• Celebrating the Brilliant Minds of Women in Business and Healthcare

    Celebrating the Brilliant Minds of Women in Business and Healthcare

    The month of March is Women’s History Month, with a special spotlight on International Women’s Day. As a young woman in healthcare public relations, and part of a growing entity, I sit back and think what this movement means not only to me, but my female colleagues and the clients we work with in the space. International Women’s Day is the beginning of a year-long effort to bring pressing gender-equality issues to light across the world. This year’s theme of #BalanceforBetter includes a wide range of issues like gender bias, social justice, discrimination and advancement to leadership with one goal in mind – creating a gender-balanced world. It sounds possible and, in my small world as an Account Manager at Matter, I do recognize change is happening – in my field and my clients.

    At Matter, we do not set limitations on growth if you are male or female. Matter focuses on many qualities to bring someone on board. Primarily, if you put in the effort and if you care about the results you are driving for your clients, you will be recognized. I have been with Matter for just over four years and in my short career here, I have been given numerous opportunities for growth that have positively shaped my experience working at Matter and my entire career trajectory. More specifically, the opportunity to focus on one industry – healthcare.

    While Matter offers a range of industry experts, over the past few years, I have had the opportunity to focus solely on healthcare. It’s been a passion of mine since I started in PR over eight years ago, and it continues to be a driving force for my growth at Matter. Recently, we launched our official Matter Health brand. It’s an exciting milestone for the company but also myself as a manager on our healthcare team. Being part of a growing division at Matter and in an area of public relations that by nature is competitive, complex and behind the times, challenges my skills and experience every day. As women in healthcare PR, we challenge ourselves and the industry to listen to what we have to say, learn a difficult subject matter and foster growth for other PR gals to follow.

    Outside of Matter’s culture, we work with many strong, young female entrepreneurs and executives. Although women make up the majority of the healthcare workforce, they head only 4% of healthcare companies, according to a Rock Health report. Working with a handful of female leaders, all under 40 years old, is extremely inspiring not only to the future of healthcare but also the future of female leadership and gender equality.

    Unlike PR – where women make up 65% of the workforce – healthcare is historically male dominated. From the doctors on staff, to the C-suite and advisory board members, it can be difficult for women in this field to be seen. I am certainly not knocking on the work our male counterparts have done. Major strides and innovative solutions have come from male leadership. With that said – and keeping in mind our goal for gender-equality – the lack of female CEOs is an issue. A recent Oliver Wyman report found that 80 percent of decisionmakers in the U.S. healthcare workforce are women and 65 percent of women in C-suite healthcare positions. Those are promising numbers however, only 13 percent make it to CEO.

    Our female-led clients like ZappRx, CarePort Health, and Ixcela have faced and continue to face challenges associated with being a woman leader in health care. As their organizations continue to thrive, our team is tasked with highlighting not only the work they are doing within the organization and for health care, but applauding their leadership as a young, female entrepreneur. Over the course of the past year, we have generated buzz to highlight their accomplishments including features in Forbes, NECN CEO Corner, Thrive Global, Chief Executive, Becker’s Healthcare and 103.3 AMP Radio, to name a few. In today’s competitive media landscape, feature stories are few and far between, but the innovative minds and work our female clients are accomplishing certainly makes our job easier. People want to celebrate female successes and wins, and, as healthcare PR professionals, we make that celebration even more substantial through the media.

    As we look towards the year ahead, Matter will be laser-focused on creating an equal workplace as well as continue to seek out women-led organizations to work with. Personally, it’s inspiring to connect with women truly making a difference, not only in healthcare by making this complex space more effective, but also by bridging the gender-equality gap and showing the power female-driven organizations have on our society.

    Matter

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  • 6 Tools for Measuring Marketing ROI

    6 Tools for Measuring Marketing ROI

    Knowing if your inbound and digital marketing campaigns are resulting in increased revenue is vital for remaining competitive in any industry, but it also helps you measure the success of your campaigns and prioritize your efforts. Luckily, there are several free tools for you to use.

    As a marketing manager, you dedicate your time and effort to building and executing strategic campaigns that are geared towards increasing awareness, attracting more leads, and establishing your brand as an industry thought leader.  

    Perhaps you put the marketing budget towards a newly designed website or a paid advertising campaign on social media, or you spent billable hours creating a content offer. Whatever it is, you are making an investment in something you hope will achieve your goals, and ideally you would like to see a return on that investment (ROI), whether that means you gain customers or build a larger audience.  

    Seeing results from a strategic marketing plan takes time, and sometimes campaign strategies need to be shifted slightly to improve those results. There are a variety of tools that can help you track the performance of your inbound and content marketing campaigns, verify your strategy is working, and see how you measure up against your competition. Here are six of our favorites at Matter Portsmouth.

    ROI Calculator

     Shameless plug alert! Calypso recently developed a great tool to help you and your team calculate the return of your inbound efforts. Our ROI calculator is a great tool to use to learn how your analytics impact your bottom line. To begin, the calculator will ask you for the following criteria:

    • Average monthly website visitors 
    • Average monthly website leads
    • Percentage of qualified leads
    • Close rate percentage
    • Customer lifetime value

    With a simple click of a button, the calculator reveals the following:

    • Conversion rate
    • Average new customers per month
    • Average qualified leads per month
    • Gross profit per month

     This tool provides an accurate picture of your organization’s growth (or decline).

    Hotjar

    Hotjar is a user-friendly feedback and analytics tool that allows an organization to collect user behavior data from its website. By adding Hotjar to your site, you can observe how visitors interact with your website content. The tool provides live recordings and visual data that represent various activities like page taps, scrolls, and clicks. 

    This information helps you get an understanding of visitor activities so you can improve user experience (the better the visitor experience, the increased likelihood of converting and retaining visitors). Hotjar has a free version that gives users limited access, but also offers a variety of paid options with increased benefits as well.

    Google Analytics

    Google Analytics is a website analytics platform that helps users understand their customers. Google Analytics reveals data on a month-to-month basis, which can be used for a monthly progress report. You can also analyze your conversion rate, which is an indication of how many visitors are either opening your emails, signing up for a consultation, or filling out a submission form. 

    Google Analytics provides information on the viewers’ demographics, how long they are staying on the website (bounce rate), and what devices they are visiting your website on. Once the visitor becomes a customer and invests in your product or service, you can say that your strategic marketing initiative is successfully increasing the ROI. 

    Website Grader

    Website Grader, a free tool powered by HubSpot, analyzes your website and provides an overall score by measuring upload speed, mobile optimization, search engine optimization (SEO), and security. 

    If the website grader gives you a poor grade, it is an indication that you may need to make some changes to improve your user’s experience. A website that is slow to load or is distorted on a mobile device will only discourage users from visiting your website, and if your SEO isn’t working, visitors won’t even be able to find you in the first place. 

    As your website is often one of your most important sales tools and doesn’t come cheap, protect your investment by making sure your website is attracting the right visitors and keeps them coming back. 

    Facebook Insights

    Facebook Insights is a tool that discloses information on how your social media account is performing. It can easily track the performance of your Facebook page and each individual post, as well as your followers’ behaviors. Facebook Insights helps to optimize social presence. 

    For example, out of three posts that contain either text, video, or photography, you may notice a video post has the most engagement (viewers, comments, likes, and shares). When studying your audience, you realize your followers are most active on Facebook between the hours of 7:00 pm and 9:00 pm. To optimize your content, your company should consider posting during the “active” times and to utilize video content to obtain the largest reach.

    Paying attention to your visitors’ habits and making adjustments based on those findings will help improve your digital presence and engagement on social media. In turn, the money or time you spend on social media management will be worth the investment.

    HubSpot Marketing Dashboard

    As a proud HubSpot partner, we couldn’t forget the HubSpot Marketing Dashboard. The one-stop-shop for all of your important marketing analytics. In a few seconds, you will be able to see how your website is performing, as well as your overall inbound marketing endeavors. 

    Perhaps during your internal brainstorm with your team, you decided to focus on blogging for the upcoming year to help increase awareness and reveal your premier industry knowledge. In your meeting, you build a strategic content calendar that outlines specific blog topics and frequency. 

    When implementing your blog campaign, the HubSpot Marketing Dashboard can streamline the process. It shows how many blogs have been published, how many views you’ve had on each blog, and how many subscribers you’ve received as a result of your campaign. 

    Developing a strategic plan is crucial to the success of any marketing campaign. However, understanding when to make changes to your strategy is also important. Utilizing the tools outlined above will help your team make the necessary adjustments to ensure you are optimizing ROI.

    Matter

  • It’s a Spectrum: The Importance of Color Correction

    It’s a Spectrum: The Importance of Color Correction

    Consumers are exposed to dozens of online videos every day, making the competition to stand out fierce. But what’s the “it” factor that sets apart amazing video content from mediocre video content? Color correction.

    Everything from storytelling, cinematography, production design, and editing are all key elements to producing a great video. However, color correction is an often-overlooked step. Color correction isn’t a new idea; it started way before consumers were swimming in a sea of digital video content. Visually stunning videos owe it to filmmaker George Melies for popularizing color correction in the early 1900s.

    When cameras were only capable of shooting black and white, director George Melies felt limited in his storytelling. He was one of the first filmmakers to add color to black and white film during post-production. He hired Elisabeth Thuillier (a painter) to add color to his film, and she, along with her studio of over 200 people, hand painted film stock frame by frame to add color. As a result, George became famous for his highly stylized films and innovative use of color. George Melies’s most famous film, A Trip to the Moon, played a big part in pioneering modern color correction and grading.

    Today, color correction and grading can be completed digitally by one person instead of by a team of painters, which allows even novice editors to improve their video content simply by learning the basics of color correction and grading.

    What’s the difference between color correction and color grading?

    Color correcting is the process of adjusting the exposure, white balance, ISO noise, and contrast of an image to fix mistakes in the camera settings and enhance information from flat profiles. Basically, you are digitally altering the raw footage to match how the human eye perceives it. With color correction, the goal is to create a uniformed look for your footage that’s also aesthetically pleasing for viewers.

    Once the footage has been corrected, the next step in the process is color grading. Now that you’ve adjusted the technical aspects of the footage, you can be creative and play with the look. Matching the color between different shots, changing the color of one specific part of the image, or enhancing the specific tones to pop on screen are all part of the color grading process. These adjustments result in a more stylized look that sets the mood and tone of your video.

    Why Color Correction Matters 

    Color correcting videos isn’t useful for large film studios alone; it’s the new standard for online video content. With technology advancements and visual dependent platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube, people expect high-quality visuals. Hitting record on your webcam doesn’t cut it anymore–brands, digital creators, and even vloggers are stepping up their video content game, and color correcting is one of the ways they are doing it. Here are a few reasons why color correction and color grading make your video content more dynamic and professional.

    Get the Most Out of Your Footage

    No matter how fancy your camera is or how skilled your cinematographer is, color correcting and grading is the best way to get the highest quality image. Many digital cameras have the option to shoot in a RAW camera format, which captures the flattest possible color spectrum. The color may look dull while you are filming, but RAW footage enables you to further manipulate the image in post-production. Considering all of the variables that change over the course of the day when filming, such as weather and lighting, choosing to turn off in-camera artificial enhancements and shooting flat footage ensures that you’ll have the greatest ability to adjust the image later. This allows editors to match camera shots to each other and create something that will capture an audience’s attention.

    Increased Production Value

    Color correction is an inexpensive way to increase the production value of all your content. As digital content creators, we all have to find ways to increase the production value without increasing the budget. In fact, our favorite color correction software to use, DaVinci Resolve by Blackmagic Designs, is free to download. Strong color correction and grading help separate professional content creators from amateurs. Your audience already associates color-corrected footage with professional level work, even if they don’t realize it. As media consumers, we are so accustomed to seeing highly stylized footage in TV shows and films that anything else looks amateur by comparison. It’s a big reason why your cell phone videos don’t look like Star Wars.

    Storytelling

    We all strive to create content that is engaging and concise. Color grading is another tool you can utilize to tell your brand’s story. Color will resonate emotionally with your audience because colors subconsciously generate moods. Emphasizing bright colors in the footage can create an upbeat and happy mood, while making dark, muted tones the focus will set a more serious and bleak tone.

    You don’t have to commit to a super-stylized look because even a subtle color grade will help drive your message home. Additionally, if you’re a brand that puts out video content regularly, you can develop unique color looks that you use across all your content. The color in your digital video content is just as much a part of your brand identity as the color of your logo.

    While more complicated than slapping an Instagram filter on an iPhone video or making everything sepia, the results are infinitely better! It’s an extra step in your post-production workflow but the time investment will pay off when you see an increase in the number of viewers on your online videos. Color is emotion. It’s a language we use to tell stories. The color of your videos helps keep your audience engaged. And an engaged audience will help your bottom line.

    Matter

  • Out of Office with Senior Motion Graphics Designer, Nicole Bedard

    When she’s not at her desk developing motion graphics, Nicole Bedard takes time to recharge by jumping out of planes. Nicole is the senior motion graphics designer at Matter and has been working out of our Newburyport office for two and a half years. Take a look inside the exciting world of competitive skydiving in this installment of Matter Out of Office.

    Q: Tell us a bit about your passions outside of your motion graphics work.

    A: When I’m not at work, I like to go home and cuddle my fuzzy cats. I love to cook and… I like to jump from planes. Skydiving is the only place that I can be truly in the moment and not think about anything else that’s going on in life besides what’s happening in those few seconds of free fall. If I am stressed or worried about something, one of the best things I can do is just put on my rig, get in a plane and jump out of it. That’s when I’m truly in the moment.

    Q: So why skydiving? What excites you about it?

    A: I skydive for many reasons. There’s a great community of people that look out for each other and are always willing to offer advice. Not to mention, they’re just a hell of a lot of fun to be around. I also skydive for the challenge. There’s always something new to learn or a new skill to master. Believe it or not, it’s hard to fall with grace, so I challenge myself and my team to be better. And finally, I do it for competition. This year I’m on an all-female skydiving team called Fly Girls. We’re training for the national competition in September and then the World Cup in October.

    Q: What has been your favorite skydiving memory?

    A: I have a few that have to do with my big firsts. My 100th skydive, my 500th skydive —  those definitely stick out. I once rode out of the back of the plane in a raft and separately rode out of the back of the plane on a hot dog. I’ve jumped from a hot air balloon, which was a completely different experience as it is completely silent —no wind in your face. Joining my parents in freefall during their tandem skydives was also pretty special.

    Q: Being a woman in a sport that’s mostly made up of men,  how important is it to you to support other women?

    A: Women are in the minority in the sport of skydiving (according to the United States Parachute Associate, we make up just 13% of members) and that can be a little intimidating to some newer skydivers. It’s important for me to be a part of events and organizations that build the female community in the sport, and provide encouragement and guidance to newer female skydivers. We have a really active Sisters in Skydiving group at the dropzone where I do most of skydiving and we actually set a new record for the largest female formation in the state of Maine last year.

    Q: What are skills you’ve learned from skydiving that have helped your professional career?

    A: First, I would say I’ve learned a lot about teamwork. Teamwork is so important in skydiving. You couldn’t be on a functional team without it. We help each other learn by understanding our faults and figuring out how we can be better. While we’re competitive, it’s not cut throat, which is similar to my work here at Matter. I want to support my colleagues and help them grow by helping them realize their potential and produce their best work.

    Also, skydiving has helped me gain confidence. Every time I step on that plane, I calculate risk which has given me more confidence. In business, especially in this creative field, you need to take risks and have confidence in yourself.  So anytime I feel really nervous about something, I think, “I jumped from planes. If I can jump from planes, I can do this thing. I’m total badass, I can handle it.”

    Q: How do you balance your work with your passions outside the office?  

    A: There are definitely long days, but that’s to be expected when you work at an agency. Work/life balance is really important here at Matter and I think it’s important in general, because to do good work you need time to recharge. Matter recognizes that and gives us all a chance to rejuvenate, recharge, and come back the next day ready to go.

    Q: What’s your favorite aspect of Matter?

    A: That’s really hard to answer because there’s so much that I love about Matter. I love the work that I do. I love that no two days here are ever the same. We have such a diverse group of clients and every project is different. I love the people that I work with. They’re people that you want to spend your days with rather than you have to spend your days with. They’re fun, supportive and, well, a little weird. Also, you can’t get mad at the beautiful sea shore here in Newburyport.

    Q: What do you love about your role here and what are some of your career highlights?

    A: As a motion designer, I would say that I’m a jack of all trades. I’m often given the opportunity to champion all stages of a project — from scripting voiceovers to designing storyboards to animating and editing final videos. However, some of the most rewarding moments of my career have been when I’ve been able to collaborate on projects with other creatives. We have such a talented group of creative professionals here at Matter and I’ve been lucky enough to create some amazing work with them.  I know my work is out there for the wider world to see, which when you’re creating things, you want to be able to share that with people.  Some projects that come to mind are a brand manifesto for Serrala and an infographic turned motion graphic for Mavenir, both which happen to be award winning projects! I’m also super proud of a kinetic type animation that we just wrapped for a soon-to-to released typeface by Monotype. 

    Q: What advice would you give someone trying to make it in the Motion Graphics world?

    A: It’s important to keep up with the industry you’re in. Follow your favorite designers and studios. Keep a collection of work that inspires you. And most importantly, never stop learning. There is a limitless number of skills, techniques and visual styles that you can explore. Continuing to develop your skills will not only make you a stronger motion designer, it will allow you to remain passionate about your profession throughout your career.

    Matter

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  • Marketing Mojo: Insights from One Door CMO & SVP of Product, Tom Erskine

    Marketing Mojo: Insights from One Door CMO & SVP of Product, Tom Erskine

    Julianna Sheridan, account manager at Matter, recently spoke with One Door CMO and SVP of product, Tom Erskine, to discuss B2B marketing, the retail industry and more. Check out the video from the interview and read the full conversation below.

    Julianna Sheridan (JS): Tom, tell us a little bit about yourself and One Door.

    Tom Erskine (TE): I’m the senior vice president of product and chief marketing officer here at One Door. I’ve been in the B2B marketing business for 23 years. In my role at One Door, I’m responsible for our product management team and our marketing team, working with a our president and CEO E. Y. Snowden, who was one of my first bosses about 20 years ago. We work in the retail industry and provide a software application for retailers with a new and different approach to the way they merchandise their stores. Our software enables retailers to do a better job of communicating their visual merchandising plans between headquarters and their store teams. This is a big problem in retail because it’s still a very manual process with paper and binders. At One Door, we digitized this process.

    JS: What marketing initiatives at One Door will you invest in more heavily over the next year?

    TE: Great question. One of the big initiatives for us in 2019 from a marketing perspective is to create consistent and excellent content throughout the year. The buying process has become much more of a team decision and there are more people involved now than ever before. We need to give our salespeople, buyers and proponents the appropriate content to generate interest in our solution within their organizations, and solicit support for our application within their teams.

    JS: Interesting. And, what would you say is becoming less of a priority?

    TE: Not really less of a priority, but one thing worth noting is that we’re shifting to a more account-based marketing approach. We’re focusing less on things like the classic metrics-  sales-qualified leads and marketing-qualified leads – which have been commonplace in the industry for a long time. Instead, we’re focusing more on account-based metrics. For example: Where do our relationships stand with  accounts? How many people are reading our content? How broad is our support within the 122 accounts we’re targeting around the world?

    JS: At the beginning of the year, One Door attended NRF. How do you amplify your presence at trade shows to stand out in such a crowded market?

    TE: Amplifying your presence at a trade show when you’re a company of our size and scale is difficult. Whatever you can do to let your customers do the talking makes a big difference. Our customers are some of the world’s largest brands and they attract people far more than we ever could – no matter how successful we are at building our brand. For one of our customers to do a presentation speaking about our software, where over 470 attendees show up to a 250-seat theater—that’s pretty remarkable.

    JS: Are there any companies or marketers you admire, in terms of their approach and/ormarketing strategies?

    TE: I think I’d probably point to HubSpot. It’s a Boston-based company that’s done a great job. They took a commoditized marketing tool and created this idea of inbound, which differentiated itself in a crowded space. Another company I’ve always respected and admired is Salesforce. It has been great at just riding the wave and truly tackling industry trends like cloud and AI-  their ability to do that is harder than it looks and it’s impressive to watch.

    JS: Amazon is obviously a huge player in the retail industry. What can marketers learn from Amazon?

    TE: Amazon is a remarkable company. It’s done an incredible job creating an operational and fulfillment distribution machine, listening to its customers to create an incredible customer experience, and also branching out to new industries. Do I consider them a world-class marketer? Actually, I’m not sure that I do. While I think Amazon is an incredible company, when it comes to companies that I look to for ideas about how to be a world-class marketer, I wouldn’t say that I’d put Amazon at the top of that list.

    JS: You recently announced a partnership with Oracle. How do you leverage a big name like that in your own marketing?

    TE: One of the things we’re most excited about our relationship with Oracle is that its sales team (that’s much larger than ours) gets excited about jointly marketing and selling our application. While doing a release with a company like Oracle certainly helps us establish credibility, at the end of the day, it is all about the relationship and what we’ll deliver. Our recent Oracle release showcases our ability to bring our two applications together and deliver value for our customers.

    JS: How do you get customers to participate in things like speaking opportunities and testimonial videos? How important are your customers to your marketing strategy?

    TE: We ask them a lot and never stop asking.  Most importantly, we first need to deliver value and a good customer experience to develop that trusted relationship. This makes the request a lot easier. When our customers speak at events, it helps establish them within the industry. We try to emphasize this so they don’t think they’re just promoting One Door, but rather showcasing their impressive accomplishments.

    JS: What do you think will be the next “big thing” in retail? VR? Robots? Voice? Beacons?

    TE: You mentioned a couple things there. All those things are great eye candy and have real business value. We’ve seen Pepper the robot walking the aisles. We’ve seen companies starting to do a great job using AI to match the products they sell with what customers want. But the biggest thing in retail for the next year or two is combining AI and automation to streamline processes as the way companies do business. Retail is a difficult business because there are so many logistics involved to get products from point A to point B. When you help retailers digitally transform, you recognize how non-digital some of those processes still are. Helping retailers use automation, intelligence, AI and analytics to streamline and automate will drive changes in the customer experience and profitability.

    JS: What KPIs are most critical to your executive team and board? How are you being asked to measure the effectiveness of your marketing and PR programs?

    TE: As the head of marketing, the most important thing is: How much are we selling? At the end of the day, what really matters is how much we’re partnering with our sales organization to help bring in deals, get deals across the line, and help to build our top line revenue. From a marketing metrics perspective, as we’ve shifted to an account-based marketing approach, we’re focusing a lot more on: How are we doing in terms of getting engagement within our 122 target accounts? How many people are we talking to within those accounts? How deep is that engagement? How often are we interacting with them?

    JS: Why is PR an important part of your marketing strategy? What are some of the benefits of working with an agency like Matter?

    TE: When we look at our sales pipeline and our marketing funnel, we look at it in three stages. The first stage is to educate and help customers gain awareness. The second is to help those customers prioritize and understand that it’s important for them to solve this problem now. Finally, the third is to convince them that One Door and Merchandising Cloud are the right tools to help them solve the problem and to do the job. If you think about those three different buckets of work, Matter and our PR strategy applies across all of them because it helps to amplify the message. Our PR results help drive awareness and help customers understand the ROI. The relationships our PR team fosters with the analyst community and trade press help get the word out about our continuous innovations. We’re really thankful that we have a partner like Matter to help us accomplish our goals across all three of those areas.

    JS: When you first joined the company, it was called RBM Technologies. What has the process been to rebrand and how do you get customers to care about One Door?

    TE: The branding process has been an adventure. First of all, we love the One Door brand. You asked me before about trade shows. Sure, we let our customers do the talking. But, one of the things we wanted when we created the One Door brand was a logo that stood out in a sea of logos. So, we imagined ourselves walking the halls of a trade show trying to find a brand that stood out -we think we’ve accomplished that. Our brand has more of a human touch than your typical B2B brand. Especially in the retail space, a lot of the brands tend to be a impersonal and cold. Our brand is also authentic to the culture that we believe we’ve created here and people are excited about it.

    Check out more from our Marketing Mojo series here!

    Julianna Sheridan

  • Matter Communications Named Agency of Record for Signal Sciences

    Full-Service PR Agency Will Propel LA-Based Cyber Security Company in the Marketplace, Improve Business Outcomes and Increase Overall Awareness

    BOSTON – March 20, 2019 – Matter Communications — a Brand Elevation Agency specializing in PR, social media, creative services and digital marketing — today announced it has been named the agency of record (AOR) for Signal Sciences. The fastest growing application security company in the world, Signal Sciences secures the most important web applications, APIs and microservices of the world’s leading enterprises.

    Through its industry-leading technology, Signal Sciences has tripled its customer count and yearly revenue, while recently announcing a $35 million round of funding. It now protects more than 10,000 web applications and more than a trillion web requests per month. Signal Sciences works across financial services, retail, healthcare, media and entertainment, and government sectors, and its client base features five of the top global ecommerce companies and five of the largest U.S. software companies.

    “As the global leader in web application security, we need an agency partner that understands our business and industry inside and out, and one we can rely on during this critical time in our company’s evolution,” said Sharon Thompson, vice president of marketing at Signal Sciences. “We’ve already seen a huge influx of high-quality coverage around funding, expansion and thought leadership. If this is any indication of our future with Matter, I am confident we will reach — and exceed — the lofty goals we’ve laid out to break through the noise.”

    Signal Sciences selected Matter to elevate its overall presence in the expanding and busy cyber security landscape through aggressive media relations campaigns and high-value speaking and award opportunities. Additionally, the Matter team will shape and execute a robust thought leadership program that highlights the company’s dynamic approach to cyber security.

    “Pairing a surging, innovative company like Signal Sciences with a full-service PR agency fluent in cyber security like Matter is a surefire way to differentiate outstanding work done in a crowded and competitive market,” said Scott Signore, CEO of Matter. “The team is already securing high-profile media opportunities, and we are looking forward to a healthy partnership that elevates Signal Sciences’ overall brand and awareness.”

    Shattering the limitations of the legacy Web Application Firewall (WAF) approach, Signal Sciences’ award-winning solution keeps business secure for its customers, including Under Armour, Adobe, Datadog, One Medical, WeWork and many others. Signal Sciences’ innovative technology eliminates the learning, tuning and complexity bogging down legacy WAF offerings. Matter’s work will help further educate the market on Signal Sciences’ clear marketplace advantages.

    With more than 160 professionals across offices in Boston and Newburyport, MA, Providence, RI, Pittsburgh, PA, Boulder, CO, and Portland, OR, Matter is one of the fastest-growing public relations, social media, creative and digital marketing firms in the country. Matter has won 11 “Agency of the Year” accolades in the past three years and has been recognized as a best place to work.

    About Matter Communications

    Matter is a Brand Elevation Agency, unifying public relations, social media, creative services, and digital marketing to create strategic, content-rich communications campaigns that inspire action and build value. Founded in 2003, with six offices spanning North America, Matter works with the world’s most innovative companies across healthcare, high-technology, consumer-technology and consumer markets. For more information, visit www.matternow.com.

     

    About Signal Sciences

    Signal Sciences is the fastest growing web application security company in the world. With its award-winning next-gen WAF and RASP solution, Signal Sciences protects over 10,000 applications and over a trillion production requests per month. Signal Sciences’ patented architecture provides organizations working in a modern development environment with comprehensive and scalable threat protection and security visibility. The company works with some of the world’s most recognizable companies, like Under Armour, Adobe and WeWork, across industries, including five of the top ecommerce companies, five of the largest software companies, in addition to many others in the financial services, retail, healthcare, media and entertainment, and government sectors. In 2018, Signal Sciences won Technology of the Year from InfoWorld and Computing’s DevOps Excellence Award for Best DevOps Security Tool.

    Contact

    Matter
    Erin Brooks, 720-400-8010
    [email protected]
    www.matternow.com

    Matter

  • Matter’s Open Door: Nonprofit Edition

    Matter’s Open Door: Nonprofit Edition

    Take a full circle approach to announcements in order to maximize visibility. When you issue a press release, make sure you are sharing with key contacts, posting to your website, sharing on social, and incorporating into your donor communications and presentations.

    Once you secure coverage, make sure you share it directly with your volunteers, your board, your donor relations team, your donors themselves, your constituents – anyone that supports or benefits from your organization. Positive coverage will reinforce the value of the services you offer and inspire loyalty among your stakeholders.

    -Sara Beth Fahey, Account Manager

    How can we tell which people we should pitch, and when?

    Be prepared to play the long game with the media. Building relationships takes time, persistence and patience – especially when you are just starting a PR program. Even if your outreach does not result in immediate coverage, finding a compelling reason to connect with reporters at a regular cadence generates awareness of your brand and builds the foundation for the media to remember your organization when your message is a right fit for a future story.

    Also, become a master at monitoring the news. Look for inspiration from other organizations, learn more about the hot topics impacting your industry, or find new outlets and media contacts who are reporting on your space. Keeping a pulse on the news ecosystem will have your team primed and ready for rapid response opportunities and will inspire creative media pitches that appeal to your audience.

    -Sage Morander, Assistant Account Executive

    How can we make our content really compelling to donors?

    Before, during and after your content efforts are in place, continually take time to get to know your donors and what motivated them to invest in your organization in the first place. They might have a direct connection to your group, or they benefit from the services you provide, or they engage with complementary services and organizations that can help you understand the full scope of what inspires them to act.

    Share those interesting personal stories so you can attract new donors and shine the light on those that are already supporting your efforts in amazing ways.

    -Loren Guertin, Account Manager

    What kind of success should we expect with media?

    Don’t think your news isn’t worthwhile just because it didn’t make it into the New York Times. Focus on sharing your story with the right media – the media that best serves your audience every day – which often means smaller, more niche or regional publications. Larger publications will begin learning your name when the smaller ones have started singing your praises.

    -Emma Goulding, Account Coordinator

    Curious about Matter’s Open Door free educational sessions? Fill out the form below and we will be in touch.

    Vanessa Boynton

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  • Matter Communications Announces Matter Health

    Full-Service PR Agency Affirms Commitment to Healthcare and Bolsters Existing Practice

    BOSTON – March 5, 2019 – Matter Communications – a Brand Elevation Agency specializing in PR, social media, creative services and digital marketing – today announces the launch of Matter Health, a dedicated brand for its flourishing healthcare practice. Reaffirming its commitment to the rapidly growing sector, the agency is launching Matter Health following numerous notable client additions and the success achieved on behalf of those innovative brands.

    Matter Health draws upon the industry expertise of its dedicated healthcare team, as well as the creativity and diverse resources across the agency. The practice will continue to support brands spanning the entire continuum of care as it expands its team and portfolio. From brand strategy to campaign execution, Matter Health offers integrated marketing services including public relations, social media, digital marketing and creative services. Matter launches the new brand on the heels of several notable additions to its client roster:

    • Atlantic Therapeutics: A manufacturer of innovative consumer medical devices for muscle strengthening and nerve stimulation to combat incontinence.
    • Corindus: The global technology leader in robotic-assisted vascular interventions, bringing robotic precision and smart procedural automation to percutaneous coronary and peripheral interventions.
    • ExceleraRx: A healthcare company which produces programs, products and innovative solutions, powered by a unique data platform, to position member health systems as preferred providers of high quality, lower cost, clinically integrated care for complex pharmacy patient
    • Kit Check: The leading provider of automated medication management and drug diversion (theft) detection solutions for hospital pharmacies.
    • Level Ex: Played by over 350,000 healthcare professionals, Level Ex creates medical video games that challenge physicians and sharpen their cognitive and analytical skills.
    • Myomo: A medical robotics company that develops devices with myoelectric technology to restore the mobility of individuals with arm paralysis or muscle weakness.
    • VitalWare: The leading mid-revenue cycle solutions provider, specializing in innovative applications that are deployed in more than 800 hospitals.

    “Whether you are a hospital CIO looking for a new electronic health record or a patient waiting on your prescription, healthcare touches all of us at one time or another,” said Scott Signore, CEO Matter Communications. “Matter Health is the commitment to the companies and people that make a difference in this high-stakes industry. We bring the perfect balance of industry knowledge, resources and creativity to help any organization looking to elevate their brand and navigate this quickly evolving industry.”

    Matter Health is led by Ryan Lilly, vice president of Matter’s existing healthcare group. Lilly has spent his career supporting communications programs for brands across the full spectrum of healthcare, including health tech, medical device, consumer, payers, providers, pharma, biotech and non-profit.

    “’Because we’ve always done it that way’ is perhaps the most dangerous way of approaching a communications program for modern healthcare brands,” added Lilly. “With Matter Health, we’ll build on our industry experience to deliver strategic communications campaigns, borrowing lessons from the various industries supported by Matter’s broader portfolio.”

    With more than 160 professionals in offices in Boston and Newburyport, MA, Providence, RI, Pittsburgh, PA, Boulder, CO, and Portland, OR, Matter is one of the fastest-growing public relations, social media, creative and digital marketing firms in the country. Matter has won 11 “Agency of the Year” accolades in the past three years and has been recognized as a best place to work. Matter was also recently ranked among the top 20 healthcare agencies worldwide by O’Dwyer’s PR News.  For more information on Matter Health, visit https://www.matternow.com/healthcare/

     

    About Matter Communications

    Matter is a Brand Elevation Agency, unifying public relations, social media, creative services, and digital marketing to create strategic, content-rich communications campaigns that inspire action and build value. Founded in 2003, with six offices spanning North America, Matter works with the world’s most innovative companies across healthcare, high-technology, consumer-technology and consumer markets. For more information, visit www.matternow.com.

     

    Contact

    Matter

    Ryan Lilly, 978-518-4533

    [email protected]

    www.matternow.com

    Matter