Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Tightening your business belt in a weak economy - Introduction

All indications are this will be a deep and long recession. A down economy is typically a time for many businesses to be more introspective, looking at ways to be more efficient with resources and budgets - Operations. It is also a time for guarding the base business and aggressively looking for low-cost new business - Marketing and Sales. The healthier your business is during this dip, the higher you come out on the upswing when the economy begins to improve.

On the bright side, the current economic conditions may present your business with new opportunities. An existing product or service may be more desirable in a budget-conscious economy. A new product or service may present a golden opportunity for clients to meet new, shrinking budgets. Your competitive set is showing signs of attrition, creating a window of opportunity to capture more market share. These opportunities require some level of marketing and sales to be successful.

A Marketing Plan should be a part of your strategic business planning process, which for many, is going on right now. It will help identify opportunities and strategies to get your products and services to market. Tactics, such as branding, collateral, direct mail, advertising, website, and email deliver on the overall marketing strategy. Whatever the tactic, an informed, focused, consistent, coordinated approach will yield the highest results.

Over the next few weeks, a series of posts will be updated with ideas to make your marketing dollars work harder, at the very least more measurable. Topics on the table include Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Email Marketing, Blogs, iBrochures (mini-sites), and Sales Presentations. Topics will include real world experiences and solutions for common business questions and problems. 

If you have a topic you're considering in your plan outside of the ones mentioned and would like our input, please contact Southbank Interactive.

Friday, November 21, 2008

PSI Group Recruits Southbank Interactive to Redesign Brand and Website

PSI Group is a Creative and IT Staffing and Recruiting firm with the main office in Cincinnati and additional offices in Cleveland, Raleigh, and Charlotte. PSI competes on a national level with large staffing and recruiting companies placing highly qualified resources in global companies for contract, contract-to-hire, and direct hire positions. PSI is unique in that they focus on developing and maintaining a pool of exceptional talent for placement with their clients. Most staffing agencies work just the opposite... searching for talent to fill existing openings.

Initially, the project began as a website refresh, making some updates and reworking the site organization to improve search engine ranking. It became evident that the brand was overextending it's life span requiring a redesign of identity, collateral, and website.

The new identity closely reflects their business with icons of people and one clearly rising above the other two. A contemporary containment device, color palette, and custom typeface work together to create a modern mark.

Once alignment on the brand identity was achieved, work began on interaction design. Information architecture was established, segregating clients from candidates. This approach was preferred by PSI due to the divergent needs and goals for clients and candidates.

A communication platform was created that reflected PSI's point of differentiation in the market -  Candidate-Centric Staffing. A framework for the website copy was created to describe business processes and tools. To help communicate the value of this model, phrases and terms were used such as "Active recruiting", "Best Book", and "Best meets Best".

The landing page includes a Flash animation that communicates concrete end results for each persona and the value of PSI's Candidate-Centric business model. A login for existing employees and clients provide direct access to Bullhorn, PSI's recruiting and staffing business management software. Active jobs are randomly pulled from Bullhorn and presented in the featured jobs area.

Site content includes information for both clients and candidates. Active job listings, interview preparation, and resume writing tips are available for candidates. They may also submit a resume directly to PSI, apply for a job, or email a job description to someone. For added efficiency, the system integrates directly with Bullhorn by adding submissions to an area frequently checked by PSI Recruiters. Prospective clients have access to information about the Candidate-Centric staffing model, methodology, and tools used. 

Search engine marketing was integrated throughout the process including information architecture, web page construction, and copywriting for maximum, natural optimization. Google Analytics was installed and a monthly PDF is sent to stakeholders for performance evaluation. A link building campaign included large search engines, local directories, business networks, and social networks. Weeks after launch, the website has made drastic improvements in search engine rankings, breaking into the first page results for many key phrases.