Blog: Behind the Scenes

As you (and probably your wallet) know, this is the season for giving, as well as reflecting. So while the tinsel gets taken down for yet another year at Campaign Monitor -sponsored Xmas events like WebBlast Sydney, lets look at some of the events we've supported via our Giving Back Program and hopefully, get you involved in the year ahead.

Our Giving Back Program has supported dozens of web design and development events for close to three years now, plus offered free accounts to select email senders. So if you're running an event in the new year that you think could benefit from pizza, beer, a tweet-out and free email credits on us, it's a great time to get in touch.

What kind of events do you support?

Since our first event in 2009, Campaign Monitor have powered our email newsletters and helped cover our running costs. We don't advertise, so it's only through word-of-mouth and email that we can spread the news. We wouldn't be able to run Ignite Sydney without their support.
- Stephen Lead, Ignite Sydney

Our Giving Back Program is all about returning the favor to the web designers and developers who have stood by us since Campaign Monitor's humble beginnings back in 2004. Since the Program's launch, we've had the pleasure of getting behind events that resonate with us and our customers, including Semi-Permanent and both Refresh and Ignite internationally. We even power newsletters for SXSW... And attend!

That said, you don't have to run a high-profile conference to qualify - smaller design-focused gigs like BAMMD and user groups like EEUK very regularly get a hat-tip from us.

How can I get involved?

If your event could benefit from a free Campaign Monitor account, a modest bar tab (like our friends at the Portsmouth Freelancers Meet, pictured) or email credits as a door prize, let us know and we'll be sure to give it a look. We're especially keen to visit your website and get the lowdown on previous events, so be sure to pass on those details, too.

Finally, a huge thanks to everyone who has invited us to support their gathering, or attended an event that we sponsored this year. As the Giving Back Program continues to gain momentum, we're looking forward to enlivening more design nights, dishing out more pizza and giving more to people like you.

We're keen to explore other meaningful ways we can give back to the web community, so if you have a suggestion as to how we can make a positive impact on what you do, from providing more design resources, to getting the word out about your design meetup, pop us a line, or let us know in the comments below. All of us here are looking forward to making 2012 an awesome one for you and your clients!

With only a few weeks to go until Web Directions South 2011, it's time to get excited about Australia's biggest and brightest web industry conference. Rubbing shoulders with both local and international web luminaries will be the Campaign Monitor team, who will be holding the fort on 13-14 October at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre. This year, Mat Patterson will be presenting from the expo stage and we'll be kicking off our 'Where in the worldview?' competition, with some pretty neat prizes in tow. If you haven't got your ticket yet, don't fret - we've got a discount code to help you out.

"10 ways to ruin your email newsletter"

You know what they say about learning from the mistakes of others? You can't live long enough to make them all yourself.

During lunch on Thursday, 13 October, hustle over to the expo stage to hear Mat Patterson deliver a spritely 10-minute talk on common email marketing mistakes and what you can do to avoid them. Included will be some practical tips and examples, so if you're after an email marketing hit during Web Directions, this is it.

Join our 'Where in the worldview?' competition and win!

The quadricopter giveaway of 2010 was always going to be a hard one to top, however this year, we've decided to swap flying gadgets for real flight. To where? Not even we know.

At the conference, we'll be announcing how you can sign up for our 'Where in the worldview?' competition to go into the running for mystery flights and accommodation for two. On Friday, 14 October, we'll be sending out an email just prior to the final session - if you're one of the first to click on it and show up on our live worldview map during the closing comments, you'll soon find yourself widening your worldview on us!

Alright! Can you sneak me into Web Directions?

Well, we can't squeeze you into our bags this time, but we sure can make it easier to get you attending. Thanks to the Web Directions South crew, we've got a discount code that rolls the ticket price back to $899 - that's a $200 saving. Here it is:

Promo code: CampaignMonitor

Pop the code into the 'Promotional code' field when registering and you'll be on your way.

Don't forget to stay tuned to @campaignmonitor and @webdirections on Twitter for updates - we're really looking forward to seeing our Australian friends and customers there!

If you have been using Campaign Monitor for a while you might have dealt with our smart and helpful customer support team, many of whom work from their own homes in Europe and the USA. We're looking to add another person to the team (ideally based on the east-coast of North America), someone who is smart, customer focused and keen to provide great service.

This is not a general support role, it's a compliance role, working from home and helping our customers send permission based email. So while an interest in the web and technology is important, specific technical or design skills aren't required. If that sounds like you, please check out the full job description.

If it's not of interest to you, please consider passing the link on to anyone you know who might be a good match. We're a great team to work with, we pay well and we want to provide ever better customer service to all our customers. Thanks!

Yesterday, our friends at 37signals featured a round up of their team's iPhone home screens - the result was a insightful (and fun) view into app choices, priorities and personalities. We thought that we'd continue the game by adding a selection from our own team - can you tell who are the avid readers, photographers or socialites amongst us?

• Ben Richardson

  Founder & developer

  Bg: Black, minimalist

• Cameron Newman

  Systems administrator

  Bg: I love wallpapers with family! Aww...

• Dave Greiner

  Founder & designer

  Bg: Also black, no sugar

• Diana Potter

  Customer support team leader

  Bg: Android, animated, amazing!

• Greg Strutton

  Customer support

  Bg: A British desire for sunny days

• James Dennes

  Developer, API guy

  Bg: Graffiti in May St, St Peters

• Jarrod Taylor

  Customer support

  Bg: Somewhere walkabout Lithgow way

• Jesse Dodds

  UI designer

  Bg: Fissure fisher

• Ken Nguyen

  Developer

  Bg: Family. Angry Birds. Iron Maiden. Respect.

• Mat Patterson

  Head of customer support

  Bg: He's a classy pinstripe kinda guy

• Ros Hodgekiss

  Community manager

  Bg: Wedding photo, aww schnookums!

• Stephen Jesson

  Customer support

  Bg: Delicious bookshelf style

• Stig Morten Myre

  Customer support

  Bg: Black is the new black

• Trish Khoo

  Test lead

  Bg: Mmm mangosteen

It's your turn to join the party - if you have a particularly snazzy home screen, jump on your phone and tweet us a pic with the hashtag, #showphone. We're giving away 5 Campaign Monitor t-shirts to our favorites, so either fire away on your handset, or use the pre-filled tweet box below:

We've announced the winners of our #showphone contest on Twitter. Many thanks to everyone who entered.

Back in February we started the search for two more designers to join the Campaign Monitor team. Initially we took the same approach we've used in the past; add the roles to our Jobs section, mention them in our blog and newsletter and spread the word across our network. We'd also post them on a targeted job board like Authentic Jobs—which has worked well in the past—and briefly chat to some recruiters we trust.

This, I imagine, is the approach taken by most companies. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. So here's my theory on why it often doesn't - we're looking for standout people, but the truth is that most standout people never make it to the job market. They're not looking for a job. They're being paid well and doing interesting work somewhere else, or they're freelancing and have potential clients lining up at their door.

Let's do something different

If the kind of designers we want to find aren't looking for a job, we needed another way to get these roles on their radar. Eventually we decided the best way to do that would be to create something worth sharing. Something designers would find interesting that they just might share with their peers.

A mini-site worth sharing

Drawing inspiration from the gorgeous Nike Better World and Best of 2010 site by Dave Gamache, we built a parallax-based single page site to promote the two roles and share a little about what it's like working for Campaign Monitor.

Targeted banner ads

We regularly advertise on a number of design-related ad networks like The Deck, Fusion Ads and Dribbble. For a couple of weeks we switched our usual promotions to focus on driving more designers to the hiring page.

Jesse, who was the brains behind the design of the landing page also added a screenshot of his work to Dribbble, where it made it to the Popular page for a few days.

The difference a little effort can make

Within 24 hours, our hiring page received more than 20,000 visitors. By the end of the week, that doubled to more than 40,000 different people who had checked it out.

The site also received more than 900 mentions on Twitter, driving close to 5,000 visitors in the first few days. To top it off, a number of high profile designers had some great things to say. The site was also picked up by a few popular design galleries and design-related blogs, further exposing these roles to the right crowd.

For the two weeks before our mini site, the Jobs section had 1,085 visitors. Within two weeks of the new site, more than 50,000 people had checked it out. In my mind that's well worth the few days work it took to put together.

More than 150 applicants

To date we've had just over 150 designers apply for the two roles. That's more than triple the response we've had for a previous design role we advertised, and I'd argue the market for great designers is even tighter now than it was then.

Welcome Matt and Pete

Out of the 150 applicants and other designers we spoke to over the last few weeks, there were some notable standouts. None more so than Matthew Farag, who put together a stunning application site specifically for the role at Campaign Monitor. He literally saw our move and raised us one.

Matthew started with us two weeks ago and you'll start to see some of his work in Campaign Monitor shortly. He's already having a big impact on the way we think about the personality and experience of our software.

We also recently welcomed Pete Usborne to the design team, who'll be starting with us in July. On top of a sweeping portfolio of work, Pete is also the brains behind Prevue—a gorgeous concept sharing tool for designers.

Worth the effort

Looking back at this little project, I couldn't be happier with the results. I'm confident we wouldn't have had anywhere near the kind of response we got if we'd just stuck with the usual approach. Recruitment, like just about everything a business does, is a marketing exercise.

If you care about finding great people, the first thing to remember is that typically, great people aren't looking for you. Whether it's through a memorable web site, your personal network or good old fashion headhunting, you need to put the effort into getting their attention.

The exact same lesson applies to job seekers too. Out of the 150 people that applied, more than 100 of them made little to no effort to make their application unique. I received the same cover letter and resume they likely sent to dozens of other jobs they also applied to. If someone can't take the time to read a little about the company they are applying for and reflect that in their approach, how much attention to detail will they have as a member of our team?

It's all about standing out.