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Kaspersky Lab North America Exceeds First Half Forecasts

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Citing significant growth in sales and new landmarks in its channel ecosystem, Kaspersky Lab North America reported that it has exceeded initial goals for the first half of 2013 for B2B and B2C sides of the business.

At its 2013 partner conference, Kaspersky Lab NA set aggressive milestones for the channel, zeroing in on both sales and partner growth. At the end of H1, overall business growth for the B2B sector increased by 22%, with customer renewals increasing by 24%. In addition, sales among private sector accounts improved 34%, while mid-market sales (30%) and private sector enterprise sales (121%) also surged.

Improved market penetration and sales results can be attributed to an increase in the Kaspersky Lab NA partner community, according to company officials Due to enhancements to its partner program, the company has seen partner recruitment increases more than 300% over H1 2012. Moreover, deal registration has increased by 20%.

“Back in the beginning of 2013, we really outlined what we thought was a new strategy to achieve very aggressive growth goals in North America,” said Gary Mullen, VP of Corporate Marketing at Kaspersky Lab NA. “We wanted to get laser focused on the mid-market, but without jeopardizing the small- and enterprise-business sides.”

Mullen told Channel Marketer Report that to spearhead the market, Kaspersky Lab NA focused on developing a “robust” lead gen engine. “For H1, we produced more than 32,000 marketing-qualified leads (MQLs), which then produced more than 5,000 sales-qualified leads (SQLs) that we pumped into our sales engine for both internal and partner sales teams.”

As a result of new scoring and nurturing process, the MQL rate for Kaspersky Lab NA and its partners was 300% higher than all of 2012, Mullen explained, while the total number of SQLs increased by approximately 500%.

Kaspersky Lab NA also recently implemented a customer lifecycle marketing program, which allows the company to “better communicate out to customers regarding additional products and marketing assets we produce throughout the year.”

To help partners see ongoing success, Kaspersky Lab NA is refining marketing enablement and content sharing strategies. The company has become “very focused” on producing training, communications and lead generation assets, that align with partner wants and needs, according to Jon Whitlock, Director of Channel Marketing.

Content and marketing campaigns, Whitlock explained are “more packaged and partner-ready. Originally, we did a lot of handholding with our partners, but it’s becoming more important for us to develop ready-to-go campaigns and marketing toolkits. We’re in the process of rolling these out and have seen a lot of success across our partner network.” Since implementing these partner marketing packages, Kaspersky Lab NA has seen a 120% boost in marketing participation for co-branded lead gen efforts.

The marketing packages provide a variety of assets, including email campaigns and templates, landing pages, white papers and thought leadership content. Partners then have access to a “how-to guide,” which provides a checklist for using each campaign toolkit.

“We have found that it is possible to touch every single partner, give them the same amount of content, but still make it very self-service,” Whitlock said. Using these marketing packages, channel account managers and marketing managers can spend more time working with partners on big-picture business goals. 

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About Alicia Fiorletta

Alicia Fiorletta is Senior Editor for Channel Marketer Report. Working closely with industry analysts and experts, Alicia reports on the latest news, technologies, case studies and trends coming to forefront in the channel marketing world. With a focus on emerging marketing strategies, including social, mobile and content for demand, Alicia hones in on new ways for organizations to market to and through their partner networks. Through her work with G3 Communications, Alicia also acts as Associate Editor for Retail TouchPoints, a digital publishing network focused on the customer-facing area of the retail industry.

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