With planning for 2024 now in place, partner marketing leaders in the B2B technology industry are under more pressure than ever to build pipeline and demonstrate ROI despite smaller teams, tight budgets, and shifting priorities.
The world of technology partnerships
remains key to the spread of solutions but is becoming increasingly complex as the number of partner types and technologies available increases and the pace of stockholder database change accelerates. In this context, partner ecosystems are playing an increasingly strategic role in the growth of many B2B technology companies, attracting the interest of executives and investors. Add to this dynamic the current economic uncertainty, it is imperative that partner marketers focus on making thoughtful investments that deliver measurable results.
Are you a partner marketing manager? Take these three essential steps now to make your year a success!
Step 1: Validate and refine your common message
Before you invest in content or seek to 5 ways to not lose a customer generate demand, revisit your shared messaging in light of the latest industry trends and current buyer priorities. Here are some things to consider:
● Is your shared message clear, concise, and compelling?
● Does it address emerging trends such as Generative AI (GenAI)?
● Do you highlight your key competitive differentiators?
● Does it effectively articulate your “better together” story?
● Do you address the priorities of both technical and business buyers?
Synchronize with your Product Marketing peers
understand the technological changes at andorra business directory play in a competitive environment or the pivots that shape. The positioning of your partner marketing solutions. If your company has a relationship with a consulting firm. Test your message with a third-party expert who knows both your market and your target buyer.
Before you roll out your new shared message on a large scale. Consider these tips from Laurie Mitchell. Senior vice president of global marketing at Wasabi Technologies:
identify a few partners to test your common message together. And then expand from there. That way, you learn and fail quickly, and adjust your message. And once you know where it works, you can…expand to other distribution partners.”
Step 2: Fill the identified gaps in your content library
Now that you have your messaging in place, determine which buyer teams you want to target and take stock of your content library to ensure you can effectively tell your “better together” story throughout the audience journey. Here are a few things to consider:
Here is a suggested action plan:
● Check out TechTarget’s 2023 EMEA Media Consumption and Vendor Engagement Study to understand how B2B technology buyers conduct solution research, gather vendor insights, and engage with content.
● Take inventory of your content and map it by persona and stage for best alignment.
● Evaluate current assets against your refined message and refresh as needed. Identify gaps and prioritize creating assets that can improve your conversion rates.
● To maximize your budget, identify assets to repurpose into derivative content and explore GenAI tools that can now help you increase content production and reuse.
● Invest in having a third-party industry expert create the independent content that buyers consistently request, such as e-books and webinars aligned to format and topic needs, or self-assessment tools or ROI/TCO calculators, etc.
Amy McNew, Senior Director of Ecosystem Marketing
in North America at Palo Alto Networks, shared some great advice during our recent webinar, “Shaping the B2B IT User Journey: Partner Marketing Strategies”:
We’re seeing more and more stakeholders in purchasing
decisions. In the past. Palo Alto Networks primarily targeted the direct users of our products. Those who are trying to manage the complexities of their organization’s security infrastructure and want to understand what’s going to make their lives easier. But with more vendors and tighter budgets. We’re seeing the top of the IT department get involved earlier in the conversation… and ask. How is this technical solution going to contribute to the bottom line that I’m being asked to deliver?’ We’re making sure our partners understand that they need to target both audiences. Because they’ll both play a critical role in closing the deal.”
partner’s marketing budget is useles
s if your leads are poor quality or if they are not properly. Engaged and nurtured after showing interest in your joint solution.