From multinational corporations with staff in their thousands, to local startups with just a few employees, CSR is often an important part of their business aims. It can be something built into the bedrock of a business, and something that reflects their values and aims. So you can see why this is important. What is CSR anyway? CSR stands for Corporate Social Responsibility. Basically, it’s a set of rules you give your own business on the contributions you aim to make, be they charitable donations, activism, philanthropy or ethical causes. There are many reasons businesses may want to have a CSR plan in place, be that aligning strongly with your business values – showing you do what you say you do, wanting to give back to a community, or simply because you have a cause that means something either to you, or to your employees. Using CSR to bring people together One strong benefit from having a charitable aim, is that the fundraising portion of this can often be used as a way to unite your employees and effectively work as team building exercises. Who out there isn’t familiar with a bake sale or a fun run done in aid of a charity? The options out there for having fun in the name of charity are endless. But the common theme amongst these is that they are often done as a team, or group activity. This of course starts to become a problem when people are no longer able to spend time together as they once were. With ways of working drastically changing, remote working becoming the norm, and social distancing here to stay, businesses are having to rethink their approach to CSR and charitable donations. So how do you meet both your CSR goals and engage your employees in activities? A ‘donate now’ button definitely isn’t going to cut it! An online fundraising alternative There are now more and more ways that people and businesses can utilise online systems to create a fundraising experience that’s tailored to them. There are a whole range of platforms that allow for fundraising using a combination of app integration and different donation methods to create a more personalised and exciting fundraising experience for everyone. These platforms give you the ability to connect to apps such as Strava, Fitbit, Spotify, and Twitch to name but a few, allowing for a truly integrated experience. Bespoke fundraising landing pages Even when apart, you can bring your teams together by building a bespoke fundraising experience. No matter what it is you’d like to do, from distance-baking (it’s a thing, I promise), to running and walking challenges, it can be built and integrated into a seamless experience. Your business can have their own landing pages built, designed using your company branding, or how about a fun new brand just for this? This could cover a whole range of exciting challenges from running, to gaming and even playlist creation (I particularly like this one, as team DG have a

Over the past seven years, Digital Glue has grown from a business run out of a spare bedroom, a garden office and into our third office expansion as the business and team has grown. We’re proud to work with local, national and international clients across a wide range of marketing disciplines. We’re focussed on helping our clients’ get a return on investment from their marketing. In the time since founding the business, it’s been a steep learning curve. As the leader of the business I’ve made plenty of good decisions and plenty of bad decisions.  To be honest, as I thought about this blog I realised I could probably write a book about it, so picking just a few key lessons was harder than I thought it would be. So I’ve picked out what I think are some of the key lessons I’ve learnt; some feel positive – like they’ve come from good decisions, validated by the results. Others feel negative, like painful lessons. The truth is they are all the same really, just things to remember for the future as we grow, and advice I would give others if anyone was asking.  Trust your team Over the past seven years, one of the consistent things we’ve seen at Digital Glue is that when people are trusted, when they are given ownership on a project and asked to deliver, they do two things. Firstly, they very often go beyond what you believed they could or would do, and secondly, their development was accelerated hugely. In any professional services environment, trusting new team members can be a leap of faith, but with the right processes in place to ‘catch them succeeding’ rather than trying to catch them out, it’s a leap of faith you can’t afford NOT to make.  Some of the biggest mistakes I’ve made have been waiting too long to give people responsibility, it’s cost me time, and it’s slowed down people’s development. Develop your own team This is an interesting one, and I know many people will feel differently about getting in more experienced team members from the start. However, in my time running Digital Glue over the last seven years I look at the growth and development of team members who have joined us early in their career and who have flourished. Either they have grown into leadership roles in the business or they’ve grown into leadership and senior positions elsewhere. Those would be on my list of my most significant achievements. I also think it’s crucial to company culture. In my experience you need a core team of ‘Digital Gluers’ (replace with your company name), in your business to be the example of how things are done and the standards we set for each other. Culture of course needs to start with leadership, but when culture is lived and reinforced by the whole team, it really sticks. Get advice and be held accountable However you do it, and whatever platform you choose to do it through,

In our recent blog, we discussed the importance of good website design in 2020. There is no doubt that this modern global pandemic has brought upon a seismic shift in business and marketing practices. Like no other time before, many businesses today are relying on robust websites to carry the torch on their day-to-day transactions and keeping them afloat.  Companies need to deliver professionalism, trust and relevance to their customers at first glance. A good website not only provides people with appropriate information, they also provide the audience with the motivation to act on the call-to-action.  A company’s website is often the first interaction that they have with the potential customer. As the old adage goes, first impressions count – you only have one chance to get it right. Here are the top six reasons why you should consider investing in your website to achieve your desired impact. Your company is unique, your website should reflect that While there are many customisable website templates available to choose from today, the reality is that they will never be 100% unique. Even with a few adjustments, taking on a template for your business site may make it look similar to hundreds, if not thousands of other websites. Your website should provide your company the distinct identity it deserves. A good and well-briefed web developer is able to work with you to deliver a website that is fitting to your unique business objectives in a way that is appropriate for your customers. After all, your business is not an adaptation of a generic template, why should your website be? Your website should be built for form and function Whether the objective of a website is for informational purposes or eCommerce, a web developer will build one that accomplishes the objectives and optimise it for user experience (UX). It is imperative that website users are guided towards the right actions to achieve the intended outcome.  It is also important to note that websites today need to perform various devices such as mobile phones and tablets. A web designer will make a point to ensure the good user experience across all platforms and devices.  Your website needs to be built for speed and efficiency Quality websites today utilises a wide range of media to deliver the message. Without proper management, this may significantly slow down a website and impede the user experience. Long loading times may cost businesses an audience as people are likely to click away and pursue something else.  Web designers are well-versed in building a website that can support various plug-ins and features to ensure speed, efficiency and security. Protect your users, protect your business The responsibility of cybersecurity rests on every facet of a modern business. It should be no surprise that the website should be a secure fortress for both, the users and the company. Quality web designers are often well versed in new exploits that consistently emerge and breach Content Management Systems (CMS). They will be able to reinforce

It’s been nearly three months since we said goodbye to the office and began our working from home lives. We have been fortunate enough to be in an industry that is suited to flexible and remote working and as seamless as the transition has been, there are a few aspects that just aren’t the same for the team whilst working from home.  I’ve asked the whole team to share their experience, what they miss the most about not being in the office, what they are enjoying about being at home and their top tips for getting the most out of working from home. Javan, our Managing Director said: “Overall working from home has been mixed. At times I’ve enjoyed the ability to focus on key tasks and I have certainly appreciated the time saved from the daily commute. That said, I’ve missed the team camaraderie in the office and while we’ve done a lot to replace that, I wouldn’t say it’s 100% the same. I have enjoyed the kids being around at lunchtimes and spending some time with them, but I’m not sure they’d say the same about my home schooling.” Javan’s Top Tip Routine is the key for me, so my tip would be to have a work from home routine. What time do you start? When do you take a break from your screen? The office rituals of starting a day etc. serve to keep people focussed, so this can help. Claire, our Financial Director said: “Mine is actually the same as Javan’s, but I’m often found at the breakfast bar trying to cram in a little extra work while the kids play (as you can see in the image), I clearly angled the photo well to avoid the washing up! “Before this all happened I used to work from home quite a bit so I wasn’t expecting a huge change. It actually has been more different than I expected, juggling kids and conference calls has been hard, but when they are out it is really quiet. “I miss the office most for the people. I always worked part time around the kids schooling so the office was one of a few opportunities to speak with adults. That water cooler chat has disappeared. I do enjoy being able to take the odd phone call and sit in my garden though.” Claire’s Top Tip A great tip I have on working from home is on commuting. Before you start work or after you finish, take a walk around the block. This gives you time to either get ready for the day ahead or de-stress after a hard day. This gives some separation from work and home.  Greta, our Director of Communications said: “I mostly miss having my own desk. But also I really miss talking nonsense with the D/G crew, ‘just one’ at the pub on a Friday turning into a bar crawl around Birmingham, and walking around the Custard Factory in the sun drinking an iced coffee from