Through Partner Marketing: Changing Coverage Models

Things are changing in the way that vendors are ‘marketing through’ their channel partners. Approaches have flexed over the years but there is a discernible trend now, to change and improve the way that vendors are providing marketing support for channel partners. Vendors are taking advantage of new technologies, and new digital marketing capabilities. This is leading to more focused segmentation.

In the classic triangle model, we’re seeing a move in the middle-to-top partner tiers towards focused partner marketing resources, people who can work smartly with the right partners. And in the mid-to-lower tiers of the triangle we’re seeing a move towards scalable digital marketing tools, with less human support. In other words the triangle is becoming narrower at the top, and broader at the bottom. More is invested in a few top partners, and less is invested in the many.

Partner Marketing As it Was

In the old world in-country partner marketing managers covered top partners, and partner marketing centres covered the middle tier. These two groups tended to use the same tools and techniques, and promote the same campaigns. It was just that the scalability for the middle tier came from centralising the resources. There was a toolset that was available to all, perhaps dependent on level in partner program. The long tail of partners often had to make do with what they could scavenge from these tools. The toolsets provided campaign collateral, managed co-marketing requests and perhaps captured leads. They were not integrated, they were not intuitive, and they were not available to all.

Integration of Tools, and Focus on Data

We are seeing this old model changing. The tools are getting refined, making them more intuitive, and making them better able to support partners to execute campaigns. But there is more to it than that. The tools are coming together. We see three components emerging, which are integrated into a single process:

• Opportunity identification tools: data analytics to identify customers and markets.

• Demand generation tools: campaign builders, campaign fund managers.

• Demand capture tools: nurturing, and lead management.

IBM (with Watson) and Oracle (with Audience Data Marketplace) both have data-driven approaches to finding the right customer, and managing interactions on a large scale to allow communities to be marketed to and hot-spots identified. We’re going to see more of this in the world of through-partner marketing too.

The Role of the Partner Marketing Manager

The Partner Marketing Manager role is becoming an even more real job, focused on a small number of larger partners and alliances. They are much more driven by marketing led sales outcomes than they historically have been. This is because the data sources and the integrated tools are becoming available, and because their bosses are demanding it! The need to see cause and effect, engagement and ROI in partner marketing is stronger than ever.

This is as true for the top tier – where the Partner Marketing Manager may be managing three to five partners – and in the middle tier of partners, where the Partner Marketing Manager may be managing ten, twenty or more partners. Interestingly, the role of the Partner Marketing Manager in this middle tier in the triangle is getting squeezed out by the approaches used in volume marketing, with volume-based automated marketing support functions becoming more attractive due to cost.

Drawing Some Conclusions

Vendors need through partner marketing to work in all three of the tiers in the triangle: lower, mid and top. The top tier is getting more focused attention from skilled Partner Marketing Managers, and the bottom tier has access to a fast-improving portfolio of marketing tools. The middle tier is often getting redefined into top or bottom, so ‘light touch’ centralised partner support centres are becoming less important. Through-partner marketing is becoming more data-driven, and the support tools are becoming more integrated.

Outsourcing remains highly relevant in this area. We’ve seen at bChannels that our teams of partner marketing support specialists are getting more client investment, to allow us to upskill and to invest in better processes on behalf of our clients. We’re being asked by our clients develop partner marketing services that are more integrated and data-led, and we have specialists who are able to guide our clients to achieve this.

bChannels has expertise in assessing partner marketing coverage needs, aligning tools and techniques, benchmarking, and where appropriate provisioning partner marketing support. We’d be interested to discuss your needs in this fast-changing area.

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