Scunthorpe wins Google’s e-Town Award!

It’s not often that Scunthorpe come top of any national competition. Tucked away in North Lincolnshire, Scunthorpe is a steel town and has always relied on its core industry to drive the local economy - but a recent award from Google shows that Scunthorpe’s thriving business community is changing that.

The Google e-Town award recognises the areas in the UK which have seen the biggest growth in the use of online methods to drive business. Scunthorpe came top of a national poll, where 700 towns and cities were assessed, with a 47.2% growth between 2010 and 2011 show that the businesses within the area have invested more in their online activities than ever before.

The award was presented to Scunthorpe MP Nicholas Dakin at the Forest Pines Hotel in Scunthorpe and was joined by many of the local businesses who have contributed to the growth of the town. These businesses included local IT company HBP Systems Ltd, represented by the Marketing Manager Phil Denham, who was part of a panel that were interviewed on stage about their own use of Google and how the Internet had affected their business.

Phil Denham said,

“This is great for Scunthorpe and the local area. I think we have to work harder than ever nowadays to communicate with our customers and our potential customers and the Internet plays an absolutely vital role in that. As an IT company we’re always looking to utilise new technologies in order to be more efficient and the tools from Google allow us to do exactly that.

We link everything we do online with our internal CRM system so I can see exactly what has been working for us and what hasn’t. I think more and more companies are now starting to see the benefits of IT in sales and marketing so I’m sure the growth in Scunthorpe will be really impressive next year as well.”