How SPH tapped into the Korean market and grew its monday.com revenue 3X in 9 months
SPH, one of monday.com’s leading Channel Partners, is a prime example of the opportunity that lies in partnership-led localization. With their unique local insight, they were able to tap into the enormous potential of the South Korean market and double the monday.com accounts in the region within just one year.
SPH
SPH
Founded in 2009, SPH became a Premier Google Partner in 2011 and focused mainly on navigation and geographic information systems for 8 years.
In Q3 of 2019, already an avid monday.com user, we approached SHP to join our then-new Channel Partner program. Although this was an entirely new area for them, SPH recognized a recent shift in the relatively conservative nature of the South Korean market towards cloud-based services. Taking this into account, along with their love of the product, they decided that it was the optimal time to expand their offering and monday.com was the best way to start.
That said, the team at SPH knew that before they start selling, they needed to localize the product from A-Z and come up with a comprehensive marketing strategy to introduce the cloud-based Work OS to the South Korean market. They started this journey with a dedicated team of just three employees; one salesperson and two marketers.
One of those marketers, Natalie Kang, Global Marketing Lead at SPH, sat down with us to tell us about their unique approach, their sales growth, and plans for the future.
In Q3 of 2019, already an avid monday.com user, we approached SHP to join our then-new Channel Partner program. Although this was an entirely new area for them, SPH recognized a recent shift in the relatively conservative nature of the South Korean market towards cloud-based services. Taking this into account, along with their love of the product, they decided that it was the optimal time to expand their offering and monday.com was the best way to start.
That said, the team at SPH knew that before they start selling, they needed to localize the product from A-Z and come up with a comprehensive marketing strategy to introduce the cloud-based Work OS to the South Korean market. They started this journey with a dedicated team of just three employees; one salesperson and two marketers.
One of those marketers, Natalie Kang, Global Marketing Lead at SPH, sat down with us to tell us about their unique approach, their sales growth, and plans for the future.
Localizing monday.com
Localizing monday.com
Natalie and her team knew that they had no chance of selling an English product to South Korean customers. That’s why the first thing they did when officially becoming a monday.com Channel Partner was translating the entire product into Korean.
The next thing they had to do was localize the monday.com marketing strategy. Natalie explained that it was the process of ‘transcreation’ rather than translation. Meaning, it was not enough to translate monday.com’s campaign from its original English into Korean, but they had to adapt the message to the Korean culture as well.
For instance, SPH knew from experience that the South Korean audience better responds to detailed, informative language even in ad copy. Every ad had to clearly define monday.com and its value if they wanted Korean users to show any interest.
The SPH team created their own local monday.com website and Facebook page. What’s more, as a local partner, SPH was able to bring monday.com to South Korea’s very own social media platforms. Unlike most of the world, where Facebook, Google, and YouTube reign supreme, Korea has developed its own search engine and social platforms — a hugely untapped marketing source for most foreign companies.
The dominant search engine in Korea is ‘Naver,’ and its YouTube-equivalent is ‘Naver TV.’ The team at SPH made sure to ‘transcreate’ the monday.com website, blog, and YouTube channel and upload it to these local platforms as well.
Another example that differentiates the Korean market is the best practice for collecting leads. While many assume that a required phone number field might cause friction and decrease conversion rate, in Korea, a phone number is absolutely essential for the leads to have any value.
According to Natalie, “most international companies aren’t aware of how tricky it is to run digital marketing in the Korean market, both technically and culturally.” However, as tricky as it may be, with the help of SPH’s local knowledge and hard work, the entire Korean localization process only took a few short months.
The next thing they had to do was localize the monday.com marketing strategy. Natalie explained that it was the process of ‘transcreation’ rather than translation. Meaning, it was not enough to translate monday.com’s campaign from its original English into Korean, but they had to adapt the message to the Korean culture as well.
For instance, SPH knew from experience that the South Korean audience better responds to detailed, informative language even in ad copy. Every ad had to clearly define monday.com and its value if they wanted Korean users to show any interest.
The SPH team created their own local monday.com website and Facebook page. What’s more, as a local partner, SPH was able to bring monday.com to South Korea’s very own social media platforms. Unlike most of the world, where Facebook, Google, and YouTube reign supreme, Korea has developed its own search engine and social platforms — a hugely untapped marketing source for most foreign companies.
The dominant search engine in Korea is ‘Naver,’ and its YouTube-equivalent is ‘Naver TV.’ The team at SPH made sure to ‘transcreate’ the monday.com website, blog, and YouTube channel and upload it to these local platforms as well.
Another example that differentiates the Korean market is the best practice for collecting leads. While many assume that a required phone number field might cause friction and decrease conversion rate, in Korea, a phone number is absolutely essential for the leads to have any value.
According to Natalie, “most international companies aren’t aware of how tricky it is to run digital marketing in the Korean market, both technically and culturally.” However, as tricky as it may be, with the help of SPH’s local knowledge and hard work, the entire Korean localization process only took a few short months.
The opportunity
The opportunity
Once they localized the product and dedicated marketing strategy, SPH was able to start selling.
With the new localized ads, they were able to generate high-intent leads fairly quickly and began conducting 4-5 on-sight consultations a week.
Natalie tells us that the best piece of feedback they got from their customers was that they “no longer use email.” SPH’s customers were thrilled to report that with the help of monday.com, they were finally able to manage their overflowing inbox and easily communicate with stakeholders.
Other customers reported that monday.com made the transition to WFH much smoother. Managers were able to get an overview of employee workloads and progress without constant messaging and video meetings.
Natalie tells us that she finds working with monday.com especially exciting and rewarding because it gives her the opportunity to work with companies across every industry and vertical.
Among SPH’s customers are companies in the gaming, food, entertainment, and banking industry. Natalie recounts that just that day, she conducted a consultation with a rooftop camping company and later on with a YouTube content creation group.
Natalie tells us that the best piece of feedback they got from their customers was that they “no longer use email.” SPH’s customers were thrilled to report that with the help of monday.com, they were finally able to manage their overflowing inbox and easily communicate with stakeholders.
Other customers reported that monday.com made the transition to WFH much smoother. Managers were able to get an overview of employee workloads and progress without constant messaging and video meetings.
Natalie tells us that she finds working with monday.com especially exciting and rewarding because it gives her the opportunity to work with companies across every industry and vertical.
Among SPH’s customers are companies in the gaming, food, entertainment, and banking industry. Natalie recounts that just that day, she conducted a consultation with a rooftop camping company and later on with a YouTube content creation group.
The growth
The growth
Since becoming a monday.com partner in Q3 of 2019, SPH localized the Work OS and their marketing strategy in just a few short months. Within a year, they grew their dedicated team from 3 to 8 people, signed 161 monday.com customers across Korea, and tripled their ARR.
The majority of SPH’s monday.com customers are innovative startups. Natalie explains that this is due to the fact that “they are much less conservative and able to quickly adapt to a new, better way of work, especially now with the limitations brought on by COVID-19”.
South Korean enterprises are more set in their ways and less likely to change the way they have been working for years. While definitely posing as a bigger challenge for SPH, their familiarity with the culture helped them formulate the right approach and slowly but surely win over enterprise customers as well.
One of these customers is one of the largest food delivery companies in the country, with approximately 1,000 employees. This account was achieved by the ‘land and expand’ method. The product was first adopted by just one small team within the company, but by providing a positive impact and providing a good customer experience, the account expanded to over 800 seats.
The majority of SPH’s monday.com customers are innovative startups. Natalie explains that this is due to the fact that “they are much less conservative and able to quickly adapt to a new, better way of work, especially now with the limitations brought on by COVID-19”.
South Korean enterprises are more set in their ways and less likely to change the way they have been working for years. While definitely posing as a bigger challenge for SPH, their familiarity with the culture helped them formulate the right approach and slowly but surely win over enterprise customers as well.
One of these customers is one of the largest food delivery companies in the country, with approximately 1,000 employees. This account was achieved by the ‘land and expand’ method. The product was first adopted by just one small team within the company, but by providing a positive impact and providing a good customer experience, the account expanded to over 800 seats.
The partnership
The partnership
To everyone’s benefit, the initial stage of the partnership coincided with the first-ever monday.com Partners Conference held in September of 2019 in Tel Aviv.
Jay Lee, a sales manager, and Tobi Lee, a tech manager at SPH, came to visit the monday.com headquarters for a 3-day program during which the monday.com team shared their plans for 2020. Hearing monday.com’s product roadmap and the detailed vision for the partnership ecosystem, the SPH team was able to align their strategy for the local market.
Two months later, Eli Moyrel, Director of Channel Partnerships Asia at monday.com, visited Korea for an offline event for SPH prospects.
According to Jay, “The synergic relationship between Eli and our team at SPH is what really helped us expand monday.com’s reach in the conventionally hard-to-crack market that is Korea.”
Jay Lee, a sales manager, and Tobi Lee, a tech manager at SPH, came to visit the monday.com headquarters for a 3-day program during which the monday.com team shared their plans for 2020. Hearing monday.com’s product roadmap and the detailed vision for the partnership ecosystem, the SPH team was able to align their strategy for the local market.
Two months later, Eli Moyrel, Director of Channel Partnerships Asia at monday.com, visited Korea for an offline event for SPH prospects.
According to Jay, “The synergic relationship between Eli and our team at SPH is what really helped us expand monday.com’s reach in the conventionally hard-to-crack market that is Korea.”
A look ahead
A look ahead
When asked what SPH sees for the future of their partnership with monday.com, Natalie told us that they plan to grow beyond paid leads and invest efforts in a word-of-mouth approach. They believe that referrals can have a significant impact in the Korean market and are currently strategizing a comprehensive referral program to launch at the beginning of 2021.
SPH also plans on doubling down on their unique content creating efforts for the Korean market. They have already created a series of fun and immersive video tutorials for their monday.com YouTube channel, roughly translated to ‘Superhero Mr.Lee's monday.com.’
They will continue working on all of their organic social channels with Korean content in hopes of viral impact and more exposure.
SPH also plans on doubling down on their unique content creating efforts for the Korean market. They have already created a series of fun and immersive video tutorials for their monday.com YouTube channel, roughly translated to ‘Superhero Mr.Lee's monday.com.’
They will continue working on all of their organic social channels with Korean content in hopes of viral impact and more exposure.
Words of wisdom
Words of wisdom
Natalie believes that Channel Partners around the world are in a unique position to bring this new category of work management software to their region. It’s a win-win situation in which they can introduce a product that customers love to a region they know best.
“Korean company culture is very different,” Natalie tells us, “We were able to not only translate monday.com for Korean customers but also translate the Korean market to the team at monday.com, and I believe that the same can be done by other Channel Partners across the world.”
“Korean company culture is very different,” Natalie tells us, “We were able to not only translate monday.com for Korean customers but also translate the Korean market to the team at monday.com, and I believe that the same can be done by other Channel Partners across the world.”
"The monday.com Work OS introduces a new way of work and we are so excited to play a part in its incredible growth and bring it to the Korean market”
"The monday.com Work OS introduces a new way of work and we are so excited to play a part in its incredible growth and bring it to the Korean market”
Natalie Kang,
Global Marketing Lead at SPH
Will you be the next monday.com success?
Join our channel partner program