Uniting for better marketing

An effective marketing strategy is vital for business growth. Vendors and resellers must know their target audience, position their brand appropriately and in context, and consider their objectives.

Clare Barclay

The first step is to work with a dedicated, experienced marketing team, whose purpose is to engage directly with distributor partners to create a co-marketing strategy that is relevant to their reseller base.

It is necessary to clarify goals, set expectations and establish a business plan. The partner’s ambitions and vendor’s goals should be outlined from the start.

Vendors will strive to translate any investments into incremental revenue growth by initiating a conversation with partners around how marketing can drive sales.

It is also important to simplify objectives in order to realise a direct correlation with building sales and therefore revenue. To do so it is wise to measure co-marketing strategies against marketing metrics.

These metrics should be agreed at the beginning of the process and used as a barometer to deliver against throughout.

Microsoft is keen to work with ambitious partners that embrace bold new marketing techniques. We seek to learn from partners that adopt cutting-edge strategies, such as blogging and keyword searches.

For those resellers that do not have the resources to benefit from a vendor’s marketing consultancy, there are various low-cost, self-service tools for partners. For instance, Campaign Builder, available to registered partners through the Microsoft Partner Programme, allows companies to use and customise a core set of campaign materials, to fill in their proposition, brand them accordingly and execute as if the campaign was specific to their organisation.

Renette Youssef, group marketing manager at VAR Touchstone Group, says being a Microsoft partner allows the firm to engage with Microsoft in a consultative approach, working out business plans and ensuring a high return on investment on all marketing campaigns.

It also lets Touchstone benefit from Microsoft’s 5 Metric Marketing, which allows it to communicate with prospects all through the sales cycle to drive high conversion rates.

Clare Barclay is director of partner strategy and programmes at Microsoft UK.