RacoWireless: Driving Sales Through PR, Content and Social Media
Raco President John Horn says: “The media coverage that Calysto Communications secures for RacoWireless drives a significant percentage of our sales leads. Thanks to Calysto’s efficiency and its ROI-based approach to PR, our public relations investment has paid for itself many times over.”
RacoWireless was a leading provider of wireless data solutions supporting Machine to Machine (M2M) and the Internet of Things (IoT) communications. The company lived by its mantra to “make it simple” by providing support for enterprises to build, manage and enhance IoT applications as a business.
Initial Business goal(2011) To grow RacoWireless and drive sales
Final Business goal(2015) To sell the company
Marketing Goal: Drive awareness of the company through an aggressive campaign to position RacoWireless President John Horn as THE source and primary evangelist on M2M; position RacoWireless as the Thought Leader in IoT and M2M
Audience: The wireless industry, vertical industry enterprise customers, partners and investors
Timeline: Beginning in May 2011 through May 2015 acquisition
How:
Conducted Strategy sessions monthly and then quarterly for the first two years
Developed Annual Strategic Marketing Plans with monthly tactical plans
Developed PR, social media and SEO-friendly content marketing and website strategy to solicit influencer interest and customer leads
Educated all industry analysts, including developing “champion analyst” program of 20+ IoT/M2M trade and financial analysts who regularly speak to the media about RacoWireless and its success – and highlight RacoWireless in their reports
Timed announcements to coincide with major shows to maximize RacoWireless’ PR and marketing investment
Pitched media on both IoT and M2M trend stories and stories specific to RacoWireless
Developed Executive Thought Leadership program around President John Horn
Highlights of Results:
Built strategic integrated communications program that President John Horn says directly contributed to the company’s 300% sales growth in 2011 and 2012
Developed all content
Conducted all Public Relations including Analyst Relations, Media Relations, Awards, Thought Leadership, Speaking and more
Secured coverage in leading publications that included business publications, technology business and trade coverage. Including but not limited to: Wall Street Journal, Forbes, GigaOm, TechCrunch, CIO, IT News Mobile Enterprise, FierceWireless, FierceMobileIT, RCR Wireless, WirelessWeek and more on a recurring basis
Created buzz at Mobile World Congress (Barcelona) that helped RacoWireless achieve a record 500% increase in website traffic and beat its competitors in terms of Twitter buzz/tweets about its news; drove record website traffic levels again just a few months later when Calysto publicized the company’s acquisition of location-based services player Position Logic
Fostered analyst relationships that ensure RacoWireless is featured in every major analyst report on IoT or M2M
Developed media relationships that resulted in RacoWireless’ becoming a “source” of inbound” inquiries – that is, media and analysts now call Calysto to request an interview with RacoWireless more than 50% of the time
Positioned RacoWireless to win the 2012 Entrepreneurial Company of the Year in the North American M2M market, a “Best of 4G” award in 2012 and a 2013 North American Award for New Product Innovation, and more than 10 other awards
Built RacoWireless brand, presented and won Stevie award for being the “Most Innovative Tech Company of 2012”
Conducted 25-30 media & analyst briefings at each targeted industry trade show
Successfully positioned the company for investment by Inverness Graham in 2012
Successfully positioned the company for acquisition by Kore Wireless in 2015
