Hybrid Cloud Technology (SPONSORED)

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In the 2nd post of the VentureBeat series, Trend Hunter will take a quick look at Egnyte and offer some advice on how to leverage a few Pro Trends to help it accelerate its success. As Egnyte's Marcos Sanchez puts it, "Egnyte´s unique technology provides the speed and security of local storage with the accessibility of the cloud," with its core value proposition focused around simplicity, scalability and security.

Egnyte's innovative hybrid cloud technology allows companies to store, share, access and backup its knowledge in real-time. There is a clear growing need in the marketplace for such a service as corporations are aggressively trying to increase cloud technology deployments while adhering to complex business requirements. IT department leaders leverage Egnyte's key features that get CIOs excited, such centralized access, audit capabilities and enterprise grade security.

Further market validation for the company's innovation approach came yesterday as it closed a $16 million dollar Series C investment round with top tier venture capitalists. Vineet Jain, Egnyte's CEO, told VentureBeat yesterday that its biggest weakness is lack of awareness and that the majority of the funds will be used to accelerate sales and marketing. Based on that challenge, we've selected three Trend Hunter Pro Trends that Egnyte can leverage to exploit new marketing opportunities.

1. Curious Contest ~ Egnyte can leverage this trend to create bizarre competitions to stand out from the market noise and engage more customers

For decades businesses have launched competitions and contests to garner customer attention. The challenge is that most are boring and very predictable, and thus don't lead to any sustained awareness. Many consumer-facing brands are now experimenting with offbeat contests that apply a new twist, such as Holt Renfrew's bicycle scavenger hunt. Applying bold new elements to traditional competitions -- especially in the small-medium businesses segment -- will certainly get Egnyte more awareness and higher brand engagement from prospective customers.

2. Brand-itorials ~ Egnyte can inject a more magazine-style content to its website to enhance prospect and customer experience

Even in 2012, most B2B websites have a sales brochure approach and feel to them. As a test in one segment, Egnyte could create a new micro-site focused on a target persona with a more conversational tone. Beyond helping to engage current users, this branded editorial approach would drive new prospects through the marketing funnel.

3. Targeted Adverseries ~ Egnyte can use special webisodes to reach specific markets

Let's face it, most prospects tune off traditional advertising messages, especially in a business-to-business area. The ability to inject an entertainment component into the creative makes a brand resonate longer than 30 seconds. Testing specific targeted videos in each of Egnyte's key niches could enhance the customer discovery process.

Clearly, Egnyte's business is on fire based on the strength of its innovative hybrid cloud technology solution. It will be exciting to see how the company experiments with bolder marketing campaigns to increase user adoption and customer acquisition. Next week, our friends at The Next Web will continue this series as they further suggest ways Egnyte can increase wins in the marketplace.