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Congratulations to Sam Miller for being selected as the Volunteer Firefighter of the Year in Lancaster, NY.

Sam is one of the newest additions to the Haley Marketing team. He serves as a Director of Marketing Education, helping to teach our clients more about how marketing can be used to improve sales productivity and reduce recruiting costs. 

Prior to joining Haley Marketing, Sam spent 20 years in the staffing industry, working in Southern California and Upstate New York.  He has had a highly successful career as an Account Executive, Recruiter and Branch Manager.  Sam is also a former Chairman’s award winner with Robert Half.

Way to go Sam, we are very proud of you!

It is no secret that social media is a hot topic right now. From a business standpoint, you know that social media can be a powerful tool for marketing and recruiting.

But what about your candidates? Do they realize the effect that  social media is having on their job search efforts?

Most employers will at least do a Google search of anyone they are interested in hiring. What they find can be damaging to a job search and a career.

Make sure that you are conducting these same search before sending a candidate out on an interview. Remember, they are representing your firm and this is just another way to manage your brand online.

The following article has some great tips for how employers are using social media, and how to clean-up any “digital dirt” that you may have.

Digital “dirt” can haunt your job search

It’s one of my favorite activities of the fall. Carving pumpkins! It is always fun to turn an ordinary pumpkin into a work of art. Here are a few of my favorite websites I go to for inspiration before I start carving!

• Pumpkin Way
  
• Martha Stewart Pumpkin Ideas
  
• Pumpkin Carving Patterns
  
• Pumpkin Lady
  

I hope you have a great Halloween! Enjoy!

Recently I read a great article in the “Get to the Point” Email Marketing newsletter from Marketing Profs about what people consider spam.  A recent Epsilon survey asked 4,000 consumers to identify what types of messages they would label as spam. 

According to the survey, some people think an email is spam if it’s:

• Unwanted for any reason, regardless of subscriptions. 
• Comes from companies with which the recipient has done business, but arrives too frequently.
• Tries to sell a product or service even when the recipient knows the company.

Wrong, wrong, wrong!

As a conclusion, regardless of what you define as spam, it matters what your subscribers consider as spam.  Just beware that a subscriber may report your emails as spam even if your practices meet the CAN-SPAM requirements.  However, if you abide by and practice sending clean emails that abide by the CAN-SPAM Act, you’ll be better prepared to prove any case against you.

For your reference, here is a list of CAN-SPAM’s requirements:

• Practice permission based marketing.  Never send to someone who has not opted onto your list.
• Don’t use false or misleading header information.
• Don’t use deceptive subject lines.
• You must disclose and identify a message as an ad, if it is one.
• You must include physical address information.
• You must be clear about how a user can opt-out or future mailings.
• You must honor all opt-out requests within 30 days.
• You should communicate with any third party email sender.  Even if you hire a company to handle your email marketing, you are still legally responsible to comply with the law.  (That being said, Haley Marketing complies with all CAN-SPAM regulations and monitors opt-outs for our HaleyMail customers.)

For more information on CAN-SPAM Act regulations check out The CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business.

And How it Can Affect Your Tradeshow Presence

Every year we seem to go through the same painful process in the weeks leading up to Staffing World – a mad scramble to get everything done on time. And I’m not talking about our own materials here. We were scrambling to get our clients’ tradeshow projects finished.

Frequently we get requests to develop booth displays or tradeshow collateral a week or two before the show begins. I can understand when there’s a last minute decision to attend a conference, but I’d be surprised if all of these decisions were last minute ones.

Why does this matter? Well, it comes down to this: the less time your creative agency has to develop your materials, the fewer choices you will have in getting them produced and, sometimes, the lower the quality will be. That doesn’t mean your agency will cut corners on the design – we will literally work around the clock to develop the artwork. But it can mean that some compromises have to be made in order to meet the deadline. This is where the printer or other vendors come in. Some booth display companies require a minimum of three to four weeks to produce materials. Deciding on new booth graphics less than a month before the show automatically eliminates those vendors that can’t fit your work into their production schedule. And they can refuse to take on your project if it means jeopardizing delivery of the work already in their queue. If they do take it, they may charge rush order fees to squeeze your job in.

When you rush last minute work, you may be forced to use your second or third choice of vendor, or only complete a scaled down version of what you’d really like to have. What else does a compressed work schedule mean? What if there’s a printing or production error? Or a shipping problem? There won’t be time to get the materials corrected or replaced. You could end up with no booth at all.

When you have a conference invitation, the first thing to decide is whether or not you’ll attend. The second decision is how do you want to promote yourself at the show—and what’s the best way to accomplish your goals? As soon as you’ve made those decisions, contact your creative agency and get cracking on solutions.

Yes, I’d like our clients to give us more time to work on their projects, but it’s not because I don’t like to be busy. It’s because we want to make sure your projects are done right, delivered on time and, most importantly, do what they are meant to: promote your business as effectively as possible!

Haley Marketing Group has announced that six of their clients received 2009 VOICE Awards from the American Staffing Association.  The ASA Staffing VOICE Awards honor the vision, originality, innovation, creativity, and effectiveness of advertising, public relations, and publications in the staffing industry.

2009 VOICE award winners designed by Haley Marketing include:

•Clark Personnel Service: Direct Mail, Independent staffing firm
•Berks & Beyond Employment: Company Web Site, Independent staffing firm
•RealStreet Staffing: Company Web Site, Independent staffing firm
•QPS Companies: Company Web Site, National staffing firm
•PrideStaff: Company Newsletter, National staffing firm
•Professional Staffing Group (PSG): Other Advertising, Independent staffing firm

PSG’s outdoor advertising campaign also received the “Best In Show” award which is given out to the best single entry overall regardless of category.  2009 marks the fourth time in the past five years that a Haley Marketing client has won the prestigious “Best of Show” award.

“We are thrilled to have our clients recognized by the American Staffing Association for the quality of their marketing communications. It is a tribute to our designers but even more importantly to our clients who allow us to have the creative freedom to design this award winning work,” said David Searns, President Haley Marketing Group

For more information, contact Haley Marketing at 1.888.696.2900.

Industrial Insights

PrideStaff’s Industrial Insights newsletter is geared towards facility managers, supervisors and hiring authorities in manufacturing and distribution facilities. The core objective is to position PrideStaff as more than just a staffing services firm—but rather a complete workforce and logistics partner.

Each newsletter focuses on a core area of pain many manufacturing and distribution facilities face.  Each issue outlines problems and risks, and provides solutions that supervisors and managers can implement to minimize risk for their organizations.

Industrial Insights features both a printed version that can be mailed or dropped off and an email version.  Each issue aims to position PrideStaff as more than just a staffing provider, but rather a true workforce consultant.

Did you miss this year’s Staffing World conference in Orlando?

As usual, the American Staffing Association put on a fantastic event, and the Haley Marketing team was thrilled to participate and learn from some world-class speakers, great staffing consultants, and hundreds of really sharp staffing executives.

So what did we learn?

Join us on October 29 as we recap the highlights of the conference at our next Lunch with Haley webinar. We’ll let you know what we heard, what we learned, and what’s REALLY going on in the staffing industry.

Webinar Details:

• Date: Thursday, October 29
• Time: 2:00 pm EST
• Cost: FREE!

Reserve Your Seat

BIG NEWS:

Haley Marketing was honored to learn that SIX of our clients won VOICE awards from the American Staffing Association for excellence in marketing communications.  We were especially thrilled to find out that Professional Staffing Group, in Boston, won the BEST OF SHOW award for an outdoor advertising campaign our team designed. 

Check out our ASA VOICE award winning work

New Door Opener Campaign: “Why Staffing Now?”

Why would someone use staffing services–especially in this economy?
This campaign highlights the true value of staffing services. From lowering overhead costs, to matching workforce levels to workload, to limiting legal liabilities; this campaign provides highly compelling reasons for using staffing services to solve strategic business challenges.

What’s Included:
3 5.5″x4.25″ fold over cards
3 Standard size postcards
4 Jumbo postcards

Contact us at 1-888-696-2900 for more information about this campaign.

Last week at Staffing World 2009, Haley Marketing celebrated the death of the recession. Complete with a mock grave site, humorous gravestones, balloons, mardi gras beads and some libations to toast, vendors and attendees alike took the time to rejoice and have a little fun.

The good news is, that it wasn’t all in vain. We heard over and over again that business in the staffing industry is slowly, but surely, picking up. And now, more good news from CNN:

Job Outlook Brightens

If you weren’t able to join us last week, lift a glass and say “adios”…