Marketing software as a service presents a unique challenge, as the “product” can never be touched, smelled, tasted or even owned. Despite this, more and more people are becoming familiar with the concept of “cloud marketingTM”—hosting marketing resources online where clients can access and control them. And where there’s cloud marketing, there’s SharedVueTM.
“Cloud marketing” is a term Raleigh, NC-based SharedVue Marketing Technologies created to describe its software-as-a-service marketing solutions, which are geared toward large enterprise companies with strong channel marketing networks. Clients include Cisco, Salesforce.com, VMWare and Hewlett-Packard.
The company recently enlisted Strategic Insights to define its brand and VBP, launch a “best practices” website and develop a cohesive marketing plan to promote it. The company’s initial site was largely static and had outlived its usefulness. Business Development Director Steve Swain used what he was learning in the field to help Strategic Insights shape the proper messaging for both the enterprise and channel audiences.
Strategic Insights designed and built the new site with web 2.0 best practices, brand integrity and lead generation in mind, using the homepage as a portal to draw visitors in deeper. In addition to rotating main messages and testimonials, four “action modules” invite a prospect to click through and learn more about various aspects of the company and how it can help one’s channel marketing efforts. “Recent Buzz” is fed into the homepage from an externally-hosted blog and a SharedVue demo can be easily requested and scheduled via an ever-present pop-down form.
“We’re really excited about the potential for the new site,” commented John Brown, SharedVue’s Chief Technology Officer. “It’s proving to be not only an effective marketing tool, but a great lead generator.”
To promote the new site, and SharedVue in general, Strategic Insights launched a robust social media campaign. “Cloud Marketing” became its own microsite and blog to educate the industry on the newly coined term, and an accompanying Wikipedia article used SharedVue as an example of companies working in the field. LinkedIn professional group invitations, blog postings and Twitter activity all contributed to the microsite’s eventual #1 ranking in a Google search for “cloud marketing.”
Companies like Google and IBM have made “cloud computing” a widely used term in the technosphere. SharedVue aims to build on that awareness and earn broader acceptance of “cloud marketing” as a standalone industry.
To date, SharedVue attributes more than 300 qualified leads to the website and Strategic Insights’ accompanying online marketing efforts.
[2020 update: SharedVue was purchased by Zift Solutions and has redirected the original URL]
