Our Company History

June 2025: We celebrated the end of this chapter with a joyful wake! You know that you have a great team, when they take the time to affirm and uplift each other as we close this chapter.

2024: We were one of the first business leaders to join Sir Richard Branson in urging President Biden to commute death sentences when he left office, through our work with the RBIJ.

2024: Our team celebrates our second Executive Choice award from InBusiness Magazine. Thank you! 👏🏻👏🏻​👏🏻

October 2024, our team celebrated 10 years in business! 

2023: Our team is recognized with a 2023 Best of Wisconsin Award - Best Marketing Agencies award and an UpCity National Excellence Award. 🎉

​February 2024     Sarah writes an op ed advocating for ending Juvenile Life Without Parole in partnership with the Responsible Business Initiative for Justice

2022: We were featured in "TikTok: Is Your Brand Ready?", teased on the cover of SUCCESS Magazine.

(2022) One Day, Frances Huntley-Cooper Called...

And when Ms. Huntley-Cooper calls, you pick up! She asked if I'd be willing to coach a team of talented high school students who were competing in the NAACP's inaugural Social Media Pitch competition. If you're not familiar, the NAACP ACT-SO program is a year-long youth enrichment program designed to encourage high academic and cultural achievement among African American high school students. 

Their ask was a tall one: Our intrepid team of high school students had to design, implement, and analyze user research, that they then used to create a campaign for Delta Airlines, celebrating Delta's commitment to making the skies a friendly place for all people to fly. After coming up with the concept, the students then had to create a multi-platform social media campaign, writing copy, creating graphics in Canva for the first time, and developing a pitch deck. 

The Village depicted above in Capital HUES magazine may have gotten them ready but on the day of the competition our students stood up on their own and pitched their ideas, walking real Delta executives through their research, campaign concept, and creative, and walked away with the Gold!


  • 2022 Best Advertising Agencies in Madison - Issued by Expertise.com
  • October 2022: Sarah wins a scholarship from Wells Fargo to attend continuing education at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth
  • October 2022 Best of Wisconsin Award - Issued by UpCity
  • August 2022    We hold our first in person company retreat at Holy Wisdom Monastery in Middleton, Wisconsin
  • Top Madison Digital Marketing Agency - Issued by UpCity · Nov 2021Issued by UpCity · Nov 2021
  • 2021 Sarah is invited to speak with our client YMCA of the USA at a national conference, the Classy Collaborative
  • 10 Best Social Media Agencies in Wisconsin - Issued by Kicksta / Influencegrid
  • 20 Best Advertising Agencies in Madison  - Issued by Expertise.com · Jan 2021
  • ⭐️  Feb 2020 - 40 Under 40 - Sarah wins a prestigious business award, Issued by In Business Magazine
  • December 2019 In Business Madison Executive Choice Finalist
  • April 2019 - Sarah graduates from the competitive Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Program
  • ⭐️ 2018 SXSW Our agency heads to SXSW to host a meetup for people interested in social media and social good, for all Interactive / Film / Music conference attendees
  • 2017 We win a Sprout Partner Agency Value Award 
  • 2016 ⭐️ Mailchimp Features us in a Case Study

  • 2016 We hire our first employee!
  • 2015     Sarah is a member of Doyenne Group's first female founders cohort.
  • 2015 Panelist, MacArthur Foundation, Social Media Week Chicago
  • 2014 Sarah founds Sarah Best Strategy in October of 2014! 🎉

2016: ​Mailchimp featured us in a case study. "A self-described workflow geek, Sarah Best, CEO of her agency in Madison, Wisconsin, is all about making a planning meeting. Here’s how she helps clients be more efficient."

What We Do

Unleash In-House Teams and Talent

  • Do you have doubts about how well your social media or website content is working?
  • Are you trying to figure out what activities to prioritize within certain constraints of staffing or resources?
  • We can help your team gain confidence and clarity through independent evaluations of your social media and search programs.
  • We do social media, SEO, email, advertising, and inbound marketing audits and strategy.
  • We facilitate sessions designed to get everyone on the same page about your messaging and content planning.
  • We also offer team trainings and coaching and custom workshops for groups.

Extend the Bandwidth of Your Team

  • If you don't have the resources internally to accomplish your goals, we can help!
  • We offer the following services on a retainer basis:

Certifications and Partnerships

SBS is a Founding Agency Partner of Sprout Social, a Mailchimp Partner agency, a Classy Partner, and a member of the Facebook Marketing Agency Partner program. ​We received a Sprout Partner Value Award.

We are nationally certified as a Women's Business Enterprise (WBE), Woman Owned Small Business (WOSB), and Small Business Enterprise (SBE), and are members of the Female Founders Collective.

Sarah holds a certificate in entrepreneurship from the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program at Babson College.

Our Leadership + Team

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CEO + Chief Strategist Sarah Best and her team have won over a dozen awards for their work including best use of a social media platform from Travel + Leisure. Recently selected as a 40 Under 40 by In Business Magazine, her work has been featured in SUCCESS, Mashable, TechCrunch, Crain's Chicago Business, National Geographic Traveler, Chicago Tribune, ​and other publications.

She was tapped to speak at Social Media Week for the MacArthur Foundation, has been selected twice for SXSW in 2014 and 2018. She is an alumna of New York University, has a certificate in Entrepreneurship from Babson College / Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses. Sarah is a Rotarian, and a board member of several nonprofits.

Companies and Organizations We Work With

We work across 25 for-profit and non-profit verticals, including a few areas of specialty:
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Who We Work With

Some of the hundreds of companies and organizations that we have worked with, or partnered with, include:

Awards

Sarah and her team have won over a dozen wards for social media and website content campaigns from outlets like Travel + Leisure, North American Travel Journalists Association (NATJA), IAVA's Communicator Awards, and the Illinois Governor’s Conference on Tourism. We were recently recognized as an In Business  Executive Choice Finalist for Social Media Agencies, as one of the Best Advertising Agencies in Madison from Expertise.com, and as one of the 10 Best Social Media Agencies in Wisconsin by Kicksta.co.

Press

Sarah was recently selected as a 40 Under 40 by In Business Magazine, and her work has been profiled in SUCCESS, Crain’s Chicago Business, Mashable, TechCrunch, Chicago Tribune, National Geographic Traveler, Capital City Hues, and numerous other publications.

Sarah's Speaking Experience

  • Selected for SXSW in 2014 & 2018
  • Panelist, MacArthur Foundation, Social Media Week
  • Speaker, Management, Innovation, Excellence for Legal Aid National Fundraising Conference
  • Speaker, American Family Insurance DreamBank​
  • Speaker, American Marketing Association, Madison Chapter​
  • Speaker, Nonprofit Learning Lab
  • ​Panelist, US Travel Association ESTO Conference
  • Speaker, Wisconsin Parks & Recreation Association​
  • Speaker, Women's Business Development Center Chicago
  • Speaker, Social Media Camp​
  • ​Speaker, Madison Women in Tech
  • Speaker, Classy Collaborative
  • Workshop Leader, Small Business Development Center Digital Marketing Summit
  • Speaker, WBDC Spring Summit
  • Speaker, Middleton Chamber of Commerce​
  • Speaker, Waunakee Chamber of Commerce
  • Speaker, Madison Convention and Visitor's Bureau
  • Panelist, eTourism Summit
  • ​Workshop Leader, Chicago Arts & Biz Council 
  • Workshop Leader, Chicago Cultural Alliance
  • Speaker, Corporate Central Credit Union Digital Marketing Forum
  • ​​Speaker, Social Media Breakfast Madison​
  • Guest Lecturer, UW-Madison School of Business (MBA and BBA programs)

"The ever-changing social media landscape makes it easy to become overwhelmed. Sarah assessed our unique goals, needs, and capacity, and distilled best practices for the most popular social media channels into easy, actionable steps that will make us more successful on social media. 

- Meredith Riemersma, Content Producer, Digital Marketing, YMCA of the USA