In 2009, Axcient had a genuinely differentiated product but was fighting for air in a crowded, recession-squeezed backup market — with no brand, no analyst credibility, and no repeatable way to recruit the MSP partners it needed to grow. The Artesian Network led marketing through launch and built the engine to scale it.
Key Results
- Repositioned Axcient from “online backup” into the first complete data protection platform — backup, business continuity, and disaster recovery — purpose-built for the SMB market and its MSPs.
- Launched the MSP Partner Portal and collapsed complex a-la-carte pricing into three simple bundles, cutting the friction that had stretched partner deal cycles from weeks to months.
- Built a measurable, ROI-attributable demand engine (marketing automation + lead scoring): 20,700+ website visits and 1,922 tracked conversions at a 9.3% conversion rate across the launch window.
- Earned Tier-1 trade and analyst coverage — CRN, InformationWeek, Computerworld — plus an independent lab review calling it “as close to plug-and-play as you are going to find in backup and DR.”
The Challenge
Axcient entered 2009 with a real product advantage — a hybrid appliance-plus-cloud service that combined local backup, server failover, and offsite disaster recovery — but almost none of the go-to-market assets to sell it. The backup and DR category was crowded and heavily outspent by the likes of Mozy/EMC, EVault/Seagate, Zenith, and Barracuda; the recession had frozen SMB IT budgets; and Axcient was an unknown with no brand, no analyst relationships, and no customer success stories. To scale, it had to become a best-in-class channel company — yet partners were slowed by complicated pricing, thin sales enablement, and a product still positioned as “just backup.” Marketing had to build the category story, the channel infrastructure, and a repeatable demand system essentially from scratch.
What We Did
Operating as Axcient’s marketing leadership, The Artesian Network:
- Repositioned the company to “complete data protection — one solution, from one vendor, as a service,” and branded the platform’s three pillars: RapidRestore, ServerAlive, and SmartCloudDR.
- Ran an integrated launch and communications program — a bi-coastal press and analyst tour, an AR program across 30+ named analysts (IDC, Gartner, Forrester, 451, ESG), and a monthly PR scorecard.
- Built the MSP Partner Portal — auto-branded quoting, a three-minute training video library, co-brandable collateral, and live chat — to remove the friction stretching partner deals from weeks to months.
- Simplified pricing into three bundles (Business Basic, Business Fortify, Total Protection) and shipped a full sales-enablement kit: objection handling, competitive comparisons, vertical data sheets, and an ROI model.
- Stood up a measurable demand engine on marketing automation (Pardot), with lead scoring and grading tied to web, email, search, and paid — making the funnel ROI-attributable for the first time.
- Rebuilt the website and shifted SEO from “backup” to “business continuity” and “complete data protection,” and produced the content and third-party lab review that gave sales the credibility it lacked.
The Outcome
The launch established Axcient’s new category position and gave the company a channel and demand system it could actually scale on. Across the launch window (July 2009 – March 2010), the rebuilt site and demand engine drove 20,742 visits from 11,375 unique visitors and 1,922 tracked conversions at a 9.27% conversion rate — including nearly 1,800 end-user and reseller purchase-intent actions — with qualified referral traffic coming straight from earned coverage in CRN, InformationWeek, and Computerworld. An independent Storage Switzerland lab review called it “as close to a plug-and-play experience as you are going to find in backup and DR.” Axcient went on to raise substantial venture funding and, in 2017, merged with eFolder to form one of the largest MSP-focused data protection companies in the market.
As a serial entrepreneur, Jonathan is perhaps the most creative marketer that I have ever had the pleasure of working with. I personally watched Jonathan launch a company's global strategy and make it look easy. His ability to create inventive strategies and solutions for companies and garner the attention of the media is impressive. He leads a team of seasoned professionals so seamlessly that our business partnership was rewarding for all parties. I look forward to the day when I can work with Jonathan again on a significant partnership.