Inkwell highlights: Reflecting on our achievements in 2022
2022 has been a big year for Inkwell. As a result of our hard work and high-quality content, we’ve been able to grow our client portfolio significantly, hire two more full-time members of staff and move into a trendy new office space.
In 2022, we continued to work with our long-term existing clients, such as Enterprise Nation and UKBF, as well as partner with new ones – including Haines Watts, AVAMAE, Digital Boost, Fiverr, PwC, Innovate UK KTN, Osome and the University of Cambridge Judge Business School.
As our busy year comes to an end, we’re taking a moment to reflect and celebrate some of our 2022 highlights.
Working with entrepreneurs to achieve their startup dreams
The Pitch is one of the UK’s largest startup support competitions, and is run solely by the Inkwell team. In 2022, we visited five cities, ran six events, hosted eight live webinars and watched over 50 startup pitches.
Since taking over The Pitch in 2018, Inkwell has grown the programme exponentially. Reaching over 1.2 million social impressions, over 89k website sessions and hosting nearly 6,000 delegates at online and in person events in 2022.
Inkwell continues to develop the programme so it’s as impactful as possible for the startup founders taking part.
For example, we recognise the growing influence of video in content marketing and integrated this into our strategy, reaching 181,000 views across all platforms in 2022, a tenfold year-on-year increase.
By utilising live streaming services, we held an exclusively-online Side Hustle Final, which received over 4,000 video views. We also partnered with Google to stream The Pitch Final, delivering a high-quality livestream for our online viewers.
Video was also used to complement written content on The Pitch website. This article on what makes a successful Crowdcube campaign is an excellent example of how you can use both written and video content collaboratively to deliver first-rate content.
Interested in being a partner next year? You can find out more about the startup competition and how we work with brands here.
Delivering in-depth content for Enterprise Nation
At the beginning of the year, we wrote a series of guides for Enterprise Nation. Aiming to educate budding entrepreneurs on how to launch their own business, the guides were part of Enterprise Nation’s new campaign, StartUp UK.
From starting a food business to launching a beauty brand, 11 comprehensive guides were researched, written and designed. Check out the completed guide on launching a beauty brand here to see what we’re capable of.
Covering the Autumn Budget for national accounting firm, Haines Watts
The 17th November was a busy day for Inkwell, as we worked with the Haines Watts team to cover the Autumn Budget.
As part of the project, we delivered written content explaining what the Chancellor announced and how this would impact UK businesses. We also spent the day interviewing the Haines Watts team to gather their expert opinions on what the budget meant for small business owners.
These interviews were condensed into short, digestible videos, accompanied by short written copy – making them easily accessible to business owners and ready-to-share on Haines Watts’ social media platforms.
Find the full hub on the Autumn Statement here.
Supporting Women In Innovation with Innovate UK
After gaining Innovate UK KTN as a client this year, one of the first projects was to create content for their Women In Innovation programme. Our role was to maximise the campaign exposure and increase the number of applicants.
The programme delivers a bespoke business-boosting support package, with the intention of championing and celebrating gender diversity throughout UK innovation. With our background working on The Pitch, we’re aware of gender inequalities in startup founders, so this was a project that particularly appealed to us.
For this project, we created a series of videos, social assets, partner packs and written copy. The video we produced on previous award winners has garnered over 2.4k views to date – one of the highest performing videos on the Innovate UK KTN’s YouTube channel.
Achieving high levels of engagement for UKBF’s guides
In 2022, Inkwell continued working with UKBF, delivering high-quality written content for their website and email series.
In order to increase their website traffic and celebrate the UKBF community, Inkwell have had a monthly retainer to write new guides for the site each week. Drawing inspiration from common small business struggles, written content incorporates quotes and advice from forums, developing a stronger connection with the community.
It works too, with new articles on the site engaging users for longer than previously. For instance, our article on overcoming impostor syndrome has a 4:28 dwell time and the average time visitors spend on the blog has increased 44% year on year.
Helping sustainable startups secure investment with Cambridge University
Delivering advice on securing investment is something we’re well accustomed to at Inkwell. Not only do we run the annual competition The Pitch, but we’ve also run multiple investment readiness workshops for universities.
In the summer, our CEO Chris Goodfellow travelled to Cambridge University to take part in the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) Canopy Incubator and Accelerator.
As part of the Accelerator programme, Chris helped sustainable founders and innovators by delivering a workshop on how to craft the perfect pitch for investors. You can find out more about the programme here.
Starting conversations with industry experts in monthly roundtable discussions
Inkwell specialises in creating educational content and programmes for small business owners. We work with a wide range of organisations in that space and wanted to tap into that community to share best practice.
Our commercial manager Dan Long began hosting a monthly roundtable series where we bring together people who support small business owners, whether they’re from corporations, government bodies or not for profits.
Whether it’s how to run events, building startup communities, or marketing to pre-launch businesses, we’ve also been able to take a lot from these discussions. If you stay updated on our blog, you can discover what we’ve learned, too.
Promoting ethical investment with written content for Ethical Equity
Working with investors and small business owners alike, the Inkwell team is aware of the inequalities that startup founders face when it comes to getting investment. That’s why we loved writing content for Ethical Equity.
Ethical Equity is the UK’s first dedicated, ethically-compliant investment platform connecting ethical start-ups and scale-ups with like-minded investors. This year, Ethical Equity asked the Inkwell team to write a series of written articles to raise awareness of their platform.
Read the article we wrote for female founders on International Women’s Day here.
Are you looking to reach and develop relationships with small business owners? Inkwell specialises in creating educational content and programmes for small business owners.
If you’re looking for compelling content that will resonate with small business owners then contact us to find out how we can help you achieve your marketing goals.
