NOVOS 2.0: Organic Growth for eCommerce Brands

Before we dive into NOVOS 2.0, a quick recap of NOVOS 1.0. NOVOS itself was born in March 2019 after 12 months or so as statement.digital (the name came from our mens accessories website statement accessories). March of 2019 we rebranded and hired Nicole as employee number 1 (incase you didn’t know).

We started the business as onsite SEO only for eCommerce brands. By the end of 2019 we had made our first step into Digital PR by hiring Olivia (now Ops Director).

Digital PR didn't truly take off as a profitable, growing service for at least 6–9 months. The business absorbed this "loss-making" period as an investment, which has more than paid off today. The DPR team has grown, and the business is currently split roughly 60/40 in favour of onsite SEO. An investment we and our clients greatly benefit from today.

Since then, we've become employee-owned (EO), and by the start of 2024, after being EO for two years, we decided it was time for the next iteration of the business.

Approach to agency strategy

The approach we took to the business’ strategy was to focus on the value we bring to our clients and the industry. I won’t go into the method in this post, but if you are a fellow agency founder you can read more about this approach on mine & Antonio’s agency growth website here > https://theagnc.co.uk/p/how-to-define-a-strategy-for-your-agency

What is NOVOS 2.0?

We’ve explained the concept to our clients and partners in much greater depth, details we won’t be sharing externally.

In a nutshell, until now, we’ve been an Organic Search agency for eCommerce brands.

We’re now doubling down on “Organic” by expanding our services into most non-paid channels.

Focusing on the value we bring to clients and the market, NOVOS 2.0 is summarised as:

“We’re the first organic growth agency for eCommerce brands. We build healthier, long-term brands by reducing reliance on paid media.”

This encapsulates everything the team is already great at:

• eCommerce growth
• Long term growth
• Organic growth

If you’re an eCommerce brand and are intrigued by this, drop us an email on sam@thisisnovos.com with the subject NOVOS 2.0 and we can share our plans with you.

What are the new services?

These new services fall into three categories: Brand, Search Media, and Customer Engagement.

Our immediate new services are Brand PR and Pinterest.

We’ve been providing Brand PR for our existing clients for some time, so it was only natural to extend this service to both current and future clients. Many of our team members have a background in Brand PR, making this a logical progression for us.

Pinterest is an often-overlooked search engine, and it perfectly complements the numerous interior brands we work with.

What about existing services?

Existing services are the lifeblood of the business. When we launched Digital PR, we invested in ourselves and were prepared to take a short-term loss to ensure our existing services weren’t affected—this is the exact same approach we’re taking for NOVOS 2.0. Our existing services are funding the new ones, so it’s in our best interest to maintain their high quality.

We’ve developed a data-driven approach to resourcing that has been successful for at least three years. Our in-house project managers focus full-time on resourcing and planning months ahead, aligned with our pipeline, to prevent stretching our team and impacting service quality. We know our team’s resource needs for the next three to six months, allowing for proactive hiring decisions. We’ll also add services gradually over the next few years, instead of launching all at once.

Why are we doing this?

Several reasons. Here are a few we’re open to sharing:

• The business is in an strong position. We grew over 80% last year, enabling us to invest in ourselves and absorb short-term financial losses.
• We were the first SEO agency to sell via an employee ownership trust (EOT), and we want to expand the reach of our unique business model across the industry.
• Market trends can be summarised as mitigating risks away from Google, supporting eCommerce brands in reducing their reliance on paid media, and responding to AI developments.

What if i’m an interested eCommerce brand?

If this has piqued your interest, drop us a message. We can explain in more detail and offer discounted entry rates for new services—something we did when we launched Digital PR four years ago. Most clients who received these entry-level rates are still with us today.

Our New Branding

Branding should visually communicate your business strategy.

NOVOS 2.0 focuses entirely on the concept of "Organic," so we wanted this as a key element in our brand.

Initially, we received a concept featuring a bunch of trees, making NOVOS 2.0 look more like a sustainability charity than an agency. Then we thought, why must organic or nature focus on trees? Why not the sea? So, our new branding can be described as beach vibes.

If you’re a client, expect to see many sand-coloured hoodies on your client calls in the coming months (If you want one, let us know!)

Finally, the logo. We've never had a logo and felt it was time. It's a visual representation of growth—a seed growing into a leaf, flower-like thing.

Also, if you reduce your brightness, squint your eyes, tilt your head 45 degrees to the right, and lower your chair two notches, it kind of shows all the letters of NOVOS.