Laurra Davis is the founder of the Leeds-based creative social media agency, Brilliant.
With a niche in food and drink, the agency has worked with brands including Thorntons, SPAM, Tate & Lyle, Lyle’s Golden Syrup, Saint Agur Cheese, Mockingbird Raw Press, and SKIPPY Peanut Butter as retained clients.
As creative director, she also oversees the social strategy and creative output across the business, working closely with both her team and clients. Here, she shares a glimpse into her career journey and life so far…
How did you first get into your industry?
I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time during the early days of social media (Brilliant started in 2011). My background in copywriting, combined with using social media as the primary marketing tool for my events business at the time, set me up to build my own social media agency.
Because social media was such a new marketing tool for brands, I had the opportunity to learn a lot as I went along. I was fortunate to have some amazing clients when I first started out who believed in me and trusted me to direct their strategy and content. This allowed me to experiment with different tactics to help grow their social channels and ultimately get great results which helped Brilliant build a strong reputation.
What do you love about your job?
Social media is the perfect blend of creativity and strategy, which appeals to both my creative and analytical sides. Working with well-known and well-loved brands, as well as challenger brands looking to make an impact, is incredibly rewarding. Being trusted with their social content and acting as their online voice is a responsibility I take seriously, their customers are speaking to the brand directly and we’re there to respond as them!
It brings me a lot of joy to see someone with one of our brand’s products in their trolley and wonder if they interacted with us on Instagram or purchased it because they saw one of our ads. I also love seeing the personal growth of our team, many of whom have been with us for years, developing and building their skills and their confidence along the way.
Who or what has inspired you in your career?
When I was starting out, I read a book called The Jelly Effect by Andy Bounds. The key takeaway is that most people, when explaining what they do, throw a bunch of information at the wall, hoping something will stick. But the real skill is communicating quickly and clearly about how you can help.
This concept has always stuck with me and has helped me become a better communicator over the years. It’s also definitely helped me to win new business as I’ve been able to explain what social media is and how it impacts not just awareness and sales but sentiment and customer loyalty which is so important for a growing brand.
What are the biggest challenges in your job?
There’s a great quote in Morgan Housel’s book Same as Ever:
“Everything worth pursuing comes with a little pain. The trick is not minding it hurts.”
This sums up building a business for me! It hasn’t always been easy and I’ve made my fair share of mistakes, but I’ve never given up or doubted the way we do things at Brilliant. Ultimately, that persistence has paid off, we’ve built a successful company with a fantastic team and great clients.
What skills have been most crucial to your success?
I think social media and marketing is really a place for all rounders. It’s a demanding discipline where you need expertise in strategy, creativity, copywriting, paid advertising, and strong people skills, both for working with clients and collaborating within a team.
The fast-paced nature of social media means you have to work quickly yet diligently and accurately. Having a level of resilience, as is the ability to take feedback onboard and not take it personally when a client completely scraps your brilliant idea!
What was your first salary, and what could someone entering the industry expect to earn today?
I started Brilliant with nothing, I basically traded my social media training skills for things like branding, business cards and even business coaching. I even built my first website myself (it was terrible!). Like many people starting their own business, I worked too much and charged too little.
At one point, when I hired my first employee, I had to pay her in two installments each month… thankfully, she was very forgiving!
Nowadays, salaries in the industry vary depending on experience, location and skill set – agencies like to see that someone has done great work in the past and has a certain level of skill across the mix of social media elements, this is why all-rounders do quite well when they’re first starting out.
What education or training would be most useful for someone looking to follow your career path?
You don’t need a degree in social media – though you can get one these days. A stronger foundation would be a deeper understanding of marketing and advertising. That’s been the basis of much of my professional development, and I encourage our team to do the same. I always recommend upskilling in things like Meta advertising and knowing the basics of every platform, even if the role doesn’t call for them immediately, it shows you’re thinking ahead and want to develop your skills.
To build marketing knowledge something like Mark Ritson’s Mini MBA in Marketing provides a solid framework. For anyone looking to start their own business, learning from others like a mentor or coach can save a lot of time and energy by helping you navigate challenges and avoid the common mistakes that everyone ends up making!
What advice would you give to someone looking to follow your path?
We’ve benefited from being early to the market and having a niche in food and drink. Social media is now an extremely saturated industry with a very low barrier to entry because you don’t need qualifications, just a laptop and a phone. While that makes it easy to start a business, it does make it much harder to gain momentum and establish yourself.
If you go into social media as a freelancer or start your own agency, I highly recommend setting boundaries from the outset. If you don’t want to be posting content or managing community interactions on weekends and evenings, make that clear from day one. We didn’t, and it took years to unhook ourselves from that expectation!
Overall I would say the key to building a successful business is being resourceful, working with what you have, and being willing to keep learning. If you’re passionate about it, stick with it and don’t be afraid to ask for help.
