This will be the year of digital automation for the channel in new lead generation. While on the surface, it seems like we’ve been working toward — and even achieving — digital automation in the channel, there are some missing pieces. Dave R Taylor, CMO of Impartner, shares trends that will drive digital automation and tells marketers how they can embrace marketing automation.
According to John Lojek,Opens a new window strategic partnerships leader at Google, searches for “open now near me†have increased 400% yearly. Additional Google research has found, over the last 12 months, a 65% increase in buyers researching products before they buy, even if they intend to buy in-store, and a 49% increase in buyers checking inventory before they walk into the store. The problem? While 80% of buyers are online, traditional retailers are not.
“With all that online activity has come a lot of complexity in those purchase journeys,†says Lojek. “There’s a product that helps intercept, helps be there in the moment, no matter where you are: Google Ads.â€
Purchasing Journey
Because the purchasing journey has become more complex, many believe targeting online customers through Google Ads and social targeting is too complex and time-consuming to achieve ROI. In some ways, they are right, if the process isn’t automated. And many solutions in the marketplace have focused only on providing brand content through email or social media, which targets existing contacts who are already followers of your company, someone you met at an event or subscribed to your newsletter. These products help nurture and close leads that are already in your funnel but aren’t effective in getting new leads.
Many channel partners are small companies, often with less than 10 employees. Their primary focus is on selling and servicing products. They rarely have teams of marketing experts, and even more rarely do they specialize in paid media advertising, which requires some sophisticated knowledge and experience. It is challenging for these companies to allocate scarce resources from sales into marketing. Even Market Development Funds (MDF) don’t provide the motivation to implement these campaigns. While digital paid ads have proven to be one of the most powerful demand generators of the recent decade, research showsOpens a new window that resellers use less than 10% of their MDF funds on this medium. In fact, 50% of MDF funds are typically unspent.
In 2023, companies will build processes to scale their marketing efforts to reach these online customers through PMA, or Partner Marketing Automation. Partner Marketing Automation delivers new leads in the pipeline through exact targeting to an intent-driven audience. When you do both paid and organic partner marketing automation, you get a one-two punch of getting leads and then nurturing them to sales. Partner marketing automation works well in both internet search and social channels. Companies provide the right information at the exact time prospective customers need it.
See More: 5 Steps To Integrate AI Into the Fabric of Enterprise Marketing Automation
More Budget for Digital Advertising
Large companies usually have paid digital advertising at the core of their demand gen activities, but they have deep marketing resources and expertise to bring to bear. But while they are good at doing this for the brand itself, they often shy away from engaging their partners. This is a mistake, as partner channels typically account for 70+% of a company’s revenue. With partner marketing automation, companies can exponentially increase revenue by bringing their partners into the modern marketing age.
New solutions will come from and through brands. Most partners will not do it if given a bunch of templates and keywords to try. They just won’t have the expertise to get initial traction, A/B test, quickly fail, retest, and achieve measurable success. But vendor brands can do this. It helps control their branding and messages anyway. With specific targeting, when a customer clicks on one of the ads, they can be directed to the closest partner or reseller. Companies can scale Google and social ads with hundreds of thousands of individual partner campaigns. And partners don’t have to do much to participate.
Xerox and Stanley Black & Decker put this into practice recently, and multiple brands will follow in 2023. Here’s how Xerox’s program worked. First, they gathered logos and contact details from the partners that agreed to participate. Then Xerox configured templates for the co-branded landing pages with an automated system that inserts the local partner information into the landing pages. They achieved specific targeting because Google allows a campaign to create radius definitions based on geo-targeting. Because the ads were produced and developed at scale, Xerox optimized ads content, click rates and conversion. After piloting the program with 11 partners, they now offer the partner marketing automation program to more than 100 premier partners.
Stanley Black & Decker has offered a similar program for 150 independent resellers. The results created a local digital presence for their partners, grew business and reached new customers. Campaigns are launched and optimized quickly, saving time, and increasing productivity in marketing to partners’ potential customers. One key element of Stanley Black & Decker’s program that stands out is its focus on delivering the best partner experience possible. Channel leaders say they’ve generated a high adoption rate along with building better relationships with their partners. The company has seen a 163% increase in local dealers’ leads with a 49% decrease in the cost per lead.
Both companies create new interactions for the brand and for their partners. Participating partners receive new business opportunities, and the companies can track success rates among partners. Brands can give more attention to partners that aren’t closing deals and can provide best practices through automated nurture campaigns.
Xerox and Stanley Black & Decker are just the beginning. These solutions are also gaining traction among supporting agencies. A growing number of agencies are becoming experts and helping companies program and digitize their automation strategies.
Partner marketing automation will accelerate dramatically in 2023. We are excited to watch it grow to help brands and partners maximize indirect revenue, especially in what could be a challenging year. May we all make this prediction come true!
How do you think automation will support channel marketing this year? Share with us on FacebookOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , and LinkedIn Opens a new window . We’d love to hear from you!Â