Seismic (EMEA)

Parcourir

Overview

Helping a US unicorn spread its EMEA wings

Based in San Diego, Seismic is a well-known software brand in the US. It reached ‘unicorn’ status at the end of 2018 and is a leading player in the growing sales and marketing enablement sector – providing a range of solutions to help go-to-market (GTM) teams drive revenue growth.

However, when Seismic approached our European team in the summer of 2020, it was yet to make an impact in EMEA. It had only just entered the EMEA market so had a limited presence and was starting from a position of low brand awareness. With its competitors already more established in Europe, the pressure was on Seismic to make itself heard.

Results

Leading the conversation

Increased Seismic’s share of voice in EMEA compared to its two main competitors (Highspot and Showpad) from 26% in the first half of 2020 to 57% in Q1 2021 – a 31% increase.

Spreading the word

Secured 34 pieces of earned media coverage in H2 2020 from a combination of news and editorial content, with 62% of coverage in tier 1 publications.

Raising the profile

More than one third (35%) of top tier media coverage featured thought leadership in the form of commentary or bylined articles attributed to local spokespeople.

Supporting business growth

Our work contributed to Seismic’s triple digit YoY EMEA growth in 2020, indicating the positive impact of top of funnel investments on business performance.

In light of Seismic’s limited presence in the EMEA market, our key objectives were to:

We implemented a tailored multi-region content and media relations strategy to help raise awareness of the Seismic brand in EMEA, building on our work with Seismic in the US. Our activity was targeted at sales and marketing decision-makers and C-suite leaders in enterprise organisations. This demanding audience, combined with the disruption of 2020 and the fact that sales enablement was not a well-known term in EMEA, meant that our messaging had to be razor sharp to make an impact.

It also had to be localised to address country-specific challenges and opportunities, as well as requiring a high level of flexibility given the ongoing impact of the pandemic.

After analysing the market and Seismic’s proposition, we focused on connecting Seismic’s value proposition with local concerns to fuel demand for Seismic’s stories in vertical and tech press, before targeting national/premium business publications.

Using a combination of market insights and input from EMEA leadership, we developed a set of strategic content themes that geared content creation towards the most salient messages. This ensured consistent and impactful stories. The themes were based on the key challenges facing prospects/customers in each region, positioning Seismic’s offering as a solution to these pain points.

Our content strategy focused on five key pillars:

  1. Put people into the story – humanise and localise the Seismic message. Use the company’s knowledgeable EMEA executives to bring stories to life and position them as industry thought leaders.
  2. Be bold and opinion lead – define the narrative and lead the conversation on high-impact topics that connect with Seismic’s business, without relying on ‘sales enablement’ being a known term. Communicate key talking points consistently across the market.
  3. Educate, don’t sell – move away from product specific messaging. Elevate the conversation by focusing on the strategic business benefits of sales software. Prioritise educating business decision-makers through thought leadership to drive engagement and impact top of funnel leads.
  4. Be timely – attach Seismic to current events and hot topics that align with journalists’ agendas to generate media opportunities. E.g. the shift to online selling amidst Covid-19.
  5. Make use of the ecosystem – build media interest and market credibility by leveraging case studies, partnership news and joint speaking opportunities.

With this blueprint in place, we aligned individual spokespeople with key industry topics based on their expertise and region. We then used a combination of thought leadership, news, reactive comments, speaking submissions and executive profiling to build momentum, raise the profile of Seismic and its executives across a range of channels, and scale the brand in EMEA.

Campaign management and content creation was handled centrally by our London team. Our local experts based in Paris and Berlin managed content translation and localisation to ensure that it resonated in their geographies, as well as handling all local media relations.

The lorries team has been a valuable communications partner as we’ve expanded into the competitive EMEA sales enablement market. From strategic advice to tactical execution, their creativity and professionalism have already delivered some impressive results that have helped grow the Seismic brand.

Winnie Palmer - EMEA head of marketing Seismic