Case Studies

Albany Software - Threefold increase in sales

Albany Software is an eTransactions software author best known for its market-leading Electronic Funds Transfer software, ALBACS. PR is a key component of the marketing mix at Albany and for the last six years the company has been working with itpr to implement a series of proactive, sales-focused PR campaigns that help keep Albany’s key messages compelling, fresh and timely. The resulting Press coverage not only passes the volume ‘thud-factor’ test each year, but the quality, targeted coverage drives in-bound sales enquiries. In fact, PR was a key contributor to 2005 being Albany’s most profitable year ever – with a threefold increase in sales that meant it had to increase headcount in order to manage demand. Georgia Leybourne, Sales & Marketing Director, Albany Software explains why Albany values the role that itpr plays in its business development…

“We value PR as a fundamental part of the marketing mix. The PR programme that itpr manages and runs is instrumental in building brand awareness and generating increased sales enquiries, either directly as a result of press coverage or indirectly through the re-use of PR material as part of our marketing activities. “The PR programme is biased towards thought leadership – ie. educating our target audience through opinionated, though tprovoking articles on the state of the industry and the future direction it should be taking. “Promoting our key messages as part of the thought leadership PR approach is clearly very important for us and itpr is very skilled at helping us to keep these messages fresh and engaging, both from a journalist and end-user perspective, at all times.

“Crucially, itpr understands more than just how to get good press coverage – they understand our business and are keen to brainstorm new ideas across the marketing programme in general as well as PR specifically, in order to help drive the business forward.

“We also value itpr’s input in terms of what is being written about in the Press as this helps us to gain a better understanding of the key issues and pain-points facing our target market. It also gives us the opportunity to respond to editorial articles with our own view on a particular topic, and quite often we are challenging the ‘norm’ by offering an alternative opinion. This enables us to gain the largest share of voice in the Press against our competitors, whilst being seen to create a healthy debate on key business issues within the industry, leading to the general perception that Albany are Thought Leaders in this space.

“The press coverage generated by itpr is instrumental in supporting our sales teams”

“The BACSTEL-IP PR campaign which we ran with itpr was a good example of this. Voca, the BACS clearing house, announced that it was upgrading its payment platform to a new Public Key Infrastructure /Internet Protocol-based infrastructure, which meant that all 40,000 companies using BACS to pay their employees, suppliers and partners, had to migrate to the new platform within very short timescales. “With a vast array of software suppliers claiming they could offer companies a BACSTEL-IP solution, we needed to make sure we could be seen and heard above and beyond our competitors. itpr recommended a programme of thought leadership that was designed to cut through the hype in the market.

This was achieved through a series of opinion articles, letters-to-the-editors, features comment and a White Paper; all of which presented companies with the facts surrounding BACSTEL-IP at a time when there were confusing, conflicting messages being bandied about by the competition. “BACS users needed to be educated and we took the lead by giving them some very clear advice: migration is quick and easy; the cost of upgrading is not prohibitive and you won’t need to invest in a whole new infrastructure; however, the deadline is not moving, so act now before you get left behind in the last-minute rush.

“The benefits that itpr offers far outweigh those that a full-time in house PR person could provide”

“We were very impressed with the results. The press coverage enabled us to out manoeuvre the competition, so much so that in one year, we had a threefold increase in sales demand and this also meant we had to increase headcount in order to manage the sales pipeline.

“One of the reasons I think the overall PR programme that we run is so successful is because of the close relationship we have with itpr. They are fun to work with, but they are also hardworking and are seen by the business as really being an extension of the marketing team.

“itpr is always on the look out for new press coverage opportunities and they are very proactive at suggesting potential stories or encouraging us to provide more raw materials for them to work with. One of our measures of success for the PR programme is the ‘thud’ factor – ie. the thickness of the press coverage folder. And it’s not just the quantity, but also the quality of the coverage which we regularly receive in key trade titles being read by the decision-makers we are targeting.

The press coverage generated by itpr is instrumental in supporting our sales teams and itpr is relentless in ensuring they have enough material with which to work in order to create the highest output, which in turn has a direct impact on the volume of sales leads we receive.

“If someone asked me whether they should consider PR as part of the marketing mix, then I would agree wholeheartedly. And if I was asked whether it’s better to work with an external PR agency or manage the PR in-house, I would strongly recommend an agency approach. But the key thing is to find an agency that not only understands PR but also really understands your business. itpr does just that and the benefits that itpr offers far outweigh those that a full-time in-house PR person could provide.

“We really value the fact that we have a long-standing working relationship with itpr. During the last six years, they have developed an intrinsic understanding of our business, yet at the same time they continue to help us keep the PR and marketing messages fresh and highly topical.

“They are also intuitive PR people so they can spot a good story very quickly and their strong personal relationships with key publications mean that we get 'bang-for-buck' in terms of quality, targeted press coverage in comparison to our competitors.

“Our annual spend on PR continues to pay for itself many times over as a result of the level of new business that is generated through the PR campaigns that we are running with itpr.”

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