SharePoint and design consultancy – ClearPeople

Established in 2003, ClearPeople is one of the UK's leading technology services companies specialising in consulting, development and support for Microsoft SharePoint and Sitecore CMS.

Working with a combination of FTSE companies and well known high-street names, including Toshiba, Land Securities, The National Autistic Society and GlaxoSmithKline, the London-based team specialises in providing innovative and cost-effective technology solutions for web development and content management.

Challenges

  • The use of SharePoint CMS (content management system) and DM (document management) has steadily increased across business and public sectors and interest in the technology was significantly boosted with the launch of SharePoint 2010. At the same time, companies were looking to improve their digital footprint through personalised intranets and websites, design-led intranets and sophisticated CMS through technologies such as Sitecore CMS.
  • Being new to PR, ClearPeople decided the time was right to appoint a tech savvy PR agency to expand upon its client successes and to bolster the SharePoint and Sitecore services provider’s market position. The company was also planning to launch Loud & Clear, its new creative services division.
  • ClearPeople’s competition with several large organisations in the SharePoint sector also meant it required a pro-active technology PR agency to help boost its professional profile with key audiences.
  • This brand awareness would then be used to increase sales of ClearPeople’s and Loud & Clear’s SharePoint and Sitecore services as a result of improved visibility and, in turn, attract and maximise new business opportunities within targeted vertical sectors e.g. legal, charities, real estate, professional services.

Solution

  • Following a competitive pitch, ClearPeople hired technology and business specialist PR agency, Vitis PR.
  • Vitis PR was selected thanks to the team’s:
    • Focused quarterly strategy outlining individual topics and specialist sectors for each period
    • Extensive multi-sector expertise
    • Specialist technology and online knowledge, and
    • Focus on only offering experienced consultants, ensuring clients get senior-level service from day one, thereby negating the requirement for significant investment and training to meet the client’s needs.
  • Vitis PR kicked off ClearPeople’s campaign with a legal technology focused programme. Working to raise ClearPeople’s profile via interviews, blogs, case studies and print and online mentions, Vitis PR successfully targeted specialist in-house and legal technology publications.
  • Vitis PR then maximised brand awareness by negotiating by-lined guest articles with selected legal tech titles.
  • In addition to raising ClearPeople’s brand awareness within the legal technology media, Vitis PR secured coverage of the company’s recently-launched creative services division, Loud & Clear, in top tier marketing and creative publications, in order to reach a wider audience of potential customers.
  • Vitis PR also positioned ClearPeople as a market leader with marketing managers by securing opportunities for ClearPeople to speak to marketing media and at events.

Results

  • Coverage of Vitis PR’s first ClearPeople press release appeared within seven trade titles on its issue date and, within the campaign’s first week, further coverage was secured with legal technology media; the Legal Tech Insider, Legal IT Professionals and TheKnowList, alongside specialist and general computing media; DM, IT Director, ECMPlus. This coverage was followed with a by-lined guest article online at the Orange Rag and within its weekly newsletter, distributed to over 26,000 members.
  • Vitis PR secured coverage of Loud & Clear in top tier marketing and creative publications such as CreativeMatch, Marketing Clout, Marketing UK, New Media Age (NMA) and New Media Knowledge. This allowed the company to reach a wider audience of potential customers, in a vertical sector.
  • Positioning ClearPeople as a market leader, Vitis PR also secured a speaking opportunity at the Civil Society IT conference in November 2011 following a by-lined feature within the Civil Society’s newsletter. ClearPeople was the only vendor invited to speak at this event.
  • Vitis PR’s most recent release, detailing ClearPeople’s migration of the Web Content Management System (WCMS) of four of Stena’s public facing websites to SharePoint 2010, received 19 mentions in top tier computing trade publications in the first four days alone.

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