Matthew's first job after college was with the brokerage firm First Summit Securities, Inc. located in Montville, NJ. During his tenure there he held both Series 62 and Series 63 broker licenses while developing their inhouse computer software and websites.
Fast forward to 2011 where Matthew had the opportunity to provide programming and consulting services to a newly public company. The details of the project are outlined below.
CASE STUDY:
Company: AmeriWorks Financial Services, Inc.
Stock Symbol: AWKS
GOAL:
AWKS wanted their first project to be launched correctly, and for it to surpass shareholder expectations.
BACKGROUND:
AWKS put more than 12 months of research into creating a website for point of sale cashier training and certification. The website is www.pos-university.com and it uses WordPress and Moodle as the underlying technologies to power the site. However, both systems are notorious for difficult setups when trying to accomplish something unique. Deployment and development of the POS-U website took more than 6 months simply to get WordPress and Moodle to work well.
INITIAL HIRING:
Matthew met with the AWKS executives in early January 2011, spending an entire day at their offices in Pennsylvania to get an idea of the operation, employees and executive goals. On that same morning he also had one of his employees in New Jersey sit and video record their usage of the current beta POS-U website.
The day long meeting covered topics of mobile marketing, training, Amazon eBooks, advertising and branding. The video recording was sent over and Matthew sat with the top executive and watched the recording and together was able to identify areas of the technology that still needed work.
INITIAL FINDINGS:
In order to gain recognition with job seekers and supermarket owners this new service would have to get their attention. Market research at the time identified that no other company was providing a certification program for cashier training. However, Matthew's findings also seemed to indicate that no one was searching online for that type of training either. Although, after interviewing several random people it was discovered that it seems like there is a level of dissatisfaction with grocery store cashiers, but it also seems like there is a general assumption that nothing can be done about the problem.
In order for the POS-U program to be effective it would have to be introduced at the same time in all digital formats and made available through the widest possible distribution networks.
PROJECT STRATEGY:
- 3 New websites for marketing and additional education
- 1 Twitter account
- 1 Facebook Business Page
- EZine Articles
- Amazon Kindle eBook
- Downloadable and printable PDF book
- Mobile website with similar functionality of the POS-U site
- YouTube Channel
- Multiple press releases
PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION:
Matthew was given full creative freedom of project implementation. This allowed him to use the content management system he programmed and uses for all his other customers.
Liaison with Web Programmers
Matthew immediately took over the job of liaison between AWKS and their web programming company. This helped greatly since he was able to speak both programming geek as well as entrepreneurial business. Several arguments between AWKS and the programmers were managed and Matthew help them understand each others points of views and needs. Matthew also stepped in and took care of several last minute credit card processing setup issues on the POS-U website.
Website #1 is CashierTraining.biz
This website was designed as a marketing piece for AWKS. They could use this website to help sell the service to supermarkets and cashier job seekers. Features of this website include:
• Downloadable sample of the course
• Payment and download of a 70 page eBook
• A membership system to manage students
• A mobile website for students who want to study the course material on their cell phones
• Lots of different directions for each of the 4 versions of the course
Website #2 is CashierJobs.us
This website is a simple blogging website designed to become a nexus for additional cashier related information. AWKS will disseminate other valuable resources like how to write a resume for cashiers. Matthew set up the same content management system on this site as cashiertraining.biz.
Website #3 is CashierDuties.info
This website is set up through Tumblr.com using a domain name alias. This is another blogging website, perhaps a little more rough around the edges in how it will be presented. Using the Tumblr mobile technology photos and comments can be posted to this blog while out in the real world.
YouTube Channel is youtube.com/howtocashier
This was the only part of the project that Matthew brought his employees in on. Using a local retail store, dramatizations of a horrific cashier were played out and recorded from a security camera point of view.
Facebook and Twitter
These will be continually used to create traffic and build general awareness to the POS University and Cashier Certification concept.
EZine Articles
A few of the lessons will be reformatted and published through EZineArticles for an added link building and awareness campaign.
Downloadable PDF eBook
Matthew took the entire body of course material and finalized the editing process, restructuring the lessons as needed. From a first time user perspective it was easy to identify training material that was out of order after 12 months of rewrites. The entire course was formatted into a 70 page PDF book.
Amazon Kindle eBook
After creating the downloadable eBook Matthew then took the same material and created, and published, an Amazon Kindle eBook. New accounts were set up with ownership rights going to AWKS, however the official publisher credits of the book go to Matthew's company name.
Press Release
AWKS provided a rough draft press release for launch. But it needed spunk, pizazz and to generate actual interest, rather than put someone to sleep. After working for 30 days on the project Matthew fully understood why the course was important and what would make other people feel the same way. Matthew provided his own set of press releases that AWKS used instead of their own.
FINAL OUTCOME:
The project launched to the public on February 23, 2011. The outcome is unknown at the time of this case study review. The initial version of the training program has been tested with many people, and the need is apparent. All the internet marketing tools are in place. Matthew helped systematize the signup and student management process and also revamped the pricing scheme to account for technology variable that AWKS was not aware of. AWKS is now poised to generate a profit with this venture if advertised correctly. In the end the stockholders will have to wait for the quarterly reports to show the impact. In the mean time you can watch the stock by looking up the symbol AWKS.
Contact Matthew Perosi if you would like assistance in your own internet o mobile marketing.
