Partner Marketing

Content

What is partner marketing?

Choosing the right partner is an important step, be it in private or in business life. As a company, you should always value your partners and treat them with respect, regardless of whether they are sales or distribution partners. They are not a means to an end - i.e. for sale - but your most loyal regular customer. Above all, it is important to pick up the sales partners from the start and to prepare them for future cooperation and partner marketing. Correct partner onboarding, the introduction to the partnership, is particularly helpful and promising to ensure that you and your partner pull together. In onboarding, you show your partner that you have a clear contact person for every situation and lay the foundation for a successful cooperation. Particularly with regard to marketing, it is important to make it clear that advertising should be carried out together and that there is a common goal behind this partnership. With all these agreements, a good product and the right marketing campaigns, nothing stands in the way of a successful start in partner marketing.

How does partner marketing work?

To see again how the marketing process should work as a whole, a small step-by-step guide is provided here:

Step 1: Include the sales partners in the strategy right from the start and discuss common areas of application.
Step 2: Learn about your partner's marketing strategy.
Step 3: Bring the two strategies together and develop a joint marketing plan from them.
Step 4: Know your partner's goals and clients, and find out how you can help them achieve the goals.
Step 5: Stay in touch! Regular communication is the cornerstone for a successful collaboration.
Step 6: Provide your partner with suitable IT systems, which he can use to carry out his own local marketing.

Types of Affiliate Marketing

With-Partner Marketing

With-partner marketing is marketing actions that are carried out together. You and your partner develop a joint marketing campaign and each advertises it on their channels. However, you are always the sender together. This creates a win-win situation for both parties.

Through-Partner Marketing

The complete publication of the marketing measures takes place on the part of the partner. You provide your affiliate with templates or marketing concepts that they can use to market the products or the company in general. These templates only have to be adapted or provided with the contact details of the partner and they can then use them for their marketing purposes. Thus, his local customers get their marketing materials delivered by a trusted person or entity from their immediate environment. This offers a very good multiplier effect, especially for you and your product. On the other hand, it gives the partner more leeway and decision-making options as to which advertising media he wants to use when and where.

For-Partner Marketing

In the case of for-partner marketing, on the other hand, things tend to work the other way around. Although the marketing materials are also created by the head office or the manufacturer and only the name of the partner is added, the partner has little say in when and to what extent you publish them. All marketing campaigns only run through the manufacturer or the head office. This is particularly useful for small and unknown partners who can benefit from the company's reach.

How can you support your partners in marketing?

No matter which type of partner marketing you choose, it is always possible to support your partner in the best possible way and to work together on marketing success. This can be achieved from the start by working together on a marketing plan or campaign plan after the advertising focuses are aligned for the next quarter or year. In this way, your sales partner can think in advance about how the marketing campaigns can be integrated into their own activities. However, in order to run this campaign together and successfully, it is also important to provide the partners with marketing materials. These materials can either be used directly or, after a brief individualization by the respective partner, be included in the advertising. So that, despite adaptations and campaigns by various sales partners, a uniform image of the product and your company is still created for the customers, it also makes sense to talk to the partners about the corporate design to be adhered to. After an all-encompassing training session, you can be assured that the company will be maintained as a unified brand despite having different partners. Last but not least, you can also support your partners financially in marketing campaigns, for example by distributing advertising subsidies. In this way, even smaller partners can do enough marketing and you ensure that your partners do not want to save on the marketing of your products and services. IT systems such as a communication portal, a web-to-print system or a marketing portal can assist you with all of these support and arrangements. There you can:

Provide marketing materials
Develop a campaign plan
Distribute advertising grants
Introduce the corporate design

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Which current trends are relevant?

There are also trends in partner marketing which affect the headquarters or the manufacturer and the partners equally and which should be addressed:

Head office expertise

Due to the planning that takes place in the headquarters or at the manufacturer, the marketing campaigns and content are characterized by a high proportion of knowledge. In this way, false advertising due to ignorance or lack of marketing skills can be prevented by smaller partners.

Time saving

The uniform distribution of marketing materials and campaigns to all partners saves a lot of time. In addition, the partner marketing saves time in central marketing thanks to the multiplier effect.

Individuality

Since in most cases the marketing is mainly or to a large extent carried out by the individual partners, the marketing materials are much more individual and better adapted to the target group than if they only come from the headquarters or the manufacturer (local marketing).

Cost savings through joint marketing

When carrying out joint advertising campaigns that only take place on the part of the partners, costs are also saved. The partner brings the advertising material and content to a further target group, establishes contact and thus bears part of the costs.

Digitization: marketing trend or danger?

Digitization is also an increasingly important topic in partner marketing. The marketing world has changed significantly in recent years. The age of pure print advertisements and posters is over. The majority of advertising nowadays mostly takes place digitally, whether as content on social media, as banners and advertisements on websites or through specially created moving image formats. But how do you manage to make ideal use of digitization together with partners, or can it even become a danger in partner marketing? Of course, you cannot do without new, digital online marketing instruments in partner marketing either. Social media, for example, offer an easy way into the pocket of the end consumer. But website advertising is also becoming increasingly important due to the ever greater change from print to digital media. In addition, digital platforms also offer the advantage of being able to use not only text and images, but also video and audio formats for contact with new customers. However, it is important to specify exactly who is allowed to distribute which content. If each sales partner were to create their own ads and accounts for the same product, the customer would quickly become confused and make a bad impression. Ideally, the presentation of the products or services remains mainly with the manufacturer or the head office. So you are on the safe side and can use digital marketing ideally for yourself. But that does not mean that the partners are not allowed to use these channels. For regional advertisements and customer-specific content, online media are also a popular means for partners themselves. It is only important to get the basics clear from the start and to set certain guidelines for the use of images, materials and other media. With the right corporate design specifications and uniform templates for the entire company, nothing stands in the way of digitized and modern partner marketing.

Software support in partner marketing

In all this support and arrangements with the partners, IT systems such as a communication portal, a web-to-print system or a holistic marketing portal can be at your side. With the right marketing portal, the entire communication and processing of marketing takes place via one system, where you can provide marketing materials, work out a campaign plan, distribute advertising subsidies and present the corporate design. All advertising material and campaigns are published as templates (editable templates) and forwarded to the partners. These can be adapted and ordered, booked or published directly in the system. Thanks to the template-based work, design specifications are directly observed and applied. In order to offer the partners additional incentives, grants can be distributed or certain advertising material can be made available free of charge. Most of the marketing portals are web-based applications to which you and your partners have online access. This software-as-a-service solution always offers you an updated system that is constantly evolving with the current marketing trends and has grown for the future.