Alliance Marketing Triple Play

It’s not easy being an alliance manager these days! Alliance managers need to play the roles of both the strategic visionary and the tactical execution expert.  Their corporate marketing peers often have teams of marcom specialists and product marketing experts on hand to create long-term marketing strategies. But alone in the alliance management arena, marketing managers have to be fast on their feet and think quickly!

Launch International’s alliance marketing clients tell us their biggest challenge is being experts on multiple products and solutions. In addition to their own company offerings, alliance managers need to know their alliance partners’ solutions, as well as their sales channels and customer base. That’s a lot of specific audiences—and a lot of custom messages.

Fret not. Launch International has helped many alliance marketing managers navigate the wilds of alliance solution marketing.  Our “Alliance Marketing Triple Play” will give you some ideas and direction for creating a marketing foundation for your alliance partnerships.

 1. Messaging

Don’t assume that a great solution will naturally make its own friends. We’ve seen the best ideas die in the channel because the vision and value weren’t properly defined up front—before launching to sales teams.

Alliance solution messaging is critical to the success of a joint solution. Both partners need to agree on the solution basics: what the solution is, who it’s for, what value it delivers to the audience, etc.

What’s more, there needs to be a competitive differentiator that separates your solution from others in the marketplace. Let’s face it, your alliance partner likely has partnerships with other similar or competitive vendors, so spend a little time defining how you’re better!

For one Launch client in the ERP software space, we developed a complete message overhaul to better align the company’s software with the platforms of its primary server partner. The new messaging included the highlights of the server platform and how the ERP application leveraged those features to deliver speed and efficiency to the user.

2. Mindshare

Once you’ve defined the joint solution messaging, it’s time to roll it out through the sales channels of both companies. This is where we’ve seen many clients hit a roadblock—not because they lack the ability to sell, but because they haven’t properly shown either sales force how the solution can benefit their common customers and prospects. 

While brochures and data sheets may come to mind first, be sure to include white papers and case studies—which can often move a customer to a buying decision faster. In addition, solution selling guides for both companies will help the sales teams understand the total solution and best describe it to their customers. 

One Launch client, a storage networking market leader, created a selling guide for the sales force of its largest OEM alliance partner. The solution messaging was developed to leverage the server vendor’s current messaging. Meanwhile, the joint solution was positioned as the premier choice for the companies’ mutual customers.  Early feedback from the sales force has been very positive, and we’re exploring additional solution selling resources for this client. 

3. Maintenance

This isn’t about maintenance services; it’s about maintaining communication with your various audiences. It’s simply not enough to create the solution and expect the sales teams to go forth and conquer.  Like any other solution marketing initiative, audiences must be continuously cultivated and reminded of solution messaging, benefits, and value propositions. 

Ongoing communications like email and social media can further reinforce your messaging and help customers and salespeople better understand your solution in specific contexts. Be sure to find a new or original hook in the marketplace as a reference point for your solution. For example, compliance, security concerns, and ROI are recent hot buttons in the industry press. Figure out how your joint solution can best help your customers solve these challenges.

 Launch International used security management as the angle to help a large storage and security services client combine their messages with a software alliance partner. The joint solution leveraged strengths from both companies, truly differentiating their solution in the marketplace. In fact, a large analyst firm posted the thought leadership materials Launch International created for the client on its website and in subsequent webcasts.

While alliance marketing will never be easy, you can increase your effectiveness through the “Triple Play” of Messaging, Mindshare, and Maintenance.

Three Common Partner Marketing Pitfalls

Being in channel marketing means you’re used to living quarter to quarter. Your budgets, programs and daily life are all tuned to driving dollars NOW to fulfill this quarter’s sales target.

However, that kind of tactical thinking is contrary to contemporary integrated marketing strategies, and can hinder partners’ long-term marketing opportunities. Those are the challenges we highlight in our “Pitfalls of Partner Marketing”:

• Pitfall #1:  Leading exclusively with vendor messaging. Many channel partners try to mimic a vendor’s identity, messages, and value propositions. Be careful when doing so in a competitive market where customers are looking for specific value-added services and offerings they can’t find anywhere else. We always encourage channel partners to develop their own voice and identity separate but complementary to their vendors.
• Pitfall #2:  Relying on one-off product campaigns to drive ongoing business. MDF is a dual-edged sword. Vendor products and brands fund quarterly one-off campaigns, but that’s not a marketing plan. Instead, help your partners use your product-led campaigns as part of a multi-touch marketing plan that continuously reinforces a business solution with new and exciting offerings.
• Pitfall #3:  The “set it and forget it” static website. Partner websites are simply too important to have stale, static content anymore. There are many great content management systems that can help your partners update their own content without HTML or programming experience. It will help them get in front of their customers, and it will help YOU keep your channel partners using fresh, updated messaging.

The key to avoiding these pitfalls is to help your partners develop a nine-to-twelve month marketing calendar that promotes specific solutions on a quarterly basis. That way you can apply specific vendor and brand MDF dollars as the partner promotes a specific offering within their solution-focused campaign. For example, a business continuity campaign targeting CFOs can still include product messaging as supporting information for the partner solution. The partner gets a chance to show strategic value and grow long-term relationships, and you continue to drive market awareness of your solutions.