BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS WITH SIDE HUSTLE FOUNDERS FOR SAGE’S THE PITCH CAMPAIGN

We created an educational campaign around the unique challenges side hustle founders face

 

Brief

Returning for their third year sponsoring The Pitch, software company Sage wanted to build relationships with early-stage UK startups in need of accounting and HR support.

Client

Sage

Services provided

Content strategy

Content marketing

Creative and design

Video

Email and social assets

Influencer marketing

 
 

Over 18k people tuned in to watch The Pitch 2023 Final providing significant brand reach

 

THE CHALLENGE

Sage supports ambitious entrepreneurs by providing software to manage money, people and more. Their team wanted us to introduce Sage’s services to tens of thousands of new entrepreneurs from across the UK.

Inkwell aimed to build on the momentum of Sage’s 2022 campaign, helping establish them as a trusted brand for startups and side hustle founders.

It’s a competitive space, so it was important to produce content that boosted brand awareness and built trust. The goal was to position Sage as the go-to brand for small business owners on a mission to grow their side hustle.

The Pitch guide on business plans

Guide: In-depth guides provide value to the community and create the opportunity to collect data. Read more

 
 

​THE PROCESS

We started by looking at how we could build on the success of Sage’s 2022 campaign, talking to community members about their challenges, so we could develop content that we knew would resonate.

Once the campaign focus had been established, we worked out what content formats would work best. These channels complemented each other, encouraging audience members through the marketing funnel.

  • Social video: Use micro-influencers to promote the campaign and Sage’s services

  • Long-form video: Provide accessible, in-depth content on specific challenges, eg. being productive

  • Articles: Support entrepreneurs’ journeys (videos are embedded to increase engagement)

  • Guide: Provide detailed advice on creating a business plan

  • Educational hub: Collate the content in a dedicated hub on The Pitch’s site

Video: We created a series of three five-minute videos that were share on YouTube and other social media channels, and embedded in articles.

The Pitch article on productivity

Article: We developed content that deep-dived on challenges that are important to people running side hustles. Read more

TalkTwenties' influencer post

Influencer marketing: We tapped into The Pitch community to run high performing micro-influencer posts. Watch now

 

​THE RESULTS

There were a number of highlights from this year’s campaign:

  1. Several articles achieved prominent search engine rankings, eg. “turning my hobby into a side hustle” ranks number one for several terms

  2. The seven micro-influencer clips gained five times the original campaign target, eg. this Talk Twenties TikTok video received over 11k views

  3. The reach of long form videos was four times the campaign target

  4. Running hybrid events meant we had 29k online and in-person delegates (each event included Sage branding and an introduction to their tools)

The Pitch programme also experienced significant growth including a four-fold increase in delegate numbers, a 157% increase in YouTube subscribers and a 79% increase in LinkedIn followers, which helped Sage’s brand reach more entrepreneurs.

“The Pitch creates consistently slick content, which makes the process so straightforward for us.

“It's great that they have access to a lot of micro-influencers that are really relevant in this space too.”

— Nicola White, Marketing Manager at Sage

 

 Work with inkwell

Want to reach small business owners with your next project? Get in touch with the Inkwell team today.