Accelera: Public Relations

PR Challenge:

Accelera Solutions, one of the top selling Citrix VARS to the federal government, initially called on The Borenstein Group to leverage strategic marketing to impact their sales pipeline. One of their greatest challenges was to shape their message and get it in front of decision makers that are a major player in the burgeoning federal cloud computing space.

Strategic Solution

The Borenstein Group began by auditing their marketing strategy and tactics, and created a marketing plan. We refined their messaging to empower them to continue to sell into defense, civilian and commercial markets. We initiated touch point initiatives including monthly mailers and quarterly newsletters, and developed a robust and visually-appealing lead generation-focused website. A testimonial and case study program further boosted their credibility and provided actionable materials for the sales force.

The next phase was a broad media relations program where, in less than a year, we secured interviews and coverage in a broad array of industry and business media, including:

• Government Computer News
• Military Medical Technology
• GovVAR
• CRN (Computer Reseller News)
• Washington Business Journal
• Inc. Magazine
• IT World
• TechTarget
• SmartCEO
• Washington Business Journal
• American Executive
• ChannelPro Magazine (cover story and photo of president)
• CRNtech
• Virtual Strategy Magazine
• Atlanta Business Journal
• Systems Management News
• And many more targeted online and offline sources.

The Borenstein Group was also very successful in raising Accelera’s profile by securing awards for them, for the first time, in

• Inc. 5000
• SmartCEO Future 50
• Virginia Fantastic 50
• Washington Business Journal Book of Lists: Small Technology Companies
• Washington Business Journal Fastest Growing Companies

To note just one example, as a result of a press release distribution strategy by The Borenstein Group, Accelera received a well-qualified inbound lead from a senior official at a Navy installation. In addition to prolific media coverage, interviews and feature stories, The Borenstein Group also directly generated an invitation for Accelera’s president to speak on a panel at an important industry conference, and an invitation to contribute regularly to a widely-read technology industry web column targeted to his buyers and business partners.

Prior to our work with, Accelera could not be found in Google (or any other major search engine) as a Citrix reseller, which was a core line of business for them. They are major players in the federal space. While this does vary and this is a highly competitive space, today (at the time we wrote this case study), if you search for Citrix federal resellers, they are the top one or two entries among VARS in Google. Additionally, hundreds of entries could be found related to their Citrix sales and other core service areas. Many of these were press releases, direct press release pick up and feature stories in which the spokesperson was quoted. The Borenstein Group generated hundreds of pages of online news coverage as a result of the SEO press releases we crafted and distributed. These results are all a direct result of The Borenstein Group’s work to help maximize Accelera’s web presence.