When it comes to B2B marketing outreach, building your brand for end customers is critical; but if you have a channel partner program, it’s also important to raise your profile and provide information about your differentiators to this important group. After all, they own the direct relationship with those customers and are instrumental to your brand awareness.
The indirect sales channels serving the IT, AI, cloud, mobile, wireless and telecom industries include systems integrators, resellers, agents, master agents, value-added resellers (VARs), cloud service providers, managed service providers, dealers and others that provide products, solutions and services to enterprises, small and medium-sized businesses, service providers, and other end users.
Most technology providers work with at least one of these segments (and usually more than one) to get their products to market. If that describes your B2B operation, then it’s time to refresh your marketing plan to make sure you’re reaching this important group.
Indirect channels reach deeper into the enterprise than most internal sales teams — as such, they know who your potential customers are and how to help you reach them. They can help you break into new markets and provide additional expertise and resources alongside your sales team. But first you need to find and attract the right partners.
Here are six ways to get your brand in front of your channel audiences:
1. Make sure you’re reaching out to the channel publications. It’s worth making sure that your PR focus includes channel-specific outreach using a range of solid, relevant content. In addition to consistently sending out press releases on channel news, such as information on partner programs and new partnerships, offer editors access to your subject matter experts to comment on the technologies shaping the market. They often look for expertise on everything from AI to 5G to cybersecurity. If you have solid insights into one of the areas the channel publication focuses on, you can take the opportunity to add your own voice (and brand) to the conversation.
2. Share your news beyond those industry publications. Try adding channel messaging to your existing social strategy; follow and make connections with top influencers and companies in the technology channel space. Consider adding channel-specific accounts to your LinkedIn, X or fediverse collection of social profiles, and use that to grow a rapport with the channel ecosystem.
3. Be transparent and open with channel program changes. Channel partners are professional, independent salespeople who choose which vendor/provider programs to participate in based on a number of factors, including how easy it is to work with you. It’s important to be upfront about commission structures, bonuses, and other nuts and bolts of your programs, and to offer easy access to channel managers who can help with accounts, requisitioning sales engineering resources and more. Direct marketing communications to your existing and prospective partners about how you make it easy to work within your program can be an eye-catching differentiator, especially if you’re competing with large, potentially less responsive programs from name-brand vendors.
4. Attend conferences. Events such as the Channel Partners Conference & Expo, ChannelFutures, the MSP Summit, CVx, VARTECH, and analyst and vendor shows offer the opportunity to network and build relationships in ways that just aren’t possible on a virtual basis. Channel people are salespeople and thrive on personal connections, but it’s also about cultivating two-way communications. In-person events give your channel managers the opportunity to hear feedback, ideas, questions, concerns, and to pick up on what matters most to partners—all of which can be used to refine and inform the other pieces of your channel strategy.
5. Create thought leadership articles and case studies for your blogs and social channels. You have great stories to tell when it comes to customer successes and the ways your offerings help your end users supercharge their businesses. It’s time to tell those stories with a channel bent. Consider creating customer case studies that include how a channel partner was instrumental in the sale or implementation process; or work up education-based content tailored for channel readers that shows how to position your service to align with broader technology or business trends.
6. Participate in annual awards programs. Almost every publication that covers technology channels has one or more awards programs (along with subsequent marketing opportunities) that can help your company grab attention. These are not just related to technology or products, but also include vendor-, MSP-, executive-, and women-focused awards.
When plotting out your overall marketing mix, don’t overlook your channel-specific messaging. Above all else, the key is communication: the channel partners who are selling on your behalf need to know that they’re valued, and it’s important to give prospective partners the information they need to understand your brand, products and advantages.
Need some guidance on juicing your channel messaging? Contact Calysto. We’d love to share our case studies with you, including how we created a PR campaign that tripled company sales in one year and grew a client’s channel partner network by 85%!