ACT

It is pretty evident that mass marketing is rapidly being replaced by more targeted communications. As discussed in the previous blog post, the application of "active" data analytics is enabling companies to focus their messaging to a very well defined community. There are many benefits to this, not the least of which is a better ROI on your marketing spend. This is extremely important especially when dealing with a large channel ecosystem which potentially thousands of indirect sales representatives.

While some of your channel partners might be exclusively sell your products or services, it is more likely that will multi-source from a number of vendors. Your challenge is to position your portfolio effectively as the lead solution. To accomplish this you will need to win the mindshare battle. Mass marketing (spray & pray) will not provide you with the mindshare needed.

The hierarchy in the image is a great way to look at your communication strategy. Your goal should be to establish a unique relationship with each of your channel partners and, even, each of the channel sales representatives. By engaging each of them in interactive conversations with your channel marketing programs you can build an emotional connection with the individuals. This, in turn, creates loyalty and switching costs, well beyond what can be accomplished with mass marketing.

While this is difficult and will take time to develop, the emergence of new technologies is making Stage 5 communications much more realistic, even for smaller organizations. Social networking is enabling new business relationship management applications and variable data management techniques for email and print-on-demand solutions are more readily available.

The channel management reality is that you have to be better and more creative in your channel marketing strategy. A "me-too" approach will not adequately differentiate you from your competitors and make winning mindshare very challenging. Channel executives should be willing to push the envelop with a focus on building relationships through unique communication strategies.