Thought leadership content program

CHALLENGE:

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As a modern people platform for small and medium businesses, Gusto has a unique opportunity to provide insight into impactful topics around the future of work, including the economy, employment and benefits trends, and diversity, equity and inclusion. After partnering with Mission North on a successful thought leadership program advocating for small businesses during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mission North and Gusto shifted focus in 2021 and 2022 to guide small and medium businesses, as well as startups, on the complex workplace topics shaping a post-pandemic world.

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Goals included:

• Position Gusto as a valued partner for startups and midsize/growing companies as well as small businesses
• Highlight how Gusto helps businesses provide health insurance and other crucial benefits while fostering equitable post-pandemic workplaces
• Build Gusto’s employer brand as a values-driven company solving complex, real-world problems

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STRATEGY: 

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Mission North activated an always-on thought leadership program centered around key future of work themes, including how to build equitable post-pandemic workplaces, hiring tech talent, values-driven leadership, and financial health. We tapped into the expertise of more than 10 Gusto executives to extract compelling points of view aligned with trending news moments. Then, we developed owned and earned content to highlight Gusto’s point of view on timely topics related to our foundational themes.

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Topics included supporting small businesses for the long haul, workplace benefits for a remote-first world, inclusive hiring practices among engineering teams, and the importance of company values in a challenging hiring market. Mission North leveraged relationships with editors at top-tier business publications and key trade outlets to place contributed articles, and used a paid amplification strategy to reach target audiences on Twitter and LinkedIn. 

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IMPACT: 

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In 2021 and 2022, Mission North has developed 21 pieces of content. This includes two internal blogs and 19 thought-provoking contributed articles, which appeared in top-tier national outlets including Fortune, CNN, HBR, WIRED, Protocol, Insider and Fast Company. Our paid amplification strategy drove traffic not only to promoted posts and earned articles but to Gusto’s website and careers page, with some posts seeing click-through rates as high as 6.5%.

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These placements resulted in true business and industry impact, including:

• An op-ed in WIRED on how tech is still failing trans employees compelled a senior engineering leader to interview with Gusto–even when she wasn’t looking for a new job.
• A blog on Gusto’s embedded payroll product turned a customer lead into a win.
• The trusted PR resource Sam Whitmore Media Survey highlighted a VentureBeat op-ed as “true thought leadership.”

An op-ed in Fortune helped secure a speaking slot for Gusto’s Chief Security Officer at Fortune Brainstorm Tech.