Cisco
Regional co-marketing campaign: Cisco Partner Webcast Digital, covering 4 distributors and 24 partners.
Challenge
Cisco, looking for new ideas for lead generation activities, commissioned the creation of a Cisco marketing tool for partners that would automate the online engagement of new customers and the identification of customers with immediate needs. It was imperative to create a non-competitive environment (so that partners using the tool would not be competing against each other) and allow partners to highlight and enhance their expertise in the eyes of the market. It also had to address the reluctance of Cisco partners to participate in the preparation process (creating expertise materials), lead generation process, and reporting to the vendor.
Solution
An activity concept was developed: each partner would record several short webinars/webcasts on their customers' pain points and explain how a specific Cisco solution addresses these issues in real life. The topics were chosen by the partners based on their expertise. Webinar speakers were partner experts. Cisco ensured that topics from different partners did not overlap or compete with each other. The webinars created were stored in a separate content hub that was customized for each partner (branding, tone of voice, additional materials). Each content hub was promoted separately on behalf of the partner, but as part of a centralized Cisco strategy. During promotions, users register and view webinars/webcasts, which are then qualified and sent to partner sales.
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Implementation
The approach created a comprehensive, centralized program that allowed partners to independently define their areas of deep expertise and determine the topics and solutions they wanted to discuss with the market. Cisco worked with distributors to ensure that different partners' topics did not conflict. A content hub platform was created that allowed for the creation of separate areas for each partner to showcase their own material, which was also integrated with the service to create interactive webinars and on-demand webcasts. Each space was customized according to the partners' and Cisco's branding guidelines. A landing page with a registration form served as the storefront for each content hub. Guides and instructions were developed for partners to create short, engaging and educational webinars.
Separate promotion and personalization strategies were developed for each of Cisco's focus areas (Security, Computing, Networking). At launch, each strategy was customized based on the partner's Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and the webinar topic. The primary filter for identifying potential customers was the specific "pain point" or problem faced by the partner's customers.
Based on the ICP and topic, promotional channels and user interaction mechanics were determined, creative was created, and existing content was adapted and new content created. Key tools included targeted advertising on social networks, content optimization for organic search results, and trigger-based email campaigns. The BANT methodology was used for lead qualification.
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Results
4 distributors and 24 Cisco partners participated in the program, creating over 60 webinars. On average, 40 to 80 unique users attended each webinar. Over two quarters, the program generated more than 250 marketing qualified leads (MQL) and more than 150 sales qualified leads (SQL).
Process automation minimized partner involvement:
- Partner provides their brand book.
- The partner describes their expertise, selects topics, and receives supporting materials.
- Partner's expert spends a maximum of 2-4 hours recording videos.
- Receives sales leads within 3-4 weeks.
