The Keys to Channel Partner Success

Transcription

1 CONTENT SYNDICATION E-COMMERCE INTEGRATION business integration BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE The Keys to Channel Partner Success Automate and Simplify Lead Generation, the Sales Process and Social Media Engagement For Consultants and Agencies Plus a Bonus Infographic Website: [email protected] contentsyndication.tiekinetix.com North America: [email protected] Europe: Phone North America: USA: Asia: Phone Europe: Europe: Phone Asia: Asia:

2 The Challenge of Ensuring Channel Success Perhaps you as a vendor are relying increasingly on your indirect channel for a greater share of revenues. Or maybe the indirect channel is simply an important contributor to your overall revenue mix. Either way, it s critical to help your VAR partners be effective and successful. Yet every vendor working with VARs faces the same challenge securing the mindshare of a partner that is representing tens or even hundreds of vendors. What is Channel Content Syndication? Channel Content Syndication replicates and customizes digital content across external web properties. As a result, enrolled partners always have up-to-date information, tools and rich content to improve their branding, communications, lead generation and sales conversion. Because you are fighting for your VAR s attention, you must take steps to set your company apart. In today s world, that means going beyond supporting a channel sales and marketing program backed by funding. It means addressing the following: Helping generate leads for partners Making it as easy as possible for a VAR to sell your solution Enabling VARs to engage in the social media conversation In the end, the key is to deliver the information, content and campaigns that empower VARs to sell your solution without requiring much of the partner and while maintaining control of your brand. After all, most indirect channel partners are small organizations with limited resources. In fact, they may not have a dedicated marketing expert who is focused on generating leads and updating the website with vendors latest messaging and content. Many companies rely on back links and RSS feeds to try to keep their partners up to date with leads and content, but this sends visitors away from the partners sites and the content is not rendered optimally for the site visitor. Or they use unsophisticated content distribution methods that are costly and hard for partners to install. The right answer is a channel content and social media syndication solution that is simple and automated. Automate and Simplify Lead Generation for Channel Partners The first challenge for vendors is helping partners generate leads. In fact, 60% of B2B marketers in the US surveyed by BtoB Magazine cited lead generation as their top challenge. 1 Because VARs with limited resources find it difficult to keep their websites up to date with vendors latest messaging and content, they often 2

3 Why should you build a content syndication plan into your global partner strategy? 1. Control how partners are using content. 2. Ensure content and campaigns hits the marketplace in real time. 3. Lead generation and content consumption can be easily monitored and adjusted for greater results. include a link to the vendor s site on their site. Unfortunately, this sends prospects to the vendor s site and they might never return to the channel partner s website. Automatically Publish to Your Partners Sites Content syndication from is a powerful tool for directly and automatically publishing your microsites, collateral and topical campaigns on a partner web page with next to zero work required of the partner. Automating content distribution through partners is an effective way to increase the quality and amount of leads for partners. Content syndication automatically distributes new content and handles details such as co-branding PDFs when applicable, eliminating the need for the partner to access a portal and modify individual PDFs. Because the VAR s site then features up-to-date, comprehensive information about your products and solutions, the prospect doesn t need to leave the website. A smart syndication provider also strategically places callto-action buttons and lead capture forms where appropriate, helping to qualify and push traffic toward a conversion. is also a very effective tool in the channel. With syndication, channel partners can integrate targeted lead lists, deploy a co-branded campaign and capture new interest by driving traffic to syndicated landing pages on the partner websites. Channel partners can even send automated, co-branded campaigns directly from the vendor. The power of should not be underestimated. A survey of B2B marketing professionals around the world found was by far the most effective marketing technique. 2 Generate Better Results for You and Your Partners Partners with automated content distribution are able to remained focuses on selling the product while you focus on the intricacies of lead generation. Plus you can analyze which content delivers the most qualified leads and apply these best practices across the entire channel instantaneously. As a result, your will generate better results and leads through your partner websites. Moreover, by simplifying lead generation through automation, you can realize a lower cost per lead, even while generating the same if not higher number of quality leads. Automate and Simplify the Indirect Sales Process Let s face it the best sales reps, whether direct or indirect, always look for the quickest and easiest way to make a sale. When a partner sales rep gets a prospect on the phone, he can choose from a multitude of solutions his company resells to satisfy the prospect s needs. It s only logical that he will opt for the solution that is backed by the most information and marketing content. 1 emarketer, Lead Generation Poses Biggest Challenge for B2Bs, April 22, Ibid 3

4 A Growing Importance in Social, Equals a Growing Need in the Channel Social Media is increasingly important for marketing, yet many channel partners require significant support in this area. In fact, Forrester estimates that just 55-65% of channel partners are already involved in social media. Yet Forrester s research shows that customers value the input and participation of channel partners in online communities and discussion forums more highly than that of tech vendors. 4 With syndication, you can strengthen the indirect sales process by distributing content to your partners internal business systems. Specifically, you can push entire sales dashboards right into your partner s intranet to automatically delivery any new and/or relevant pricing, collateral or tools. As a result, you inject your company into the sales process, empower the indirect sales force and keep your company top of mind. This microsite displays specific content for individual partner, with content filtered based on the partner s profile and automatically cobranded if applicable. When the salesperson clicks on your solution, he can access all relevant content and tools in real time while on the phone with a prospect. Automate and Simplify Social Media Engagement through Partners Social Identities It goes without saying that social media is playing an increasingly important role in the sales process. Consider findings from a report published by Twitter and Compete that evaluated how more than 6,000 Twitter users engaged with over 400 B2B tech sites at the end of Fifty-nine percent of site users visited B2B tech sites, compared to 40 percent of average online consumers. 30 percent of the Twitter users actively searched for B2B tech brands, while only 12 percent of average Internet users did the same. 3 That s why it s critical to empower your partners to get themselves seen in Twitter feeds. Yet the social media sphere is still underutilized by most vendors with channel partners. Some vendors that are trying to help their partners tap into the power of this channel have used social media syndication solutions that allow their partners to automatically Tweet out a message provided by the vendors. However, these solutions can t close the loop and send prospects back to the partner s site. Some even put a cap on the number of messages and partners you can manage through the solution. Close the Lead-Generation Loop with Automated Social Media Syndication TIE Kinetix offers automated social media syndication with closed-loop lead generation. Specifically, we automate the distribution of small bits of content through your partners social identities. That means you can create a Twitter message and all your partners can tweet it out themselves without doing anything. At the same time, if any prospect clicks on the link in the Tweet, they ll be directed to the appropriate VAR s website and the relevant content on it instead of to your site. In other words, even though you send out the message through your partners, you can connect the conversation back to your syndicated content on the partner s site to close the loop. To ensure full flexibility, you can choose whether to automatically Tweet on behalf of partners that give you permission to do so. Or your partner can review and approve Tweets before sending them out. Maximize the Value of Your Partner Relationships Your partner needs your content on their website, needs to be part of 4

5 The Power of Content Syndication in Action One large TIE Kinetix customer is rebranding, a huge and expensive undertaking. Imagine all the content and information on partner websites that need to be updated with the new branding. With TIE Kinetix, the company simply hits a button and all its content is automatically rebranded on the partners sites. the social media conversation, and needs to generate leads to sell your products or services. As you seek ways to maximize the value of your partner relationships, it s critical that you become an extended marketing department for your resource-constrained partners and help generate leads without requiring much of your VARs. are designed to help you address the unique challenges and goals associated with channel marketing. While other solutions require much involvement of partners or much handholding by the solution provider, TIE Kinetix provides you with a simple-to-use solution that alleviates the burden on the partner and on your wallet. The TIE Kinetix solution is unlike any other because it s built on a thirdgeneration content syndication platform that is designed specifically around the channel experience and channel marketing principles. Other solutions are built on first-generation platforms that revolve around an IT, versus a channel, perspective. As a result, it embeds best practices and features designed from the ground up to enable channel marketing success. Ready for channel partner success? Contact us today. Not ready to chat, but want to learn more about the value of content syndication? Check out our on-demand webinars. Webinars: [email protected] North America Europe Tel: Tel: Fax: Fax: Asia Tel: Fax: Twitter Advertising Blog, Twitter and Compete study: How Tweets influence B2B tech audiences, March 8, The Register, Social media and the channel marketing Fear Factor, 4 January

6 [infographic] Impactful Content Syndication for Channel Marketers 91% B2B Respondents Using Content Marketing¹ Learn How to Easily Automate and Simplify Branding, Lead Generation, Sales Tools and Social Media Engagement throughout the Channel. social collateral sales tools 60% videos web content 300% Revenue from the channel² Lead management campaigns integrating four or more digital channels are outperforming single - or dual channel campaigns by 300%³ 60% of revenue for large tech vendors is coming from the channel and fierce competition for partners, knowing how to reach your partners will be critical in 2013 and beyond. If competition for partners is high, content is king and more digital channels equals success - how are you making it easier for partners to market and sell? Strategically syndicate the right content, at the right time, in the right stage of the funnel Web Content Web Content Social Sales Tools Collateral Collateral Lead Generation Brand and Buzz rsion Sales Conve d Indirect Sales an el Marketing Funn Brand and Buzz Lead Generation Sales Conversion Easily attract and educate Effortlessly help your channel Proactively arm your channel potential customers by community qualify and convert partners with all the sales syndicating web content and leads into sales ready tools necessarily to make it social messages through your opportunities by syndicating easy to position your product channel partners web proper- s connected to the right above the competition and ties and social identities. content, collateral and lead maximize sales. capturing tools. 60% Of B2B marketers in the US surveyed by BtoB Magazine cited lead generation as their top challenge.⁴ Most Effective A survey of B2B marketing professionals around the world found was by far the most effective marketing technique.⁵ 55-65% Forrester estimates that just 55-65% of channel partners are already involved in social media. Yet Forrester s research shows that customers value the input and participation of channel partners in online communities and discussion forums more highly than that of tech vendors.⁶ Adjust any lever at any time Content Campaigns Social Collateral Sales Tools That s right. Content syndication provides channel marketers with the ability to control their content, collateral and sales tools dynamically and effortlessly. Interested in learning more about Measuring Success content syndication for your channel? Contact TIE Kinetix today. That s not all, content syndication provides channel marketers with the tools like business intelligence and online reporting to fine tune and measure performance. Interested in learning more about content syndication for your channel? Contact TIE Kinetix today. SOURCES: B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks North America: CMI/MarketingProfs 2 - Forrester Research, Inc. Tech Channel Marketing Trends 2012, 13 March, The Register, Social media and the channel marketing Fear Factor, 4 January 2013, Gartner, Inc. 4 - emarketer, Lead Generation Poses Biggest Challenge for B2Bs, April 22, Ibid 6 - Twitter Advertising Blog, Twitter and Compete study: How Tweets influence B2B tech audiences, March 8, 2013