8 Reasons to Work With An Agency For Through-Channel Marketing
So, you’re considering a through-channel marketing (TCM) solution. Great! Through-channel marketing helps you to get your messages out exponentially farther – with and through your partners – to reach more of your common end user customers on their digital path to purchase.
A through-channel marketing solution allows you full control over your own marketing messages and content. It’s an investment in your channel, it enables them to be more competitive, and it increases their loyalty to you. It’s a win for everyone.
If it’s so great, then why does it sometimes fail to deliver return? Why do manufacturers invest and then abandon their programs? Through-channel marketing can fail when your resellers don’t stay engaged, or when your marketing team doesn’t keep up with ongoing campaigns and new content.
What can manufacturers to do increase their success – and their returns on investment? Bring in a marketing service provider / agency that specializes in through-channel marketing. One that knows what works.
Here are 8 Reasons why this is a smart idea:
1 – BETTER RECRUITING & PARTNER ONBOARDING
Starting out on the right foot is critical, and marketing service providers have done this before. They can help to train your own team on through-channel marketing best practices, and help you communicate the benefits more effectively with your own partners. A service provider can provide tools – like videos and brochures – and can lead webinars and 1/1 meetings with you and your partners to help get your partners excited about your program.
They can lead the onboarding process, set up the portals, host onboarding sessions, follow up with partners, and work with partner sales, marketing, and technical teams. Marketing service providers can help to provide a seamless and positive experience for partners.
2 – INCREASED PARTNER PARTICIPATION
TCMA initiatives succeed when your partners are enthusiastic participants. Once partners have come on board, your marketing partner will follow up with them as often as needed, to ensure that all elements are in place. They provide technical support, answer partner questions, and even help partners to set up their own web and social channels when needed. Your partners are never left to fend for themselves if you have an Agency working with you!
3 – BETTER BUILT MARKETING CONTENT
Marketing service providers know what works. They work with manufacturers to help structure the program elements and provide guidance on specific marketing content. How should landing pages be structured for an optimized customer experience? What kind of content gets the most customer engagement? How often should social and email communications be sent? What gets the most clicks? Your marketing partner can also provide creative services when needed, helping to augment manufacturer resources and significantly improve time to market.
4 – IMPROVED CONTENT MANAGEMENT
Once your content is created, it’s already time to start work on the next round. New, refreshed, and updated content is critical to a successful, ongoing program with high customer engagement. Marketing service providers will help manufacturers manage the content calendar and the creation process. This helps to ensure it gets done. They will manage the asset library so that content is available for partners whenever they need it. Agencies also provide editorial services, helping to make the content fit and work. In addition, service providers deliver data-driven recommendations for content improvement. They can help marketing teams understand what worked, what didn’t, and what they can do to improve.
5 – MORE CONTENT DIVERSITY
Manufacturers know their own products and services better than anyone. But sometimes resellers are looking for broader industry-level content, or related non-brand content that can be integrated into the manufacturer’s messages. Marketing service providers can help. They are brand-agnostic and can bring a market-level approach and content to the overall solution.
6 – BRING MULTIPLE PARTIES TOGETHER
Sometimes a TCM solution requires multiple parties – such as more than one manufacturer, or multiple types of partners – like distributors and resellers. A marketing service provider can bring those parties together and help to build a common structure. They can help to build integrated content, messaging, channels, and go-to-market strategy.
7 – BETTER BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
Agencies can provide an extra level of business intelligence. Many TCM automation platforms provide basic analytics and metrics. Agencies can provide additional intelligence, custom reporting, and analysis – for both manufacturers and their partners. Once partners have come onboard, OEMs need to keep them engaged. Providing data and metrics on how many customers visited their sites, clicked on their site’s content, and connected through their social media are important ways to show value and build loyalty.
8 – MORE DIGITAL MARKETING VALUE
Marketing service providers enable and optimize a through-channel marketing solution. But they can offer much more. They can bring expertise in digital excellence to both the manufacturer and their partners. They provide education on digital marketing for both OEM and partner marketing organizations. Your service provider can also provide additional services around search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), content management, design, website optimization, product information management, and E-commerce – which help all participants to build more fulsome digital strategies and compete in the new digital journey.
Where does a manufacturer find a great digital marketing service provider to work with?
A good place to start is with a through-channel marketing platform solution provider, such as Impartner Software. They know the experts who know their solutions.
At AscendX Digital, we know through-channel marketing. We are the first and only TCM as-a-Service provider. Our team has many decades of technology marketing expertise, and we work with vendors and partners every day. We work with multiple technology platform providers so we can ensure that you get the best solution that fits your business needs. And we believe in the value of partnerships – within our team, with our vendors, and especially with our customers. Our customers are at the heart of everything we do. We are better together.
Whether you have a TCMA investment that needs some strategic and/or operational support, or if you are looking for a fully managed as-a-service solution, AscendX Digital can help.