B2B Marketing Case Study – Building on Owned Media

Background

Imagine that, as a salesperson, you can simply touch an app on your smartphone screen and access a vast repository of helpful resources – anytime, anywhere. A repository that is constantly growing, and even recommending you new and relevant content to help make your job easier.

With the launch of SalesConnect, Cisco partners no longer had to imagine. This mobile app was something never before seen: Cisco’s extensive content library in one place, with reviewing and deal tracking features to boot. It was designed with one purpose in mind – to enable partners to “spend less time searching, and more time selling”.

Partners have always been a crucial part of the Cisco ecosystem, and with SalesConnect, they could now operate even more effectively, with less reliance on direct Cisco support. The app’s value was obvious. But Cisco had to get the word out and encourage adoption, starting with the APJC region.

This is where GetIT came in.

Solution: Owned Media and the Interactive Element

SalesConnect is freely available to all Cisco partners through the App Store and Google Play. But those alone would not spread the word. The app needed a home – a platform owned by Cisco, where they could have direct control over the marketing effort.

Thus was born ciscosalesconnect.com, the SalesConnect home site. Traffic was driven to the site with a media-mix of eDMs and web banners targeting Cisco’s partners across APJC.

To distill and communicate SalesConnect’s unique value proposition, GetIT created a visual explainer for the site, depicting a salesperson discovering the app through an animated journey. The visual element, plus the video’s light-hearted tone – a departure from standard Cisco branding – helped introduce SalesConnect in a relatable manner. 

The linchpin of the campaign, however, was the ‘Cisco SalesConnect Challenge’. This was a quiz on the app’s capabilities, conducted in waves, at the end of which partners were invited to leave opinions and comments on how it would help them in their roles. The best of these responses won prizes, and were featured prominently on ciscosalesconnect.com as testimonials. 

Results

The inclusion of an incentivised quiz helped greatly in encouraging partners to start using SalesConnect, instead of just downloading it for the sake of participation. Cisco partners from all across the region turned up in the ‘best response’ shortlists, including Singapore, Australia, India, Japan, Thailand, and New Zealand.

The SalesConnect campaign was successful in fostering awareness and adoption of the app in APJC. GetIT continues to help maintain ciscosalesconnect.com and localise it for Cisco partners in other regions worldwide.

Later on, to educate partners on SalesConnect’s subsequent integration with Salesforce, GetIT teamed up with Cisco’s product specialists to showcase the details in an animated ‘day in the life of a salesperson’ video series.