Dell Technologies - Cloud Portfolio

The opportunity

Dell Technologies is an influential force in driving technological advancements that shape the digital world. One such innovation is cloud technology which now plays a large part in global business success.

Having announced the launch of the innovative Dell Technologies Cloud portfolio in May 2019, they needed to quickly raise awareness of this new technology among their influential channel partners and gain ground on competitors.

The objective

With channel partners making up a large proportion of revenue, Dell Technologies’ Cloud campaign had to deliver commercial results and strengthen the ongoing vendor-partner relationship. A clear, memorable and compelling channel marketing campaign was critical to achieve the desired impact in the market and generate a sustainable sales pipeline.

The main objective was to communicate key advantages of promoting and selling Dell Technologies Cloud compared to alternatives, which in turn would generate demand, deliver leads and drive sales for the solution through the channel.

The solution

In response to the brief, Silver developed an engaging multi-channel campaign to position Dell Technologies as the cloud leader, demonstrating how their solutions can help partners and their customers achieve their business ambitions.

The campaign helped Dell Technologies to:

• Drive awareness (to-partner)
  Make resellers aware of Dell Technologies Cloud solutions and the benefits of selling it.
• Drive enablement (to-partner)
  Roll out resources designed to educate partners (primarily pre-sales and sales personas) and drive sales of Dell Technologies Cloud solutions.
• Drive demand (through partner)
  Encourage partners to execute demand generation activities that drive pipeline by using a range of tools, marketing guides and activation collateral.
• Educate the internal team
  Help the internal Dell Technologies team to get up to speed with the campaign

Our strategy was to create a digital activation plan that delivered ‘always on’ content with relevant touchpoints along the user journey. This included videos, guides, playbooks, banner ads, infographics, emails, social posts and data sheets across multiple digital channels.

Central to the campaign was the creation of a microsite, acting as a content hub for partners, with clear messaging and downloadable content to help partners become experts in Dell Technologies Cloud and communicate effectively with their customers.

The creative

From the beginning of the campaign, Silver created a host of internal and partner communications that continue to be used to this day. We helped Dell Technologies to tell the cloud story effectively and consistently throughout the campaign and across every touchpoint, including:

• Social media – with account targeting to identify key partner personas
• CRN – a targeted digital awareness campaign on the industry-leading media platform for technology vendors and IT professionals
• Nurture programme – trialled by Dell Technologies for the first time
• Events – both virtual and physical

For internal communications, we created engaging emails, social media posts, WhatsApp messages and informative presentations.

We also created ‘through-partner’ assets to help partners enable their next steps – be that driving demand for Dell Technologies Cloud or assisting in sales engagement.

The results

The campaign has delivered fantastic results – with ROI and awareness continuing to grow as longer sales cycles complete and campaign activity continues.

LinkedIn activity

• Social engagement rate: 76% vs 16% benchmark (reported via Mediacom)
• High social media engagement: Generating a large earned media value equivalent to an extra $80k on the media budget
• InMail campaign open rate: 58% vs 50% industry benchmark
• Mediacom: “The results are hugely impressive and some of the highest seen”

General campaign activity

In the last quarter, US and UK visits to the Cloud landing page jumped significantly:

• Visits: +390%
• Unique visitors: +536%
• Views: +326%

The campaign also registered 3rd highest number of downloads across all Dell Technologies campaigns whilst being deemed ‘best practice’ for audience nurture techniques.