Success Story

Success Without Postage
Saints Medical Center

In February, our client Saints Medical Center had stellar success with their Nursing, Pharmacy & Allied Health open house initiative. Saints approached Albion a little more than a week before the event to develop a budget friendly strategy to market their event. Albion’s challenge was to build a comprehensive media approach with elements that could be executed within a matter of days.  Our solution: a dynamic multi-media plan that included traditional print ads in local newspapers, a variety of targeted online media, and for the first time, no print direct mail.

Online Media Included:

• Google keywords
• Boston.com homepage highlight, event listing, & the big banner ad
• Targeted email blast to 5,606 Nursing & Allied Health recipients

Most websites require a minimum run schedule of two weeks for banner ads.  Because of the unique time frame presented, Albion was able to negotiate with Boston.com special one week flights to meet Saints’ needs.

Internet advertising allows us to provide detailed metrics, and in turn, measure ROI.  For example:

• In just one week the Google Keyword campaign received well over 102,000 impressions (or views) and 326 clicks. This represents a .32% click through rate (industry average is .04%!).
• Boston.com homepage highlight received over 1.6 million impressions and yielded 599 clicks.

With these two Internet products alone, Saints reached 925 interested professionals.

Online media is affordable and can fit into any budget. Keep in mind, replacing print direct mail with HTML email blasts can significantly reduce your costs (no postage & printing fees) while hitting the same audience in a timelier manner.

Let the final numbers speak for themselves: Saints had 122 attendees with 18 potential hires. Congratulations Saints!

Upcoming Events/Important Dates

Calendar

April 16 - National Society for Hispanic Professionals Job Fair – NYC
April 16 - Advance Nursing and Allied Health Job Fair – Woburn, MA
April - National Occupational Therapy Month
May 6 - May 12 – National Nurses Week
June 14 - Boston Globe, Careers in Nursing and Allied Health

New Product

Podcast Your Jobs
A New Web 2.0 Recruitment Tool

One out of five Internet users say they have downloaded a Podcast. With well over 150 million iPods in existence, the demand for fresh, free and up-to-date information on the go is growing across all demographics. You might ask, what is a Podcast? According to Wikipedia, “A Podcast consists of a combination of audio and/or video that is made available for download via syndication.” In short, it is a your own “radio” program delivered to interested listeners over the Internet. Syndication can channel through a variety popular of sources. Whether it be iTunes, RSS feeds, or  your company website, the audience is immense.

We can now use this powerful Web 2.0 technology as a recruitment vehicle to offer job hunters insight into your company’s culture and different hiring departments. But how? The Albion Group now has access to Jobs in Pods.  Jobs in Pods is a vendor that helps us (and your company) create your very own employment Podcast. Your Podcast is a customized audio program that includes interviews with hiring managers, employees, and information on opportunities at your organization.

Set-up is simple

1. Determine how many episodes you want to produce (we’d recommend at least three to help build an audience).
2. Albion will work with you to sketch out episode topics (each episode should focus on a different department or career path).
3. Albion manages the rest (interview schedules, syndication, etc.).
4. Once you approve the audio file, it’s good to go!

Benefits

• Give your jobs a “voice”
• Measurable results
• Build your employment brand
• Attract passive candidates
• Relationship marketing
• Easy set up
• Budget friendly!

Distribution Channels

• Your company’s career site
• YouTube
• iTunes
• JobRadio.FM
• Podcast.com
• Any many more!

To hear some sample employment Podcasts, simply type “Jobs in Pods” into iTunes. To learn more about Podcasting your jobs, contact your Albion representative.

Tim’s Favorite Recipe

Lasagna with Turkey Sausage
Serves 6 to 8
Courtesy of:  Barefoot Contessa Family Style

I love to cook – especially for my friends and family. My favorite Sunday dinner is this delicious lasagna. The lightness of the turkey sausage and the tangy goat cheese really put this meal over the top. It’s Italian comfort food at its best. This can easily be assembled ahead of time and frozen for a quick weekday meal.  Served with a classic Caesar salad, a bottle of your favorite wine (I’d recommend Avalon Cabernet Sauvignon), and some crusty garlic bread – it is a home run every time. Cheers!

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped yellow onion (1 onion)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 pounds sweet Italian turkey sausage, casings removed
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes in tomato puree
1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, divided
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
2 teaspoons kosher salt
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 pound lasagna noodles
15 ounces ricotta cheese
3 to 4 ounces creamy goat cheese, crumbled
1 cup grated Parmesan, plus 1/4 cup for sprinkling
1 extra-large egg, lightly beaten
1 pound fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Heat the olive oil in a large (10 to 12-inch) skillet. Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes over medium-low heat, until translucent. Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Add the sausage and cook over medium-low heat, breaking it up with a fork, for 8 to 10 minutes, or until no longer pink. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, 2 tablespoons of the parsley, the basil, 1 1/2 teaspoons of the salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Simmer, uncovered, over medium-low heat, for 15 to 20 minutes, until thickened.

Meanwhile, fill a large bowl with the hottest tap water. Add the noodles and allow them to sit in the water for 20 minutes. Drain. In a medium bowl, combine the ricotta, goat cheese, 1 cup of Parmesan, the egg, the remaining 2 tablespoons of parsley, remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Set aside.

Ladle 1/3 of the sauce into a 9 by 12 by 2-inch rectangular baking dish, spreading the sauce over the bottom of the dish. Then add the layers as follows: half the pasta, half the mozzarella, half the ricotta, and one 1/3 of the sauce. Add the rest of the pasta, mozzarella, ricotta, and finally, sauce. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup of Parmesan. Bake for 30 minutes, until the sauce is bubbling. Let rest 15 minutes before serving.

Many happy returns

With the state of the economy, the rising cost of living and ever-climbing gas prices, it’s evident that people are trying harder than ever to get the most out of every dollar. Who wouldn’t want to maximize their return on spending? No one we know.

The same principles apply to the marketing/advertising blend you choose for a promotional campaign. When it’s time to determine how to allocate your marketing budget, there are a few core questions you should always ask—with an eye towards ROI.

#1. What has worked for you in the recent past?

Chances are that if a particular method of outreach worked a few months ago, and you are targeting the same audience, that method will work adequately for you again. It would be a good idea to apply part of your budget for something you know will produce results.

#2. Are your results measurable?

For example, web-based methodologies like splash pages or web banners  provide access to hard statistics on how many people visited your site, how long the average person stayed there and how many people clicked on your links.

If you are using media outlets that are not as easy to track (print advertising, billboards, television or transit advertising), do you have a way to gauge the response level by finding out how people heard about you? Or will you monitor your website statistics for the time period your other products were active to see if they correlate?

Having measurable results will make it easier for you to determine what approaches are and aren’t working, and will help guide you when planning your next marketing effort.

#3. Have you considered trying something new?

If there is a product, media or service that you haven’t used in the past, you might consider trying it during your next campaign and seeing what you get for results. You may find out that it works better for you (or is more cost-effective) than the areas you are currently budgeting for. Playing it safe is a good way to maintain the status quo—but in a competitive situation, you must be willing to explore new avenues and approaches if you want to continue reaching and influencing your target audience.

 

Until budgets swell to the point that you can make use of every marketing and advertising product in existence (which should occur roughly around the same time that pigs fly, hell freezes over and the Red Sox win the World Series), planning, strategy and analysis will always be your best friends when it comes to developing a campaign and maximizing ROI.

 

Written by Meaghan LePage, Traffic Manager at The Albion Group

Don’t get yanked around by your agency

No matter what kind of business you run, it is imperative to maintain an active relationship with your advertising and marketing partners in order to be sure your brand stays fresh. This often entails exploring new market positioning, continual analysis of your competitors’ moves, and keeping abreast of industry trends… while hopefully trailblazing a few yourself.

Of course, one of the easiest ways to do this is to update your corporate logo. Over time, many become seemingly antiquated as newer brands are rolled out and younger companies emerge. By exploring newer fonts, utilizing more modern phrasing and implementing a slicker design, many logo transitions can be quite seamless.

The same cannot be said for The Office of Government Commerce in England. They decided it was time to develop a fresh logo, so they hired a team of designers. $28,000 later, their branding partner presented them with this:

Not bad at all. Clean, concise, soft curves, and with a fluid continuity—distinctly modern. A great next generation progression from the original…

The next logical step was to throw that baby on some mousepads and roll this momentous event out internally. A launch was set and then the rest of the company were delivered their new logo mousepads.

But those mousepads weren’t always positioned correctly on their desks. Sometimes they were turned 90 degrees. And sometimes, a change in perspective is all you need to see the world in an entirely new light:

Like I said, OGC probably just wanted a fresh logo. But clearly, this was the wrong definition of fresh.

A company spokesperson defended the logo by saying:

“The proposed version, which you have sent over, has been shared with staff, and is now going through final technical stages. It is true that it caused a few titters among some staff when viewed on its side, but on consideration we concluded that the effect was generic to the particular combination of the letters ‘OGC’ – and is not inappropriate to an organisation that’s looking to have a firm grip on government spend!”

A “firm grip” indeed.

Greetings from Albion

Greetings from The Albion Group—and welcome to Albion Buzz. Okay, it’s a blog. But unlike other blogs that wax poetic about Miley Cyrus’ lip gloss choices or spit vitriol about Jon Lester’s pitch counts, here you’ll get to read about matters you’ll find informative, interesting and (once in a blue moon) perhaps even helpful. Whether it’s the latest marketing trends, helpful recruitment tips, industry-related initiatives, views on new technologies or just something we find funny, this is the place you’ll find it.

We also take suggestions. If you have a particular question about a topic, are curious about a certain strategy, or are in dire need of a specific insult, please let us know! We are always happy to address any and all of your advertising needs. And the great thing about Albion Buzz is… this info is free.

Of course, you can email us at buzz@thealbiongroup.com with suggestions, questions or complaints. But our aim is to present provocative subject matter that will open up a dialogue in our comment section so that we can all share our views, experiences and ideas.

We encourage you to start commenting now, and be sure to check back regularly—The Buzz will be waiting.