Ventana New Media: A Sales Lead Engine for MSPs?

Ventana New Media, a marketing, branding and lead generation solution provider, has officially released the Ventana New Media Engine. The big question: Can Ventana help VARs and MSPs to generate more sales leads?

“We’ve been in stealth for a bit over two years now because we saw new media aspects in the market and were trying to figure out how to integrate those new aspects into the Engine,” said CEO Sabrina Sanchez. “A few years ago we saw that marketing is changing and there are now different channels of where your voice is heard. So we found it important to develop a strategy comprised of three different aspects.”

Those three different aspects — content and conversation; how to control conversation; and how to make sure people are hearing the conversation — are the three pillars on which the Ventana New Media Engine are based. The Engine is designed to deliver search engine optimized (SEO) to help companies build brand identity and acquire clients. It seeks to leverage existing or new corporate content to accelerate dialogue between customers, prospects and constituents. How? With controlled and consistent social networking, accelerated keyword SEO, professional viral content creation, and targeted community building.

“The Engine began as a content publishing platform to compliment our public relations activity,”added Ventana President Joe Austin. “But we began to see that it was increasing SEO rankings for clients. So we took another work at the framework and made further updates and built the Engine into what it is today — a framework of media sites through which users can publish information on the Internet, integrate keywords and have backlinks behind the scenes that tie one site to another.”

Ventana New Media has had 10 different clients use the Ventana New Media Engine throughout its beta, including Treehouse Interactive. If you recall, Treehouse recently upgraded its partner relationship management platform in late August 2011. Ventana actually integrated the Ventana New Media Engine into the Treehouse Interactive platform.

Austin stopped short of calling the Ventana New Media engine a managed service, saying that it was “partly process and partly technology.” But he did say the Engine is useful for VARs and MSPs looking to generate more leads and strengthen their brands. The Engine can also build out components for VARs and MSPs pushing into specific verticals. The Ventana New Media Engine costs $5,000 up front. After that, customer rates vary based on volume.

Meanwhile, a range of companies assist VARs and MSPs with lead generation, search engine optimization, and marketing services.  Key names include Kutenda, Robin Robins and Ulistic.