Major IT Partners: HP, Microsoft, Cisco, Citrix, Panasonic, VMWare, Symantec, Apple, niche providers (e.g. Flo Healthcare)
Challenges:
Derive’s marketing platform was not fully revised for more than half a decade
The company’s website and other marketing materials were stale and static—hard to update and navigate, partner alliances not regularly updated, site not indexed by search engines (Google, Yahoo!, MSN), marketing communications rudimentary (not keyword friendly, not current, poorly composed)
Derive first attempted an in-house revision of the website and print marketing materials—internal resources did not possess communications or design skills to professionally uplift the brand
They also previously searched unsuccessfully for a marketing communications and web design/development firm to revise their materials—other providers did not know the “VAR world” and were not flexible enough to work with Derive’s management team
Mitra Creative brought vast inside experience with IT Business Consultancies/VARs to the task of revising Derive’s marketing communications platform; we also brought design and web development skills usually only possessed by top interactive and media agencies to the task of producing Derive’s new platform(s) at significant cost savings over larger firms
We commenced Derive’s brand uplift with a comprehensive redesign/redevelopment of the company’s website—utilizing a custom Content Management System (CMS) designed especially for the framework and needs of a VAR
The new site would employ highly professionalized graphics, comprehensively redesigned corporate linguistics (more relevant to search engines, especially surrounding collaborative solutions between Derive and partners such as HP, Microsoft, Citrix, etc.), promotion of industry-specific consultative IT solutions and related links between topics and solutions. Homepage advertising (particularly relevant to partners) and a resource center for case studies, whitepapers and multimedia (video and audio clips and more)
The CMS would also enable Derive to regularly update information so that solutions, partner relationships, media files and more can be regularly and easily updated
This led to Mitra Creative’s development of additional solutions for Derive, including lead generation campaigns, HTML mail, print collateral and more—through an on-going contract
Results:
Derive’s new website pages became almost immediately indexed by search engines—over a brief period, relationships between Derive and its manufacturer partners using specific search terms (e.g. “Citrix Platinum Partner New York”) were selected by Google for first-page search placement (high relevance)
The site’s professionalized look and feel made Derive’s partners drive traffic (URL directs) to the new site where they had not previously done so
In December 2007, only a couple of months after the site’s launch, Derivetech.com received a Gold MarCom Creative Award from the Association of Marketing and Communications Professionals both for its design and for its marketing communications superiority
