Nearly Thirty Years in the Making.
Julian has been building websites since 1997. Not dabbling, actually building them. Back then, most businesses didn’t even have a website, and the ones that did had no real idea what it was supposed to do for them. Not much has changed there, to be honest.
Over the years he picked up a lot of knowledge. Websites, apps, databases, search engines, how Google thinks, how people behave online when they’re looking for something they actually want to buy. It all adds up. But one thing that’s stayed with us through all of it is that data and stats only tell you part of the story. You still need to apply a bit of common sense. Anyone can fill a report with numbers. Working out what those numbers actually mean for a specific business, in a specific place, going after specific clients, that’s where the real thinking happens.
Nobody Was Joining It Up.
But knowledge on its own only gets you so far. The thing we’ve always believed is that if you’re going to do this properly, you need the right people around you. And for a long time, that piece wasn’t quite in place.
After working with clients for a while, patterns start to emerge. You hear the same frustrations. Good money spent on a website, good money spent on marketing, and still the phone isn’t ringing.
After years of seeing it play out the same way, it just became obvious. They were being sold two separate things by two separate people, and nobody was joining them up. So we decided that’s exactly what we’d do. Website and marketing, planned together, built together, measured together. It sounds like common sense, because it is. We just couldn’t understand why more people weren’t doing it that way.
The Name Says It All.
Sokada was the fresh start that came from all of that. We named the business after our three children, Sophie, Katie and Daniel, and honestly, it keeps us grounded. When you’re working late trying to work out why a client’s enquiries have dropped off, having a name above the door that means something to you matters more than you’d think. It also reminds us to keep things real. Not to hide behind jargon or overcomplicate things. To look at what’s actually happening and use a bit of common sense alongside everything else.
The Team Behind the Work.
We’re a small, tight team. Julian handles the technical side, the builds, the planning, the strategy. Jude leads the marketing and keeps the team running. Our developer Stephen builds everything bespoke, no downloadable themes, no shortcuts. And we have a brilliant group of marketers and content creators, Libby, Jaida and Jess, who care about the work as much as we do.
Over the years some brilliant people have been part of this team. Some have moved on, but honestly, once you’re part of Sokada you don’t really leave. We still see them, still talk to them, and they’re still part of what we are all about.
Why We Do It.
We’ve been doing this long enough to know what works and what doesn’t. We’ve also been doing it long enough to know that results take honesty, proper process, and someone who actually gives a damn whether your phone rings more than it did last month.
That’s why we do it. We want our clients to get more enquiries from their website and their marketing. Not as two separate things. Together, done properly. That’s the whole point.