Consider the content of your channel marketing plan

Phil Brown explains how channel marketing programmes should evolve

Vendors and services providers are relying largely on outdated approaches to sales and marketing, and they are finding things increasingly difficult.

Several changes are forcing vendors and their partners to re-evaluate their approach to winning business, including the emergence of the clued-up B2B technology buyer and the decentralisation of IT purchasing, alongside the growing importance of "thought leadership" and "content" marketing concepts.

Information online promising to offer industry insight and reviews of products and services can help prospects explore their options before ever speaking to a supplier.

As a result, many suppliers are getting access to prospects only in the later stages of the buying process. On average, B2B buyers are more than halfway to making a purchasing decision before they start talking to suppliers.

By that point, the customer may be focused on price and lead times, with the supplier having little opportunity to influence the decision – or add value through solution sales or technical expertise.

Traditionally, if you maintain a good relationship with an IT department, you might find out about its future IT requirements. But now more technology spend may be driven by the marketing department, which "owns" the customer experience.

Suppliers need to be able to talk confidently about business issues, not just how great the technology might be. Business understanding is becoming more important, technical expertise less so.

Further, generating demand by cold-calling and direct mail is sharply in decline in the B2B sector. The new kid on the block is "content marketing". This means engaging with potential customers by publishing compelling and relevant insights and opinions, using such media as social networking or websites to publish marketing material such as case studies or videos.

Senior execs are still willing to engage with IT providers but they want to hear new ideas, not just a product pitch. Yet channel partners – already under pressure from a variety of trends – may not themselves have the resources or skills to develop a content marketing campaign.

Partners therefore may need help from vendors to address this more challenging environment and build a new approach to the market that helps them access senior decision makers earlier in the sales process.

Effective marketing programmes must develop clear points of view about the customer environment and its challenges, as well as the actions required. These should be able to be articulated by channel partners, not just vendors. Marketing collateral, harnessing text and graphics, can be developed accordingly to fit in with these perspectives.

If they can be easily re-used and repurposed, it will help channel partners engage prospective customers and drive demand. Creating campaign frameworks and blueprints will help partners develop and execute their own content-led demand generation programmes, using material provided by vendors.

A truly collaborative engagement model will help partners build robust go-to-market plans around vendor products and services. Vendors must also help partners develop their own strategies and content by teaching them what they know. Vendors may have valuable intelligence buried within their organisation.

Vendors must also ensure they have a robust channel sales enablement programme to help salespeople reach customers and speak with authority on the broader business issues.

Insightful content will generate customer interest; do not be let down by a salesperson who just wants to launch into a product pitch.

Phil Brown is director of The Channel Partnership