A major computer technology company was growing its presence in the field of online security. They had recently acquired a respected innovator in security and wanted to leverage its thought leadership through a sustained, content-driven digital lead nurturing campaign.
Their need:
They hired us to develop the messaging strategy for this campaign that would turn general relevance into high relevance in order to maximize penetration and impact.
Audience:
The target audience was IT directors responsible for networks of 500 plus users. At a general level, it was clear these directors would be interested in gaining greater clarity about the online security environment. But it was also clear that their in-boxes were already full of messages competing for their attention, so it was vital to dig down to a deeper level of relevance to drive results.
Our comprehensive process of internal discovery, user discussion and competitive analysis yielded important insights.
Insight 1: Our audience consisted of two mindsets:
- IT decision makers concerned about maintaining network security.
- IT decision makers concerned about improving network security.
Insight 2: We wanted to reach both the forward thinkers and the survivors.
Insight 3: The real challenge for this audience, wasn’t dealing with any one bad guy, it was addressing change itself.
Yes online malfeasance is constantly evolving, but so are business practices involving mobility, web interactivity and cloud virtualization. Both are a source of uncertainty for this audience, which our client’s thought leadership could address.
Campaign positioning: Thought leadership to help you navigate the changes, both in terms of threats and opportunities.
These along with other insights provided the coordinates by which we could map out a six month, six phase messaging progression, from education all the way through to vendor selection.
Outcome:
This messaging strategy yielded a response rate that was over three times their typical rate.