Scaled · Brand and positioning, Marketing leadership, Website
iMethods
A new staffing agency with very high quality measures and a startup’s budget. We made that budget do what a much larger firm’s would. Seven years and two pivots later, a national presence in healthcare IT staffing.
The situation
A young staffing agency, first placing occupational, speech and physical therapists, with very high quality measures and no bandwidth or budget to market like the firms it competed with.
What we did
Gave them access to everything a bigger firm would do, inside their budget: a brand that stood level with the largest names, an office turned into a brand experience, email that actually performed, and a ribbon cutting the mayor attended.
What happened
The company followed its market into IT and then healthcare IT, made the Inc. 5000 three years running, collected Best Places to Work honors, and grew into a national presence.
01 / The problem
High quality, and no time to say so.
When we met them, the founders were just starting out. Their quality measures were very high. Their bandwidth and budget to develop marketing were not.
Staffing is a noisy category, and quality is the claim everyone makes. It has to be shown, not stated, and the firms doing the showing had far more to spend.
02 / The approach
Big-firm marketing on a startup budget.
With a shared culture of quality, entrepreneurship and care, we integrated into the company rather than working at arm’s length, and set out to give them everything a much larger firm would have, without the larger firm’s spend.
That started with brand parity: an identity, website and materials that stood level with the biggest names in staffing from day one. Then email that earned its place, with newsletters carrying sales components and tracking, and video email systems for outreach. Behind the scenes, custom web integrations and a custom time sheet system took administrative work off the team.
03 / The office
The office became the story.
We revamped the office into an immersive brand and culture experience, a place that showed the quality claim instead of making it. It became a recruiting tool, a sales tool and, at the grand opening, a news story.
The mayor came to the ribbon cutting, and the look of the space gave the press a picture worth running, which helped carry the coverage. We added partnerships with local nonprofits that did good work and opened key relationships, and even filmed an impromptu video of the office’s saber christening.
The office, designed as a brand experience.
The ribbon cutting with the mayor, and the email newsletter.
Staffing is noisy. The message that broke through was quality first.
04 / The pivots
Two changes of market, one standard.
As the client shifted to IT, and then to a sole focus on the highly competitive healthcare IT market, we synthesized what they knew into materials that directly affected their ability to sell to new clients and deeper into existing relationships.
The company made the Inc. 5000 three years running, ranked #4 on Staffing Industry Analysts’ Best Staffing Firms to Work For list, earned Best Places to Work recognition from several sources including Florida Trend, and grew into a national presence.
At a glance
- Inc. 50003 yearsrunning, on the list of America’s fastest-growing companies
- Best Staffing Firms to Work For#4Staffing Industry Analysts
- Engagement7 yearsfrom launch through two pivots into healthcare IT
What we did for them
- Branding
- Marketing strategy
- Corporate culture
- Office brand experience
- Public relations and events
- Web development
- SEO strategy
- Email and SMS
- Video
- Planned nonprofit giving
Your turn.
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