Channel program platforms are a very important resource for partners. Developing marketing campaigns can be a daunting task for some partners depending on their company and business size. Utilizing the platforms available through a channel program, partners can find marketing and sales enablement assets to support their partner marketing initiatives. But partners struggle to execute and enhance marketing campaigns for one important reason: measuring their performance. The use of a platform is not only to provide content but also insight into their campaign.
What Defines a Key Performance Indicator?
The use of a platform that provides insights such as email open and click-through rates, social media engagement, list performance, and website traffic is a necessity. These insights should not only be available but have a clear definition within the platform. Every partner has different key performance indicators (KPI’s) which make it difficult for them to measure a campaign when utilizing a manufacturer’s platform. Certain metrics such as email opens are self-explanatory. Others such as leads generated or overall campaign score are very broad. Without having a clear understanding of what the manufacturer platform considers to be a lead or overall campaign score, how can partners gauge their overall campaign performance?
Additionally, it takes time to establish performance benchmarks based on the partners’ target market and customer behavior. Partners aren’t spending as much time as they should be reviewing metrics. This is due to the lack of their marketing tools including Customer Relationship Management (CRM) insights, bandwidth, and understanding of why it is so important to monitor and evaluate marketing activity, making your KPI definitions even more important to provide.
More Tools, More Metrics
CRM tools were created to manage business relationships and interactions with customers and prospects. If partners can afford the investment, they will utilize a marketing platform that has CRM capabilities. Integration of marketing and CRM platforms is a pain point for partners trying to manage their customer data for both marketing and sales. It helps them track where customers or prospects are in the buying journey and forecast future plans. Forecasting is important for partner marketing when thinking about their customer and prospects needs. Anticipating trends and business needs is important in this competitive industry.
Forecasting is also a necessity for manufacturers. How can manufacturers and channel program managers decide which resources in their platform are going to be valuable to partners if they don’t forecast industry trends? You can only tell where you are going if you know where you came from. Analyzing metrics benefit manufacturers and partners alike when it comes to reporting on the progress of partner marketing and your channel program.
Improve Campaign Performance
Without the proper tools to evaluate marketing activities, partners cannot know if their strategies are successful. Overall, campaign metrics drive the campaign management process. Metrics tell us when to adjust our messaging, where to find customers and what their interests are. Manufacturer platforms are a valuable resource to partners. Helping partners identify KPI’s and marketing best practices would increase manufacturer platform usage.
Offer your partners a marketing tool they can use, but ensure it provides the customer insight they need to optimize their marketing. Providing partners with clearly defined benchmarks eliminate the tedious task of piecing together data. Partners want to focus on their customer relationships and their accounts. A platform that provides as much detail about the customer is an invaluable tool for partners and marketers. Metrics guide marketers throughout campaign execution and provide sales with the information they need to close business.