Execution

Karbo Communications partnered with Sendinblue to develop and execute a comprehensive communications strategy to drive success in the U.S. market. At the beginning of the partnership, Karbo Communications strategically positioned Sendinblue as a fast-growing player with its Series B funding announcement, which marked the highest Series B round for any company in Sendinblue’s market. 

Following the company’s Series B funding announcement, Karbo Communications continued the momentum by inserting Sendinblue’s CEO into timely conversations focused on data privacy, small business challenges, and digital marketing. The agency identified pressing issues impacting small business owners and marketers, such as COVID lockdowns and Apple IDFA, and offered the CEO as a source to offer guidance on how to overcome these challenges. Through high impact bylines in top tier marketing, business outlets, such as Inc. and Adweek, Sendinblue’s CEO effectively reached the brand’s desired audiences and was viewed as an expert in his field. The agency also pursued and secured high impact awards and speaking opportunities to further position the company as a strong leader in the U.S. market. Following the agency’s success with the speaking program, the CEO has been invited to participate at invite-only events. 

To further position Sendinblue as a go-to source for small businesses and marketers, Karbo Communications recommended executing a global survey identifying top trends and issues facing small businesses and marketers. As part of this effort, Karbo Communications conducted a comprehensive competitor audit to identify topics that have not been covered by the press previously. Following the comprehensive audit, Karbo Communications worked closely with the Sendinblue team and third-party research firm to identify the themes, questions, and timeline to ensure strong media and marketing results. 

As Sendinblue expanded its product portfolio through strategic acquisitions, Karbo Communications secured M&A coverage in top-tier business and marketing publications, such as Fortune, Axios, WSJ, and more. A year into the partnership, the CEO was granted the title CEO of North America and VP of Corporate Development after leading the planning and execution of each company acquisition. This provided a unique opportunity where Karbo Communications positioned the executive as an expert in M&A activity, resulting in strategic podcast and byline opportunities. The agency also expanded its analyst efforts to brief key analysts on each acquisition and secure feedback on the customer journeys and strategies. 

Over the course of a two year partnership, Karbo Communications helped Sendinblue grow from an unknown brand in the U.S. to a recognizable brand name among press, marketers and small business owners. Critical to this strategy was aggressive thought leadership, awards, speaking, analyst and media programs.

Results

Karbo Communications kicked off the partnership by planning and pitching Sendinblue’s Series B funding announcement. With this announcement, Sendinblue was positioned as a high-growth company on a mission to expand its efforts in the U.S. market. To validate Sendinblue’s growth and market presence, Karbo Communications recommended sourcing company growth stats and commentary from each investor for the press release. As a result, 95% of the coverage included the growth metrics and referenced commentary from at least one of the investors. In total, outreach efforts resulted in interviews with reporters from TechCrunch, Reuters, and Crunchbase. Karbo Communications secured 17 pieces of coverage and earned well over 6 million monthly impressions. 

In an effort to position Sendinblue as the top source for small businesses, Karbo Communications pitched the CEO to address critical issues and offer advice for small business owners. For example, after lockdowns were reinstated in California, Sendinblue’s CEO spoke to ABC7 viewers and shared actionable tips for how to drive sales online. In February, as COVID cases were on the rise, he shared advice with TODAY’s audience on how restaurant owners can creatively market to their customers before and on the holiday. Through bylines in Inc., Small Biz Daily and Built In, the CEO of Sendinblue provided counsel on how to use digital marketing to drive sales amid peak levels of uncertainty. This counsel was applied for seasonal and national moments in time, such as the holiday season, Small Business Saturday, and COVID lockdown measures. 

The CEO also spoke on timely digital marketing conversations and provided insight into how new regulations were actually impacting small business owners. One campaign, for example, was in response to Apple’s new policy, iOS 14. After Apple introduced this policy, Facebook said it would negatively impact small business owners advertising on its platform. In response, Steffen spoke to reporters from the Financial Times, Marketing Brew, BizReport and Inc., and shed light on why larger businesses are taking a bigger hit from the regulations as opposed to small businesses. This campaign resulted in strategic coverage in top marketing and business publications such as Adweek, The Drum, Marketing Brew, and Inc. 

Karbo Communications also worked with the CEO of Sendinblue to position him as an expert in data privacy. As part of this strategy, Karbo Communications inserted him into timely conversations with marketing press, resulting in coverage in high impact marketing outlets including The Drum, Adweek, MediaPost, and more. Karbo Communications also secured speaking opportunities for the CEO to cover new data privacy measures and provide counsel for marketers on how to navigate these changes. This resulted in speaking opportunities at top marketing events such as DigiMarcon, Digital Marketing World Forum, and more. 

As part of the global survey effort, Karbo Communications secured an exclusive story with Inc., which reached over 8M small business owners across the world. Following the exclusive coverage, Karbo Communications sliced and diced the data to secure coverage in vertical, business and marketing outlets, which resulted in 15+ placements. Even six months after the survey went live, top outlets such as Yahoo Finance were organically featuring the data as supporting points in stories about small business challenges. 

Through the course of the partnership, Karbo Communications executed an aggressive thought leadership program and secured 50+ byline and commentary opportunities in publications like Inc., Fortune, MediaPost, Adweek, TODAY, and VentureBeat. Karbo Communications also secured 60+ top-tier placements (Fortune, Axios, Forbes, and more) covering Sendinblue’s acquisitions. In total, Karbo Communications secured 30 proactive briefings and 200+ placements, generating 2.8B impressions in marketing, business and vertical publications that directly reach Sendinblue’s target audiences. Karbo Communications also secured award wins, which recognized company and executive strengths, such as Best in Biz Awards for “Small or Medium Business Service of the Year”, The Drum Future 50, Webby Awards, SaaS awards, and MarTech Breakthrough Awards.