Channel Marketing Automation: A New Model for Sales and Productivity
The ability to consistently access and customize intangible “soft” core assets – including sales collateral, creative materials, customer and prospect databases, channel information, sales forecasts, and digital assets such as Web sites – enhances productivity and empowers revenue generation. But, accessing, customizing and utilizing these resources is difficult because safeguarding the brand and averting security breaches can limit participation.
Extending Resources to the Channel. Protecting Corporate Assets.
Channel partners, or resellers, cannot afford to advertise their businesses on the same level as their larger OEM partners. But how can they leverage multi-million dollar corporate advertising campaigns to impact their sales? And how can the advertiser/ OEM extend the resources of costly ad campaigns to their hundreds or thousands of resellers without “reinventing the wheel” in each case? Channel partners need more than data. And they need more than artwork or creative materials in digital format. They need these materials, or assets, to be customized for their organizations, complete with their contact information including unique microsite URLs, telephone numbers, email addresses, etc. Even if advertisers/OEMs wanted to distribute original, digital advertising files to each member of the reseller channel for customization, how would they monitor participation, eliminate rogue usage and maintain corporate brand compliance? The answer lies in CMA – Channel Marketing Automation, the critical space between CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and SFA (Sales Force Automation).To dig deeper, let’s examine the following case study. Company: A leading, internationally recognized travel company Audience: 4,000 travel agent/resellers compensated on vacation/group bookings Challenge: Create, customize, print and mail over 1 million direct mail pieces Solution: Hosted Channel Marketing Automation software with automation of campaign invitations and reminders via email, and real-time performance metrics for program management. Results: Exceeded participation goals by 25%. Creative and production timelines shrunk by 35%. Group bookings soared during promotional period.The client maximized ROI in its inaugural campaign.
CMA Process Traditional Process
Channel Marketing Automation: A New Model for Sales and Productivity
©2005 Starmark International
Notes: The application development (including customized feature requests and private labeling), launch, training and implementation took place in 8 weeks.The client has continued to use the application for two years to date.
A Channel Tool Becomes a Value Destination
Beyond consumer direct mail, top-line Channel Marketing Automation solutions must incorporate customization capabilities for HTML email, e-cards, video-mails, landing pages/microsites, animated banners, and traditional types of marketing collateral including print ads, product spec sheets, brochures, posters, flyers and stationery. Additionally, more robust features, which may be applicable to B2B environments, must include comprehensive channel management tools. An organization requires an alternate process for the labor-intensive task of managing market development funds (MDF). And by integrating comprehensive channel management features into a Channel Marketing Automation solution, an organization not only creates a valuable tool, it creates a destination. For example, an OEM in the mobile communications industry has 500 full-time sales people and a global a channel of 1,000 resellers in five regions. Regularly, the corporate marketing department generates advertising and launches direct response demand generation programs. With a Channel Marketing Automation solution, these campaigns can be created with text and graphical “hot-spots,” which represent the customizable fields for partner content.
Strategies for Broadening and Controlling Partner Participation
In this example, the collateral (or HTML, etc.) is created and automatically uploaded into the Channel Marketing Automation archive for reseller customization and distribution. The corporate marketing department or outsourced business partner controls not only the launch dates, but also the creative approval processes prior to any campaign launch. Additionally, because the solution integrates with the existing CRM and SFA programs – and is a Web-based/hosted application – the corporate and/or channel marketing manager (program owner) can be selective about reseller participation in each promotion. The end-user reseller can view only what the program manager wants them to view. This is accomplished via unique login credentials, secure Web access, and the pre-determined, prioritized “groupings” of resellers (e.g., Platinum, Gold, Silver, etc.). What if this mobile communications supplier cannot fund all, or any, reseller campaigns out of the corporate budget? This company may choose to use a comprehensive Channel Marketing Automation solution that can pass the costs
Channel Marketing Automation: A New Model for Sales and Productivity
©2005 Starmark International
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onto resellers by incorporating e-commerce. In the event a partner cannot pay for a program in its entirety with MDF, a secure “roll-over” e-commerce feature allows the partner to use a major credit card for any MDF overdraft scenarios. And if the partner (or administrator) needs real-time MDF tallies, the Channel Marketing Automation application can generate an MDF “report card.” This report card not only tracks debits, credits, usage, but also, most importantly, balances. Additionally, this solution can be developed to include performance criteria such as e-learning credentials, professional training and/or certifications, and status.
Creating an Environment of Global “Inclusivity”
Managing a global channel is by no means a simple task. Traditionally, partners are geographically dispersed and feel under serviced, under supported, and “left out on an island.” With robust marketing automation and localization, marketing managers or program owners can extend resources, streamline processes and continue to integrate with legacy databases, CRM and SFA, as necessary.
Customized Reporting: The Measurement of Success
In an effort to mitigate risk and maximize return, various program owners not only need to produce high-level management reports, but also offer a level of detail that may provide specific insights and reveal recognizable trends, including predictive modeling, segmentation hierarchies and statistical profiling. Traditionally,reporting field activity or status on marketing initiatives is relegated to occasional email input or survey data. In an automated marketing asset environment, activity is 100% monitored.What’s more,information is not only quantifiable in a digital environment, but also archived and stored for future access. So what are the characteristics of useful reports? First, they need to be integrated and available in “point and click” format. Second, they need to be top-line enough to be useful for a super-administrator, and detailed enough for a district manager to take field-level action. Reports available exclusively to approved users may include the following:
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Reseller Participation per Program On-Demand Surveys & Feedback Forms Project Archive
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Reseller Participation Across all Programs Reseller Directories and Profiles Sales Forecasts/Pipelines
Channel Marketing Automation: A New Model for Sales and Productivity
©2005 Starmark International
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• • •
Email Bounce Reports
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Microsite Analytics
Marketing Asset Automation (application) Web Analytics Holistic Promotion and/or Program Analytics
Conclusion
The best performing marketing-critical applications are about strategic business value rather than technical value. Business value is evidenced when marketing assets are utilized and made readily available. When these assets are adopted on a wide scale in a closedloop system, then incremental business performance – characterized by increased productivity or revenue – becomes the primary indicator of success. And ultimately, the ability to regularly customize and distribute marketing resources, efficiently automate
Channel Marketing Automation is the backbone of a closed-loop system.
tactical execution, and consistently monitor activity levels in real-time is not a vision of marketing utopia. Rather, when treated as a critical business asset, it is marketing reality.
Channel Marketing Automation: A New Model for Sales and Productivity
©2005 Starmark International
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