How Creative Design & Compelling Content Helped Close A $40 Million Deal

The Client

For years, manufacturing industries across the nation have relied on less than stellar staffing solutions that all had the same processes in tow. High employee turn-overs were commonplace and most workers were poorly trained and unhappy. Volatile, unreliable, inefficient -- these words pretty much summed up common staffing trends for manufacturing facilities. 

Enter Effex

Effex Management Solutions broke the humdrum and ineffective staffing processes of old by ensuring a qualified labor force and guaranteeing 100% staffing for manufacturing facilities every single day. With an onsite management team and exclusively committing to only one client per given market, Effex Management Solutions rose from a mere idea to a cataclysmic behemoth that forever changed the large volume contingent workforce staffing industry.

The Project

How do you break marketing ground for a groundbreaking client? Two things -- strategy and creativity.

In all essence, Effex is truly a leader in its industry; the company isn't following the footsteps of its gargantuan predecessors, its radicalizing the industry (in a good way) by putting an entirely new process in place to solve an age-old challenge. For an inbound marketing agency, this right here is "thought-leadership gold". We sought to build a riveting content piece that builds a tighter-knit tribe around the "new era" of manufacturing staffing they heralded. We dubbed this, The Workforce Informer.

The Workforce Informer is a free magazine published both in digital and print for manufacturing C-suite leaders across the nation. The magazine gives an opportunity for Effex to share its expertise to its buyer personas, at the same time, the magazine encourages interested field experts and organizations to take part in the form of contributed work for free. The result is a (what Seth Godin would refer to as a) tribe, built around the company and its buyer personas through valuable, welcomed, and compelling content.

The Design

Similar to Effex, The Workforce Informer leads where its predecessors are lacking -- innovation. 

If you look at other manufacturing/staffing magazine (which we did diligently), you'll see a cluttered and spatially unorganized theme that seems to be the norm. For the Workforce Informer, the design is sleek, organized, minimalistic and modern. Three things were heavily considered on our idea board that most of the other magazines seemed to have ignored:

1. Buyer persona. We're talking to the C-Suite of multi-billion dollar manufacturing facilities. The design had to feature imagery and a level of organization tailored to this particular audience.

2. Brand Colors. The reader should be reminded of Effex but in a subtle manner. The gray and white undertones with a splash of red did just the trick.

3. Minimalism. To stay away from the cluttered feel of most manufacturing magazines and to stay true to the message of innovation, flat custom icons and an emphasis on impactful white space were employed.

Goals Set

• Create a yearly industry leading magazine, available in print and digital, for workforce management and staffing professionals.
• To grow exponentially grow a following by acquiring thought leaders inside and outside the workforce management and staffing industry to provide strategies, valuable resources and commentary.
• Increase brand equity and online visibility for Effex Management Solutions.
• Generate MQL to nurture into SQL. 

The Wins

Now, the magazine was an idea we pitched to Effex just this quarter and was given their good graces to create and test. That being said, the continuation of the publication rested almost entirely on its initial success. We're pleased to say that after having published the first issue earlier this month (December 1, 2015), we have already experienced significant wins that resulted in Effex committing to an annual issue!

Among the success we've enjoyed are the following:

• Generated over 60 leads in just 3 weeks, one of which resulted in a $40 million business deal for Effex as a result of the magazine (BOOM!).
• Landing page for the magazine is currently performing at a 30% submission rate.
• Acquired 3 outside industry professionals to provide commentary on topics like wearable technology and ethical sourcing. More interested parties have since contacted us to be a part of the publication.

The Takeaway

Content that offers your audience something valuable is at the heart of inbound marketing strategies. That's great and all, but don't make the mistake of blending in instead of standing out because you were afraid to add a splash of creativity in this pursuit. Back your flair for the creative with a solid strategy -- know your audience well and create something that truly speaks to them.