Creating a cohesive story, meaningful content and an attractive value proposition to engage with enterprise and wholesale customers may sound daunting, but with the right partner it is readily achievable. The Ciena Partner Network (CPN) created its Marketing as a Service (MaaS) program for this very purpose—to develop customized marketing and sales enablement solutions for long-term business success.

A carrier recently leveraged the (MaaS) program to reach its marketing goals. The client had strong marketing assets and brand awareness for its existing lines of business, but needed to build awareness and targeted messaging for a new, robust diverse offering. Given their target customers’ desire for quick and easy access to key information, such as maps, specifications, and other relevant details, the carrier needed to bolster its content library for the offering launch.

The MaaS team collaborated with the carrier, conducting multiple discovery sessions to ensure that the carrier’s product and marketing objectives were well understood. The team developed a multi-channel, engagement-driven marketing plan that enabled the carrier’s sales team to have meaningful conversations with target customers and convert them into new business opportunities.

The marketing campaign targeted key roles and Decision Making Unit (DMU) members involved in the optical transport buying process. It included a wide range of tactics, including:

  • Raising brand awareness through a press release announcing the carrier’s new investments
  • Engaging target customers with new content focused on their needs
  • Enabling the sales team to succeed with new resources, including collateral, a network map, and a pre-launch carrier kit
  • Driving customer engagement through multiple channels, including a multi-stage email campaign and an account-based display ad campaign
  • Generating leads through new landing pages specific to the DMU
  • Generating awareness and buzz through static and animated social content
  • Training the carrier’s sales team to leverage social coverage and generate customer interest

Offering unique content with customer-centric value propositions, the new marketing program demonstrated tremendous success:

  • 60 percent engagement from 2,960 email opens
  • More than 12,500 landing page views
  • 4.7 percent conversion rate through account-based marketing display advertising
  • 83 new business opportunities

The carrier’s sales team continues to leverage the evergreen campaign resources. They use the customer insights from the MaaS program to effectively engage with key stakeholders and wholesale buyers at international, national, and regional levels through multiple methods.

Partnership success is the cornerstone of the MaaS program. The team invested considerable time collaborating, developing strategies, and building tactics from the ground up. Together, Ciena and the client built a seamless marketing experience tailored to the carrier’s specific business needs and realized considerable success.

About the MaaS program

Through the partnership success model, members of the CPN can leverage a dedicated MaaS support team, with resources, tailored services, and a suite of third-party sales and marketing technologies to support their unique business goals. The MaaS program’s marketing technology stack ensures clients get the benefit of the latest sales enablement and marketing tools and intelligence—without the heavy price tag and long-term contracts. With MaaS, Ciena partners have access to an unparalleled marketing strategy and tactical resources, along with detailed success reporting to monitor how marketing investments are driving business success.

Learn more about CPN’s Marketing as a Service offering

https://www.ciena.com/cpn-maas

*The products and services described here are available only to participants in the Ciena Partner Network (CPN). For more information about CPN, contact cienapartnernetwork@ciena.com