The voice of business in the Tees region | 27
THINKING
OUTSIDE THE
BOX
Yellow Box Marketing, based at Fusion Hive in Stockton, has a focus on website design and
development, SEO services and social media marketing. Julie Burniston spoke to managing
director Bradley Johnson, 30, about the growth of his company this year.
PICTURES: TOM BANKS.
When was Yellow Box Marketing formed?
Yellow Box was created in 2011. I’d dreamt
of owning my own company – or multiple
companies – since being a child. I was
inspired by my dad, Phil, who is a self-
employed independent financial advisor
of over 20 years and also owns two other
businesses. He is a brilliant role model to
me, and a great help in terms of advice
and contacts. I did business studies at
Teesside University, and then with my dad’s
help formed Yellow Box Marketing from his
office in Stokesley.
Was it easy to find your first clients?
When the company began in 2011, the
iPhone 4 had just come out and it was
apparent to me that more and more
people were using their mobiles to browse
websites. I created software to enable
websites to be read easily on a mobile,
assuming that my clients would just
want a mobile-responsive version of their
existing site – but then I started getting
commissions to not only redesign entire
websites but to oversee social media and
marketing too. There’s a big digital presence
on Teesside, and I think the importance of
a good online presence has filtered through
to other local companies.
What was the best business move you’ve
made so far?
I can attribute our growth this year to the
scale-up course I did with David Dixon and
DigitalCity towards the end of 2018. I had
Boxing clever - Bradley Johnson
(centre) with members of his
Yellow Box Marketing team.
MD Bradley Johnson.
tried to grow in the past but hadn’t been
able to sustain the level of new business,
as we didn’t have the right structure in
place. Undertaking the course allowed
me to get into the right mindset, expand
my knowledge and feel like I was ready to
grow. It was invaluable to hear the advice
and experiences from the mentors on
the course, as well as successful local
entrepreneurs who shared their stories of
going through what I want to do.
2019 has certainly been fantastic for
Yellow Box Marketing, especially in terms
of staff numbers…
We’ve gone from three staff to eight and
offer more services than ever before.
There’s me, two social media executives
(Jess Lloyd and Vicki Pratt), our head of
development (Phil Whittle), a business
development manager (Ryan Ward),
customer relations manager (Richard
Hargreaves), a web developer (Fraser
Watson) and a graduate digital marketing
intern from Teesside University (Sally
Ivison).
So you’re now a full-service agency?
Yes – we now offer all aspects of digital
marketing in-house. We can provide
photography and video content creation for
social media, social media management and
marketing, SEO and PPC, plus web design
and e-commerce. Businesses can come to
us whether they are a start-up or already
established, and we can create a bespoke
package for them.
And you have a new base too?
We moved offices this year to Fusion
Hive in Stockton. It’s been a good move –
people can come and meet us in person
for meetings, as we’re much closer to
Middlesbrough town centre now. We’re also
closer to a lot of other digital businesses,
which is brilliant in terms of collaboration.
There’s a lot of help and support between
businesses on Teesside, which is one of the
reasons I’ll always stay here. We may pitch
for the same jobs, but we do celebrate each
other’s achievements.
What are your plans for the future?
If things carry on the way they are, we’re
looking at taking on more staff in 2020. The
most important thing to us now is getting
our clients the results they need – and
offering a personal touch to every customer.