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Case Study

Bluespec,Inc

Generating Leads for a Fast-Growing Tech Startup

Overview

Bluespec is a technology company focused on the emerging open-source hardware movement. Well-known within the RISC-V community of developers, Bluespec needed help solidifying its industry-leading position from a brand perspective. Stirling built a marketing program that included better lead generation/management, higher brand visibility, and a consistent, leading voice for its social media channels.

Key Services

  • Brand DevelopmentBrand Development
  • Identity + Logo DevelopmentIdentity + Logo Development
  • Visual DesignVisual Design
  • Website Design + DevWebsite Design + Dev
  • Digital MarketingDigital Marketing
  • Analytics + ReportingAnalytics + Reporting

Our Approach

Stirling provided Bluespec with a branding and marketing program designed to set it apart from industry peers as the leader and innovator, further enhancing the brand’s visibility and credibility.

Using HubSpot, we expanded national lead generation and provided a robust marketing and lead generation campaign on Bluespec’s most active social media channels. Stirling still helps guide Bluespec’s progress as it offers new products and forges new partnerships.

2x
National CTR Average
2,500+
Generated Leads

Creative

A Logo Redesigned.
A Brand Refined.

The Bluespec brand is not new. Its origins began in the BSV hardware movement. As RISC-V emerged as a new standard the founders refocused and they wanted a brand identity that would stack up in an emerging field that will likely become a crowded space.

Color theory, as well as a map of the competitive set, and potential partners yielded a warm blue pallet complemented with orange and teal. The mark is based on a circular silicon wafer which is commonly used in processor manufacturing. This is a nod to the earlier logo identity. Finally, a punctuating dot serves to add a spec of blue.
image

UX/UI

UX-Focused Design
Invites Exploration

The vision for the new corporate website was clear: make the product discovery process more intuitive. Site navigation is simple, while animations and custom graphics anchor the user and provide a consistent blue aesthetic. Products have individual landing pages with conversion-optimized lead capture forms to equip the sales team with qualified leads.

The output was an active website experience designed to give customers the resources and information to explore open-source hardware and RISC-V.

Marketing

Getting To Market And Proving Value

Bluespec’s go-to-market strategy for new products is agile. It leverages the corporate website, landing pages, and partner promotions. They required a website that seamlessly connected all their tools. We advised and assisted in provisioning a comprehensive technology stack that united marketing and sales. We also implemented HubSpot Marketing Hub, which provided tools for turnkey digital marketing efforts and quick campaign flights.

Technology

Launching Innovative Product Discovery Tools

The RISC-V audience is small now, but it won’t be soon. Major companies like HP, Western Digital, and the US government have started to adopt the technology. In many cases, awareness is the problem. Hardware developers are only beginning to hear about RISC-V. As it becomes more mainstream, the market is projected to grow significantly.

As the RISC-V movement takes off, customers need tools to evaluate their use cases. We assisted Bluespec with the launch of two product discovery tools. First was the RISC-V Explorer, which allowed users to compare various RISC-V tools. We went on to launch other product discovery tools and RISC-V evaluation products like the MCU Eval, geared towards Field-programmable gate array (FPGA) users.

Marketing

Successful Lead Generation And Marketing Strategies

Following an agile approach, we deployed short-flighted campaigns across Google and LinkedIn. Our initial campaigns generated over 200 qualified leads in a one-month flight, with over 2x the industry average for click-through rate (CTR).

With similar programs, we delivered over 2,500 qualified leads to the sales pipeline with a strategy of low-cost short-flight campaigns.

In addition to the lead generation programs, we developed brand guidelines to support the sales process and created product briefs, white papers, sales presentations, direct marketing campaigns, and promotional materials.

Clients Review

"Business leads have increased by 5x since our Stirling Brandworks site went live."
— Bill Cibulsky, VP of Sales at Bluespec

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