Member Campaign

The American Payroll Association (APA) is a member-based organization that provides education and resources to payroll professionals. Their membership drives provide a bi-annual boost to revenue by increasing its member base.

Role: Research, Content Creation, Design, Video Direction
Project timeframe: 3 months
Skills used: Surveys, Interviews, CSS, HTML

Discovery

Payroll professionals work long hours on a regular cycle in order to pay employees. They’re required to know a lot of information pertaining to processing payroll correctly, and that knowledge varies greatly based on employee type, location, and numerous other factors. Relying on external resources is key to their success.

User Research

I surveyed 50 payroll professionals and a sweeping majority of them admitted that they didn’t seek out the payroll position; they were simply tasked with it as part of their other professional duties.

While some payroll professionals have accounting backgrounds, roughly 85% of those surveyed did not have any education or training in payroll prior to accepting the role.

Approximately 65% of those surveyed were college-educated women in management-level positions.

Challenges

Payroll professionals are required to know more information than can be memorized for their roles. While new payroll software shoulders most of the burden, it must be set up and monitored with knowledge of the appropriate rules and regulations to ensure proper calculation.

The Problem Space

For some, payroll can be a recurring nightmare that happens once a month, bi-monthly, bi-weekly, weekly, or even daily. In addition to tight deadlines, frequently changing legislation causes strain. Payroll professionals rely on a wealth of knowledge and resources to stay on top of this information.

Solution

I helped develop the “Payroll and Beyond” membership campaign, which shifted the campaign focus to personal enjoyment outside of payroll.

The goal was to target payroll professionals’ pain points in a way that hadn’t previously been managed. The campaign achieved it by showcasing the time they’d have for themselves if they were properly equipped with the resources and training necessary to increase job efficiency.

Email

I wrote copy for email campaigns that showcased different scenarios to entice payroll professionals. The #PayrollAndBeyond hashtag to encourage them to interact through social media.