SmartBug Media — a leading Intelligent Inbound^® marketing agency that assists businesses in generating leads; increasing awareness; and building brand loyalty through inbound marketing, digital strategy, design, marketing automation, revenue operations and public relations — earned two more Comparably awards last quarter, ranking No. 35 on the “Best Company Happiness” list and No. 12 on the “Best Work-Life Balance” list for small/mid-sized companies.

Marketing Technology News: MarTech Interview with Ajay Khanna, Chief Marketing Officer at Explorium

These new recognitions bring the company’s total to 23 Comparably awards earned since 2018, and the third consecutive year it has earned a spot on the “Best Work-Life Balance” list. In earning these prestigious awards, which are based on employee sentiment, SmartBug® joins some of the world’s largest companies and most recognizable names such as Google, IBM, Microsoft, Peloton, Adobe, HubSpot, Nextdoor, RingCentral, Instacart and Ford Motor Company.

These particular awards have a special significance to SmartBug’s CEO and founder Ryan Malone, whose life-long dream was to prove that it is possible to provide employees with challenging careers along with the flexibility to spend more quality time and make lifelong memories with their loved ones. That dream began to take shape when Malone founded SmartBug as one of the world’s few fully remote marketing agencies in 2008.

“I value Comparably awards because they not only reflect what our employees are thinking and feeling about their jobs, but also highlight how important listening and gaining feedback is in order to make adjustments and continually improve processes,” said Malone. “Winning spots in these two particular categories brings me such joy and pride, because it reinforces the core elements of our culture. My priority first and foremost is to ensure our employees are happy, healthy and resilient. That then translates to high-quality work, which leads to happy clients and overall success.”

SmartBug’s early remote model has led to sustained growth over the years, as the company has grown to more than 130 full-time employees across 42 states and in several countries — even during the global pandemic. Much of that success can be attributed to the fact that company culture and work-life balance are top priorities at SmartBug.

Marketing Technology News: MarTech Interview with Gavin Laugenie, Global Head of Content at dotdigital

SmartBug has a number of company policies and initiatives that aim to make it a happy place to work. One of these initiatives is called Healthy SmartBug, which ensures the company is “happy, healthy, safe, and resilient.” Healthy SmartBug empowers employees from the bottom up to solve real challenges by checking in with employees to find out, from their perspective, how to make SmartBug healthier. Employees at all levels have produced hundreds of ideas for SmartBug’s leadership team to consider, prioritize, and ultimately roll out in order to improve the health of the company.

Comparably awards are based on sentiment ratings provided by current employees who anonymously rated their employers on Comparably.com within the past 12 months. Winners were determined based on employee feedback to a combination of workplace culture questions. This set of Comparably Awards were derived from sentiment ratings provided by employees who anonymously rated their employers on Comparably.com during a 12-month period (September 17, 2020 through September 17, 2021) on topics that contribute to overall happiness at work.

Marketing Technology News: Dialpad Awarded 2021 Unified Communications TMC Labs Innovation Award