My former business partners and I launched iPressGo when Campaigner, an email service provider in Canada, approached us. They were looking for a service fulfillment company to manage over 50 Managed Service Provider client accounts they had just acquired.
The accounts came with a library of hundreds of Information Technology related articles. These articles needed to be exported into a new blogging platform that would also integrate with Campaigner’s email service.
Emails would need to be automatically sent to the client’s subscribers when new blog posts were published to create an automated content marketing system.
"This project brought in an average of $15k in monthly recurring revenue in our first year of business..."
— Michelle Ferrucci
While my partners worked on cleaning and importing email subscriber lists – I got to work with WordPress.
Exported articles came from a custom built blogging platform so I needed to convert the data to be imported into WordPress.
Beyond the technical aspect, I needed to create a brand for this new service that included visual identity, build the actual client account platform in WordPress with a website to provide support, then design sales and marketing materials.
Because Campaigner needed to onboard these clients within just a few weeks of acquiring them, I had to take a Lean approach to converting the data, building out the platform, and deciding which support documents would need to be included with the launch.
To save time, I created a text based logo then a Style Tile instead of full page mockups to focus on key style aspects.
After reviewing the Style Tile with the team, I was able to jump into development by building a WordPress Multisite network, containing subsite blogs for each client account.
Using the power of WordPress plugins, I was able to quickly import the blog post data, establish access restrictions by user types, and add functionality to copy articles from the library to subsites using a front end client request form.
For each email account, the team and I created a quick process to create branded email templates within Campaigner and integrate it with the account’s blog on the WordPress network.
Within 3 weeks, I was able to deliver a working version of the platform. Testing and troubleshooting was done prior to release to ensure scheduled emails were sent out from Campaigner with new posts that published to each account’s blog on WordPress.
After Campaigner signed off on the platform, we created tutorial videos, a knowledge base, and worked with our new clients to onboard them to their new platform, showing its ease of use and automation.
The short time frame to plan, build, and manage this project made simplicity the driving force that influenced every decision made.
I enjoyed the challenge of having to “throw away” ideas and approaches we could have done. It forced me to stay focused on the client and what they ultimately needed right at that time.
"The iPressGo Library ended up being a stronghold and profitable area of our services."
– Michelle Ferrucci
Connecting with other creative entrepreneurs is such a fun process – let’s brainstorm!
