market, was formed, providing clients with marketing strategy and execution. From those exciting early days, Air has grown and evolved into an organisation with an extraordinary blend of talent and experience. Air has proven processes, a strong focus on team development and a commitment to intelligent and transparent data reporting that has inspired successful long-term client relationships. Air learns to breathe the same air as our clients, understand their business and accelerate their sales success.