Special Method in Channel Partner Marketing.
Manufacturers are constantly in search of the best practices and most practical channel partner marketing tools.
When you think of how a channel partnership was made successful, what comes to mind?
- The manufacturer provided prompt and complete training on products
- The reseller was actively engaged with its manufacturer’s channel incentive programs
- Was the manufacturer quick to either approve or deny claims from partners’ rebate submissions?
- The manufacturer provided a mixture of channel partner marketing tools
To answer your question, yes. Each of the previous serves an important purpose in creating productive and fruitful channel partnerships. However, one thing that probably didn’t come to mind was blogging.
That’s right, blogging.
Manufacturers who provide daily/weekly blog updates as a channel partner marketing tool can offer their sales funnel informative, engaging, and useful content. Yet, surprisingly, most manufacturers don’t seem to take advantage of this cost-efficient and powerfully effective channel partner marketing tool.
How Active Blogging as a Component of your Channel Partner Marketing Tools Can Help you and your Channel Partners’ Success:
- Helps build influence and authoritative leadership with partners.
- Spotlights expertise and experience in/outside the industry.
- Gives you the opportunity to go viral (i.e., earned media).
- Drives organic traffic to your website and increases rankings on search engines.
- Provides partners content to share with their customers.
- It gives potential partners the information needed to make an informed decision.
- Solves problems and/or eradicate pain points.
However, blogging, or blogging effectively, is not easy.
Blogging is made particularly challenging when you’re attempting to give resellers content they would want to share with their partners. However, channeling blogs via indirect sales funnel requires a broad understanding of the industry landscape.
5 Helpful Tips on Creating the Perfect Blog for Channel Partners:
1.) Publish Content that Concerns Long-Term Usage
According to Hubspot, 90 percent of their leads come from blog posts distributed 6 months or later. You should only consider re-publishing older blog posts that offer timeless information.
It’s forever valuable when your blog focuses less on the relevance of time and more on the relevance of information where it can be on an infinite timeframe.
2.) Short and to the Point
The combination of our busy professional lives and short attention spans does not help us in the blogging department. Therefore, every word in your blog posts should serve a purpose.
3.) Efficiency Does Not Equate to Quality
If you’re in the mindset that the more blogs you create, the better your lead generation becomes think again. Poorly written, industry irrelevant, boring, imprudent and hastily produced content is a surefire way to destroy your influence as an authoritative voice.
4.) The subheading is Your Bread n’ Butter
This relates back to our cognitive flaw of having short attention spans.
Creative and sexy subheadings should be used throughout your blog posts as a means to assist in the ‘page skimming’ process. The days of reading blog posts from start-to-finish no longer apply. The overwhelming saturation of content streaming the Interweb has coerced a subconscious impulse in us to zoom through blogs without blinking.
5.) Step inside the Mind of your Channel Partner
Before you start writing a blog post, you need a clear and cohesive understanding of what you want your angle to be. Ultimately, providing value into your partners’ business is what you should focus on. However, the only way to provide value is to empathize with your partners’ interests and pain points.
About Computer Market Research
CMR offers manufactures/vendors with a cost-effective automated platform. Our automated platform has revolutionized the way B2B marketing programs operate.
We help B2B channel partners:
- reduce conflict
- build transparency
- streamline incentive activities
- increase productivity
- enable channel partners to effectively market and sell your products
Channel management solutions we provide:
- Automated Distributor Claims Management (Ship and Debit)
- Channel POS
- Inventory Data Collection
- Co-op/MDF Management
- Deal Registration
- Rebate Management
- Opportunity Management
- Synchronized Channel Marketing
- SPIF Management