Founded in 2012 by Paul Addison, DevAssist is the only company in the UK that audits locations for development risks and opportunities. As a result of identifying development sites for many development companies it became apparent to Paul that there was an enormous market for property buyers who wanted to know what could happen, and where, near their intended purchase. DevAssist creates reports for lawyers, buyers and lenders exposing threats and opportunities for residential properties, major urban locations, and most recently, commercial properties.
The Brief
Consortium Director Lara Squires met Paul Addison early in 2022 at a networking event, and quickly into their discussions identified that with her unique understanding of the legal and property sector, she and the team at Consortium would be able to position the DevAssist brand in front of their ideal audience.
DevAssist’s primary business objectives were to significantly increase their growth, raise their brand awareness, and have success at awards ceremonies.
In August of 2022, Consortium presented DevAssist with a detailed strategy featuring a wide range of marketing tactics that they would use in order to tackle these objectives. The unique aspect of DevAssist is that they have clients all over the UK, which meant that Consortium could explore options in many different areas and local markets, fostering invaluable opportunities for growth and expansion.
Before beginning work with Consortium, DevAssist had been conducting various different marketing activities such as email campaigns, event sponsorships and publication advertising. However these were not being fully utilised and presented Consortium with a fantastic opportunity to use their strategic expertise and creative direction to add real value to DevAssist’s marketing.
The Approach
Consortium immediately conveyed to DevAssist that cultivating an engaged community and maintaining consistency are pivotal elements for achieving business success. They emphasised that a robust and loyal community not only encourages brand advocacy but also serves as a source of valuable feedback and support.
Email marketing was a fantastic way to achieve this. DevAssist had previously been sending irregular campaigns to a large database of over 10,000. Consortium quickly implemented a monthly newsletter to send to DevAssist’s clients, relationships and suppliers. However, they soon recognised that this database was over five years old, and many of these contacts were no longer engaged. They ran a re-engagement campaign to establish who would still be interested in DevAssist’s communications and were able to clear out old contacts, improving their open rates whilst also cutting the costs of the software.
Another key marketing tactic which Consortium were quick to implement was consistent social media posts. DevAssist had previously been posting irregularly on social media, with little brand consistency and direction. Consortium began posting three times a week on all of DevAssist’s social media platforms, with particular emphasis on LinkedIn as this was a primary channel for DevAssist’s target audience. These posts included consistent graphics that were on brand with DevAssist’s fonts, colours and website.
Consortium used their writing skills to create strong entries in a range of major award ceremonies such as Modern Law Awards, Modern Law Conveyancing Awards and the British Conveyancing Awards. Whilst DevAssist have no direct competition, there are some other large legal supplier firms who enter these awards, so Consortium carefully guided them as to which awards they should be investing their time and money into.
DevAssist have always been very active within their local community, regularly attending and sponsoring various different events. Consortium were able to help DevAssist maximise their sponsorships by strategically planning which events would be best suited to their target audience and which could get DevAssist the most reach. Consortium were also able to advise DevAssist what events to attend, and which contacts to engage with in order to make the most of the event. Lara Squires would often invite many of her conveyancing and legal connections to events that DevAssist were attending or sponsoring, and this has directly brought business success to DevAssist by the means of new webinars and presentations.
The Outcome
The results in the first year of Consortium and DevAssist’s working relationship were outstanding, showcasing that the ideas and tactics implemented were successful for all parties. This success has directly correlated to their overarching objectives, with the business growing and the brand awareness significantly increasing.
DevAssist consistently had an email rate of between 25%-35%, and this positive statistic reflected the engaged mailing list that Consortium had helped build through the means of their re-engagement campaign, as well as regularly driving traffic to their database through social media posts and giveaways at events.
The results that Consortium were able to help DevAssist achieve across their LinkedIn page was staggering. The page gained 301 followers within the first year, a 5570% increase in engagements, as well as a 4021% increase in impressions. This has been achieved by creating that engaged community already mentioned, mixed with a variety of informative and interesting posts.
Since working with Consortium, DevAssist have been shortlisted for the ‘Service Provider of the Year Award’ at the Modern Law Awards, and also the ‘Supporting the Industry Award’ at the Modern Law Conveyancing Awards. Reaching the shortlist for these major awards is a great achievement and as Consortium progress forward, the goal is to have DevAssist win one of these prestigious awards against some of the biggest names in the conveyancing industry.
As Consortium and DevAssist progress through the second year of their relationship, the positive momentum of the first year has continued.
Consortium Director Lara Squires had this to say about working with DevAssist:
“Working with Paul Addison and the DevAssist team has been a joy. They are extremely open to ideas and their industry expertise mixed with our marketing expertise has generated great success so far and we are keen to continue progress with DevAssist moving forward.”
Here is what Paul Addison, Managing Director, had to say about working with Consortium:
“DevAssist have been working with Consortium for nearly two years and we are thrilled with the massive contribution that Lara and her wonderful team have made to the business. Our business has a unique offering to the legal sector and needed a marketing team that could understand this and promote accordingly. From day one they did. They are proactive, creative and are now a vital part of our ongoing team. If you are in the professional sector and need to outsource your marketing, I thoroughly recommend them.”
We can help you too
If you are looking to boost your firm’s marketing and build your brand, please do get in touch. Email Lara or call 01903 530787.