Case Study: Barracuda soars above lead-gen targets with new opportunities tallying $800,000



Barracuda soars above lead-gen targets with new opportunities tallying $800,000

When Microsoft offered Marketing Development Funds (MDF) for a specific time-limited promotion, Barracuda turned to Think Pipeline, and within a month reached $800,000, double its original super-stretch target.

The Challenge

MDF presents an excellent opportunity for partners to launch lead generation campaigns and reach new prospects. How could Barracuda build, scale, and execute a lead-gen project at very short notice, delivered within just one month?

The Solution

Barracuda engaged Think Pipeline to create and drive a UK lead-gen campaign, with a $40,000 budget and a super-stretch pipeline revenue target of $400,000. Think Pipeline assigned a dedicated team to the project, and mined its extensive database to identify prospects that met both Barracuda’s and Microsoft’s objectives.


The Detail

Barracuda builds enterprise-grade, cloud-ready security solutions. The company sells exclusively through its extensive network of business partners, who generate leads, complete sales, and deploy solutions, while Barracuda focuses on product excellence and customer support.

As a key Microsoft Partner, Barracuda and Microsoft share an excellent relationship that benefits both organisations in the continued development and sale of innovative security solutions. Microsoft supports Barracuda with MDF, to help generate a healthy sales pipeline.

Rebecca Bailey, UK Marketing Manager at Barracuda, explains the situation: “The opportunity arose to promote the Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud Backup service for Microsoft Office 365. This would be supported by $20,000 of MDF from Microsoft if Barracuda matched the budget. Understandably, Microsoft asked for specific return on investment in terms of new leads, with detailed parameters for its target sector and value of each deal. Yet we had only slightly longer than a month before the promotion ended, with essentially only a week to prepare the campaign.




Lead-generation partner

Barracuda turned to its trusted and exclusive outbound lead-generation partner Think Pipeline. It was a tough ask to scope a campaign and deliver results in just over four weeks, but experience engendered confidence that Think Pipeline could deliver within the timescale.

Rebecca remarks, “The limited time for execution was significant; there were only a fixed number of business hours available for initial calls, email and follow-up. Working with Think Pipeline immediately cut the onboarding process and maximised what we could achieve in the timeframe.”

Think Pipeline assigned a dedicated team to the project to ensure they could reach the lead-gen targets within four weeks. The team quickly created a highly focused prospect list by cross-referencing the audience agreed between Barracuda and Microsoft with Think Pipeline’s GDPR-compliant, extensive database.

“Think Pipeline stepped up to the plate within just a few days. The training on the campaign and its objectives was simple and quick, and we were able to report successful progress to Microsoft almost immediately,” says Rebecca.

She continues, “The Think Pipeline callers created an exceptionally close relationship with our sales team. Using our own high-security solutions, we provided secured Barracuda email addresses to enable them to send branded meeting confirmations immediately to prospects, and we trust them absolutely to represent our brand. We act as an integrated team, with seamless communications designed to create a highly effective lead management process.”



Delivering double the target

At the end of the month, Rebecca reported on the campaign: “Think Pipeline completed more than 234 effective conversations, which delivered 24 sales-ready opportunities with a total value of $800,000 – double our super-stretch target!”

Rebecca comments, “Think Pipeline delivers a wider audience than we could possibly reach, and ensures we approach businesses that have a genuine interest in our solutions, increasing the return on investment for Barracuda and Microsoft.”

Based on those results, and supported with MDF from an enthusiastic Microsoft, the next EMEA campaign will focus on mid-market businesses, with particular focus on Germany, France and Italy, and Think Pipeline will provide native-language speakers to spearhead the project.

Rebecca concludes, “The campaign demonstrates our value as a trusted Microsoft partner, drives new business for our partner network, and delivers genuine business benefits to those customers who are now considering the Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud Backup service and related Microsoft solutions. Delivering stellar performance reflected very positively on Barracuda and Think Pipeline, impressed Microsoft, and we can’t wait to start the EMEA campaign!”

About Think Pipeline

Think Pipeline specialises in B2B lead and demand-generation services for the IT sector, covering the UK, Europe, USA, and Canada. Think Pipeline finds genuine, highly qualified sales opportunities to grow your business, building your new business sales pipeline, expanding your presence inside your existing customer base, developing your channel relationships, and more.

Many of Think Pipeline’s lead generation specialists are multi-lingual conversationalists with business experience, able to talk to your prospects and customers to understand their pain points, deliver your proposition, and uncover opportunities. The result is high-value, fully qualified leads, that generate real business.

For more information, contact Think Pipeline or visit www.thinkpipeline.com