With the event season upon us, I’d like to share a few best practices we employ when working with Vendors to engage Channel Partners via online events:

Know your Partner audience:

Since most Partners work with multiple Vendors they are constantly bombarded by incoming information. For best attendance results, your first step should be to strategically plan and align your content with your objectives. Then ensure you’re inviting only those roles who will gain value from your presentation. For example, don’t invite salespeople to a technical webinar or vice versa. When the perceived value is missing, they’ll consider it a waste of time. Although it will take a bit of effort to segment your Partner contacts, doing so will yield an optimal return on engagement (ROE) when it comes to interest and participation, making it well worth your time!

Make it easy to register:

First, ensure the information on your registration page is succinct. I always say: clear, concise and consistent. Consistent of course with the message in your invitation. Don’t be afraid of white space and avoid too much text. Your call-to-action should also be above the fold and avoid using an event registration form as your opportunity to collect extra data. When you keep forms short and simple, requiring only the necessary information, folks are more inclined to opt-in. The fewer clicks it takes to register for an online event, the better. Another good tactic is to offer a one-click “add it to my calendar” option as part of the form submission process. This instant reminder in their calendar is not only a value-add but will surely improve attendance on the day. Consider it a win-win. (You’re welcome.)

Respect their time:

We all know Partners are busy; wearing many hats and highly focused on putting their customers first. So, it is very important that you earn their respect by choosing a day and time that works best for them. In the United States, we recommend Tuesdays and Thursdays between 11:00 am and 2:00 pm. For other geos check here for best webinar times across the globe.

In addition, time is of the essence:

• Start promptly
• Don’t exceed the advertised event length
• Allow ample time for Q&A (Oh, and it’s not a bad idea to have some seed questions on the ready, too!)

Promote it!

You may be thinking, no kidding Captain Obvious, but research shows that over 40% of attendees register for online events more than a week in advance. So, if you don’t start promoting earlier than a week out, you’re missing opportunities to capture your early bird registrants. Highly targeted drip campaigns executed 15+ days out are effective, especially when they’re strategically focused on Partner needs. Execute email promotion in parallel with other tactics like a partner-facing blog, calls-to-action on other topic-related blogs, promotional videos, and of course, social promotion across platforms.

Amplify with social:

Your social posts should promote the event, the related blog(s), the video, and so on. When you integrate all tactics it not only amplifies your message, but you cast a wider net, enabling more opportunities for your audience to receive the information, via the channel that appeals to them most. You can even create an event-specific #hashtag to encourage sharing. And remember, word-of-mouth is social communication and still key in today’s market, so motivate your Partner-facing teams to help build the momentum too. Start dripping registration and blog links over social channels a month in advance and gradually increase the cadence as the event grows near.

Say it with a smile:

As I always say, you only get one chance to make a first impression, so be sure it’s a positive one. Since this may be an inaugural experience for some of your online participants, be sure you have an event moderator on deck. Then, after your initial welcome and housekeeping, encourage the audience to take advantage of your group chat for questions and comments. You can even leverage the event #hashtag by suggesting participants keep the conversation going on social. Last, but certainly not least, do not deliver death by PowerPoint. Inundating viewers with endless walls of text stinks. Instead use as much relevant imagery as possible to tell your story. Even if it’s technical, you can still demonstrate the message with appealing, dare I say funny, visuals. Try it. I promise it won’t disappoint. If nothing else they will remember they had a good time and it was time spent with you. Their new favorite Vendor. (You’re welcome, again.)

The present informs the future:

When it’s all said and done, thank them profusely (especially for their valuable time). Depending on your online-event platform you can offer up a survey immediately or later as a follow up to gain feedback and hedge bets for future success. Then in the week that follows, publish another blog about the event, maybe include some of those great comments and questions, and of course a few of those hilarious pics. Be sure to include calls-to-action, and socialize links to what is now your “on-demand” event.

With proper planning and strategy, Vendors can not only better engage Channel Partners with targeted topics, but deliver useful information via Partner-facing webinars, podcasts, trainings and other virtual events. For more information on how our team works with Vendors to plan, execute, drive attendance and successfully engage Channel Partners in online (and live) events, contact us. We’re always happy to help!

A few best practices to better engage #ChannelPartners via online events from @jennannreed
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Find out more about Jenn Reed and download her e-book for tips on empowering Channel Partners to execute effective marketing initiatives.

The post How to Engage Channel Partners Through Online Events appeared first on Channel Maven Consulting.

At ChannelCon 2017, I had the pleasure of speaking alongside Larry Walsh, CEO of The 2112 Group on why integrating sales and marketing for inbound demand generation is critical for driving more revenue through The Channel:

The Channel Sales and Marketing Reality at your Partner:

Many Partners still believe marketing is a “nice-to-have,” not a necessity. That is why you’ll find many “marketing directors” are also the receptionist, inside sales person, or the owner’s husband/wife. While this point of view is understandable and appears to be efficient, it’s not ideal and is very “old school.”

Why all the Channel Sales and Marketing tension?

It used to be that marketing did a bunch of “stuff” to get contacts and leads into the funnel, maybe nurtured them a little bit, and then handed them over to sales who would swoop in (with their cape and super hero tights) and save the day i.e. close the sale. I once had a boss, a reluctant channel marketer and former sales guy, tell me that we (marketers) were all overhead. As Larry put it, “If it’s a good quarter it’s because sales worked extra hard. If it’s a bad quarter it’s because marketing didn’t produce enough leads or help move them down the funnel.”

Let’s get real:

Before we get into a blame game, quick reminder – we’re all on the same team and at the end of the day we have the same goals; drive demand and leads, and close deals. Bottom line, when done right, sales and marketing are truly integrated, it’s a volley back and forth between the two teams; in the end, making them one. Here are some thoughts on how you can help your Partners be more successful with integrating sales and marketing:

1. The stats aren’t helping: The 2112 Group analyzes The Channel and numbers don’t lie. Most Channel Partners are going for boom-or-bust without a plan. According to Larry Walsh, The 2112 Group’s Chief Analyst:

• 70% of Partners have none or insufficient business plans
• 60% of Partners have none or incomplete sales plans or goals
• 75% of Partners have none or incomplete marketing plans

Where do we go from here? It’s important to acknowledge these numbers are scary and figure out what you can do to educate your Partners as to why they should spending time/resources on sales and marketing…the right way.

2. Who is responsible for what?? We all are! When we’re working with Partners to drive demand it’s truly a volley between both teams; marketing helps manage social content for sales to send out and uses the sales team’s connections on social as a leads list. Marketing sends drip campaign and sales reaches out to those who clicked or downloaded content. Marketing puts them into a nurture campaign, sales sends on-off emails (that marketing probably wrote) with valuable content (that marketing created) with links in them to blogs (that marketing wrote), and sales sets up a meeting to present a deck (that marketing helped create). See what we did there…kind of like a tennis match.
3. Nothing happens overnight: The ticking clock motivates salespeople. At any given moment they can tell you where they are for quota this month, quarter, and year. Tick-tock. Patience is not their friend. That said it’s critical to understand that integrated inbound sales and marketing strategy takes upwards of 18-months before it bears any fruit.

As Larry put it, “large swaths of The Channel are very opportunistic and immature” which poses a challenge for Vendors who want to make a difference for Channel Partners but don’t quite know where to start.

How Vendors can help:

1. Know your Partners’ businesses: When you run a small company and have a lean team, everyone is stretched thin, working hard, and wearing many hats. There isn’t any “not in my job description.” When a Vendor says, “you need to get better at marketing,” the reaction is, “I can’t add one more thing to my plate right now.” Even if they have the money to hire a dedicated marketing person, savvy Partners know there will be onboarding, meetings, plan approvals and more that will come along with them.

2. Segmentation: Typically Partners are segmented by revenue attainment. Those who sell the most get the most demand generation support. It sounds about right, but it’s not. Some Partners who attain lofty revenue goals don’t need or want marketing support so the efforts are wasted on them. Other lower producing Partners are hungry, understand demand generation, and want as much help as they can get and if they had more of it, their revenue contribution would skyrocket. Re-segmenting by Partner’s needs solves this challenge.

Educate. Engage. Enable:

Marketing automation and tools are great but to run a successful lead generation email campaign, you can’t just login to a portal, upload a list and wait for the waterfall of opportunity to wash in. There are awareness building activities, lead nurturing and qualifying; SEO considerations, personas to build, user experience, and content creation needed to warm up prospects – first.

Step 1: Educate – Help Partners become better at marketing in snackable increments. Use Partner Roadmaps; educational videos customized for your Partners, start a Partner-facing blog with actionable advice and use newsletters to strategically put educational information in front of the right roles within Partner organizations.

Step 2: Engage – Vendors need to treat Partners in the same manner that they want Partners to treat customers. If you want them engaged on social media, engage with Partners there. If you want them to produce relevant thought leadership content that drives good SEO, show them how by example.

Step 3: Enable – Some Partners are all set with marketing. Others benefit greatly from a marketing consultant who shows them the ropes and helps them improve. Vendors that want to stay top-of-mind with Partners are providing dedicated, customized marketing help that generates gratitude and alignment from their Partners.

It’s the sales leaders in both Vendor and Partner organizations who realize marketing is a strategic asset vs. a service bureau that is raising the bar on inbound tactics in The Channel. For more information or to have a lively debate please don’t hesitate to contact me!

Enjoy more Partner demand generation information and insights from Larry Walsh and Heather K. Margolis:

• CMCtv Episode 14 – The Future of Channel Hosted by Heather K. Margolis with guest Larry Walsh
• Sales and Marketing: A love story overview of ChannelCon17 presentation Larry Walsh and Heather K. Margolis
• Pod2112: Channel Sales and Marketing Hosted by Larry Walsh with guest Heather K. Margolis

The post The Debate Around Channel Marketing and Channel Sales appeared first on Channel Maven Consulting.

They also enable you to relay important information to Channel Partners regarding your solutions, program, resources and other offerings. Unfortunately, they are losing effectiveness as Partners are now working with anywhere from 5 – 25 Vendors which means as many newsletters. In those cases, the volume of incoming information from co-workers, Vendors, customers, prospects, solicitors, and others can be overwhelming. I don’t know about you but I don’t read a newsletter if the rest of my inbox is out of control unless there is something incredibly useful in it.

We know this is one of your great challenges, how do you engage Partners using a newsletter when they’re already bombarded? When we help Vendors like you develop newsletters and we suggest using targeted and customized best practices for developing them in ways that engage Channel Partners.

Let’s take a look at a few of our suggested strategies:

Newsletters are a great way to aggregate a lot of information and cut down on multiple To-Partner…
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Be aesthetically pleasing, white space isn’t bad!:

At the core, design is visual communication and there is little doubt about its power to impact user experience. In the case of newsletters, user experience drives Partners to open, read and digest your information and believe it or not, color plays a big role in newsletter UX. Using colors to your advantage is a complicated topic but this article from Canva does a great job of explaining the pros and cons of different colors and typefaces including this color wheel that defines cultural interpretations of colors by geography:

Be unique:

When we redesigned and developed the Channel Maven Consulting newsletter template, we wanted it to stand out. We chose to mimic an old-fashioned, 3-column snail-mail newsletter. Retro right?!?

If you’re not yet a subscriber sign up here

Effectively target specific roles:

Newsletters are typically sent to multiple roles within a Partner organization. This makes sense considering the resources required to create individual newsletters per role. However, technical engineers are likely not interested in marketing announcements and vice versa so what can you do?

Remedy: Build a newsletter template with call-out areas by role and keep the design consistent. Doing so helps the reader more quickly find information pertaining to them and skim content that’s nonessential to their role.

Tip: Some roles have more time for newsletters than others. For example, salespeople tend to be short on time so put their section at the top. The technical audience is very detail oriented so they’re more likely to read to the bottom. Then color-code the sections to pull the eye and establish consistency.

Make it easy… for users:

In order to engage Channel Partners, newsletter layouts need to be intuitive. Call out sections by roles and strategic use of color helps but it’s not all you can do.

A few more logistics to try:

• Put a table of contents at the top or in a sidebar with anchor links to newsletter sections
• Use white space liberally so the page isn’t chaotic
• Create headlines, short snippets and “read more” links
• Include pictures. They’re worth a thousand words and help break up text
• Highlight active promos and launches (more than the upcoming ones)
• Include topics that generate revenue for Partners and accompanying links to supporting portal assets
• Focus on Partners and what they need more than what you want from them

Finally… (drum roll please) metrics:

At the end of the day, every Partner organization is unique and every Vendor has different but similar challenges with To-Partner communications. Opens, clicks-through and other metrics can be obtained fairly easily and when used to inform the future, they are powerful for driving engagement.

Understanding metrics like these are critical:

• By role, who opens your newsletters most?
• Which links perform the best?
• Have you A/B tested subject lines?
• Do certain days or times net better results?

Creating engaging newsletters follows the same principals as any other piece of content. They have to be well written, interesting and most importantly, focused on relevant topics that address the needs of the audience.

More reading:

Channel Partner Marketing: Developing Partner-Facing Blogs

For more information about improving your To-Partner communications, download our e-book.

Interested in a newsletter assessment? Contact Ashley Haga today!

The post 5 Ways to Create Newsletters that Better Engage Channel Partners appeared first on Channel Maven Consulting.

The typical reason B2B organizations publish blogs is two fold:

1. Gain search rank.
2. Provide relevant information that transforms prospects into customers.

However, those reasons don’t jive with partner-facing blogs because:

• Partners know where to find your information and aren’t searching by keywords – they go directly to your website
• Vendor domains are typically top-ranking so these blogs won’t improve SEO
• Not every Partner-facing blog is locked behind a Partner portal but those that are don’t add SEO value

Partner-facing blogs – the why:

At the very core, your blog platform should be the go-to place for Channel Partners to stay up-to-date with your partnership. It’s some about you; program highlights, upcoming events, news, and changes. Ideally, it’s a mix of you plus Partner enablement; leadership topics, sales and marketing best practices, Partner successes and information that impacts Partners, the partnership, and your joint customers.

Added bonus: When they’re public facing, Partner-facing blogs double as a tool in the vetting phase of Partner recruitment.

Vendor challenges:

Blogging is primarily an inbound tactic used to improve search rankings and get new traffic in the door. However, partner-facing blogs aren’t developed to attract random readers. They broadcast information to a set universe of Partners similarly to a news outlet. Therefore, how do Vendors who aren’t known to be or thought of as news sources garner continual engagement from Partners?

6 tips for Channel Partner Marketing via blogs:

Create content for sharing: As businesses with salespeople, Partners need to provide well-researched proof of concepts and often don’t always have time to create them. If a Partner knows your blogs will add value to their conversation with customers and prospects, they will share them verbally or via linking or even in email.

Use categories and tags: Partners are busy and according to World-O-Meters’ live tracker, over 3-million blogs are posted every day. That’s a lot of blogs competing with you for Partners’ attention. Therefore, ensuring yours is easy to navigate by using features such as categories and tags helps with user experience.

Hire top-notch writers: There’s an interesting perception amongst many organizations that writing is easy, anyone can do it, and therefore it should be inexpensive. Not so. Content development and strategy is one of the most important investments you can make into your Partner-facing blogs. Again, there are millions of blogs to choose from – why would your Partners want to read your blog on marketing tactics instead of reading blogs from marketing experts?

Most bloggers know some of their audience. Very few know the majority of their audience by name or have real-time access to them. Vendors are in a unique position with their audience because they’re known. Coupling that intelligence with talented writers to deliver the messaging strategically, improves engagement.

Allow Partners to subscribe: A partner-facing blog without a mechanism for subscribing is a missed opportunity. Maybe they only want blogs related to a certain solution or topic. That alone makes allowing Partners to subscribe by category a great idea.

Ask Partners and Partner-facing teams for ideas: This may sound too simple, but asking Partners what type of content they want and need is key. Partner-facing teams can help by sharing questions they’re asked, problems they solve, and other ideas they hear while meeting with your Partners. They should also subscribe to your blogs themselves to stay informed with your updates, and help socialize the links.

Be consistently informative, predictable, and entertaining: People are creatures of habit and visit the same sites over and over. Think about the blogs you read regularly – what drives you to return?

• Content is well-written
• Articles are informative, funny, and/or different
• You learn something new or a new point of view
• You bolstered knowledge you already had
• Sharing it makes you feel smart and helpful
• The source is trusted and respected

Increase #ChannelPartner engagement via Partner-facing blogs; think about the ones you read…
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Now armed with a few ideas for partner-facing blogs, here’s an article to help you gain more traction once they’ve been posted: How to Gain More Reach for Your Channel Partner Blog. If you need help or want to nerd-out on content strategy, contact us, we’re here to help!

The post Channel Partner Marketing: Developing Partner-Facing Blogs appeared first on Channel Maven Consulting.

Vendors can help educate Partners on the value of PPC by starting with the biggest advantages of paid over organic:

1. Quick ROI: Especially when used for lead generation, prospects that click through on paid ads are typically further along their buyer’s journey, which results in shorter sales cycles. On the flip side, those who swear by organic tactics say, paid ads require a huge spend to keep the wheels churning particularly in technology, where keywords are competitive and expensive.
2. Track-ability: Search platform analytics make it easy to course-correct keywords, campaigns, platforms, and track success. Even though search-bots constantly index websites, many factors play into rankings making it a “slow and steady wins the race” marketing tactic.

Vendors Compete with Partners for PPC Keywords– Now What?

Vendors have larger marketing budgets and PPC is a big part of their strategy. When you’re a Partner, this poses a problem because the fight for keywords is a bidding war and you can’t afford to compete against a Vendor for PPC ranking on their solutions or brand keywords.

Vendors can provide Channel Partners with their PPC keywords list and help Channel Partners amplify their brand without competing by educating them to:

• Choose keywords that take advantage of local search
• Avoid Vendor brand keywords and focus on “phrase matching” by combining their name with the Vendor’s or solution’s name
• Focus on the Partner’s brand keywords and business outcomes they sell
• Combine all – local phrase matching for business outcomes!

Partner Marketing Strategy for PPC – Things to Know.

Which platform: Google dominates the PPC space at 75% of the market. Bing owns 7% and the crowd on Google is younger. Bing’s PPC may be less expensive and if your audience is older, it works well.

Search network vs. display ads: Search network are ads you see at the top and bottom of Google search results and they’re delivered based on keywords. They look similar to organic listings except for the “ad” signifier.

Display ads are typically images or videos that display across various advertiser websites and are targeted based on demographics, interests, and other targeting options.

Map campaigns to goals: Before executing a PPC campaign, decide the outcome. Does the Partner marketing strategy involve building awareness or driving leads through a contact form? Are they trying to build a subscriber list or increase blog readership? The options for outcomes are vast and knowing the outcome helps map the campaign to those results.

Keywords matching: Once keywords are established, matching is how you help Partners differentiate themselves to prevent competition with your keywords. When loading the ad, there will be a selection for “match type:”

• Broad match: is the default, reaches the widest audience, and is at most risk of Partner-Vendor competition
• Phrase match: offers more versatility while giving Partners a higher level of control and is good for combining Partner and Vendor brands
• Exact match: is the most specific and restrictive

Campaign writing tips:

• Use “title case” (mirror article headlines)
• Write ad copy to solve customer pain points
• Use keywords in the ad copy
• Include “power words” such as learn, tips, save, easiest, compare, and opportunity

A/B testing: When starting on PPC, we recommend a test budget of at least $25 per day and tracking conversions across search and display ad types, keywords, campaigns, and goals. Without an established track record of success, skipping this step can result in wasted money.

Educate #ChannelPartners on the value of #PPC. Start w/ the advantages of paid over organic:
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Looking for more ways to help educate Channel Partners on marketing strategy? We’re here to help!

Empower your Channel Partners to execute effective marketing initiatives with this E-book. 

The post Channel Partner Marketing Strategy for Pay-Per-Click (PCC) Campaigns appeared first on Channel Maven Consulting.

The Channel has shifted significantly in the past few years. Channel Partners are working with multiple Vendors; end-users are driving digital transformation, and customers want business outcomes instead of solutions.  In addition, new IT channels are cropping up across the landscape as S-a-a-S and other as-a-service Vendors enter the market with always on, from anywhere, cloud-based platforms to address user pain points.

As the shift continues, we’ve heard (repeatedly) from Partners that these three things are missing in some of their Vendor-Partner relationships:

Vendors who communicate without bombarding:

Channel Partners are busy wearing many hats, working with multiple vendors, tending to customers and growing their business hopefully with your solutions. They don’t have time to be bombarded with incoming emails about every little change to your program or filter through emails that don’t pertain to their role.

One of the most important steps a Vendor can take in today’s Channel is to align Partner roles and communication preferences with how information is delivered. It takes some planning but in the end, delivering the right messaging at the right time to the right people is critical to revenue generation for both organizations.

For more information and tips visit: Master the Art of To-Channel Marketing

Ease of doing business with Vendor programs:

Another by-product of the shift from Partners working with a few Vendors to working with many is the complexity of tracking, understanding, and taking full advantage of Partner programs. If Partners feel bombarded by too many emails, imagine trying to keep track of assets, portals, rebates, deal registrations, social and content syndication offerings, MDF, tiers, and certifications; across multiple partner programs – especially if they don’t have a full-time person managing these relationships.

Partners want simplicity and the ability to immediately see the value a Vendor brings to their conversations. Within that simplicity, they want to see margins, understand your expectations, and have a roadmap that will allow them to get from here to there in sync with your offerings. Without an easy to navigate program with clear cut guidelines and a portal that provides the information and assets they need – when they need it – the temptation will be to use a competitor if that competitor has comparable solutions and is easier to work with.

For more information and tips visit: Conquer Ease of Doing Business in Your Channel Partner Program

Partner-facing teams that take a more consultative approach:

Vendor communications, through-Channel marketing, and Partner programs take flight or disappoint in large part due to the level and type of support and assistance Partners receive from Vendors’ Partner-facing teams. It’s important to build relationships with Partners and help them evolve forward, not just with your solutions but also with their business as a whole.

Many Partners don’t have marketing plans or teams and many are in reaction-mode because of the speed at which technology is evolving and demand is increasing. Partners need CAMs and other Partner-facing teams to be true partners in every sense of the word. They want to be kept up-to-date on information that impacts their bottom line, they want to work with an advisor who can help navigate inbound marketing and sales landscapes, and they want access to technical team members without jumping through hoops and waiting long periods of time for a call back.

For more information and tips visit: 3 Skills Successful Channel Account Managers Have

In a recent episode of Channel Maven TV (CMCtv), Larry Walsh of the 2112 Group and Heather K. Margolis, Channel Maven Consulting CEO, take a more in-depth look at trends and changes in the Channel we expect to see in the next three years.

As they say, “Evolve or dissolve!”

The post 3 Things Channel Partners Need from Their Vendors appeared first on Channel Maven Consulting.

Internet of Things and The Channel

We are on the precipice of our “smart” world getting even smarter. IoT allows everyday objects to be embedded with computing devices that can then communicate with one another via the internet by sending and receiving data. Stephen DiFranco gives a perfect analogy of something as simple as a street light embedded with technology that enables it to dim when cars are not near and brighten when they are.

IoT does not just lead to greater efficiencies such as with the street light example, but also greater convenience which, after all, is  the business outcome we’re all buying, right?

Convenience, ease of life and ease of doing business

The impact of IOT is especially apparent in The Channel where the market shift to the cloud and the lure of IoT impacts almost every aspect of Vendor and Partners business models along with how, when where and why we go to market.

According to CompTIA, manufacturers, retailers, and healthcare professionals will benefit greatly from IoT and that is just scratching the surface. Partners have a huge opportunity in those verticals alone to be the expert in understanding, implementing, and managing compliance, security, and more with in the IoT adoption process.

Watch the full episode to find out:

• How IoT impacts Channel Partners
• If “born in IoT” is a trend for the future?
• How Channel Partners can transform to IoT with ease

Learn more and stay up to date on The Channel; subscribe to future CMCtv episodes and we will keep you in the loop!

The post #CMCtv Episode 15: Internet of Things and The Channel appeared first on Channel Maven Consulting.

Effective June 18, the Twitter privacy policy was updated. Chances are millions of users received the notice but didn’t have time to find out what it means for them. We get it, we’re busy too and fine print is a tough pill to swallow; but with the recent upheaval in engagement strategy caused by their recent algorithm updates and how they impact social media syndication, it’s a good time to find out what other Twitter changes might be suddenly impacting The Channel.

The entire policy can be found here, and the Cliff Notes version is below:

It’s not just the Twitter platform; privacy policy updates include how your information is shared across SMS, API’s, email notifications, applications, buttons, embeds and across all their “covered services” including:

• TweetDeck
• Curator
• Digits
• Periscope

If you use any of these services or the mobile apps for Twitter or TweetDeck, the privacy policy changes impact those accounts too.

Who controls your information?

Twitter, Inc in San Francisco controls your information if you’re in the USA and Twitter International, an Irish company, controls it if you’re located outside of the United States. However, regardless of which organization captures your data, they can “transfer, store and use” it in any country they operate in. (Which is basically anywhere on the planet with Internet access).

Twitter says, “We collect and use your information to provide, understand and improve services.”

Public Account Information:

• You can create and manage multiple Twitter accounts, for example multiple brand and personal or executive accounts such as Partner-facing and corporate Twitter handles.
• Your name and username are always listed publicly and accessible via Twitter search
• You can use a pseudo name instead of your actual name if you want but it’s still publicly searchable

Contact Information:

• Providing a phone number is your agreement to receive texts
• Your email is used for updates, marketing and to help others find your account
• Email can also be used for the same purposes by their third party services mentioned above as well as these corporate affiliates:
  • Vine
  • Niche
  • SnappyTV
  • Crashlytics
  • MoPub
  • TapCommerce
  • TellApart

Note: Don’t want to be found by phone and/or email? You can control this in the discoverability settings of your account.

Additional Information:

If you allow Twitter (or their other services) access to your contacts, they will help you find them in order to connect. Twitter “may” also use that information to personalize the content they send to you such as suggestions for other connects.

Note: If you already uploaded your contact list but don’t want them to use it in this way; change your preferences here.

Tweets, Following, Lists, Profile and Other Public Information:

Twitter collects metadata about your activities including:

• What time you created a Tweet
• Your language, country, and time zone
• Lists you create
• People you follow
• Tweets you like and retweet
• Broadcasts that your liked on Periscope that you also engage with on Twitter

When you publish a Tweet or add/change your profile, this is where that public information instantly goes:

• Search engines
• Developers and publishers that integrate Twitter content into their services
• Universities, public health agencies, market researchers and others who analyze it for trends and draw insights from your data

Warning from Twitter: Before posting, think carefully about how public you want that information to become.

How Twitter may uses non-public data:

For direct messaging, Twitter says they “store and process your communications and information related to them” Vague, right? Yes – so just understand a private message on Twitter might not be so private after all.

Other ways – Twitter uses your data to:

• Track your location in order to serve up local content via GPS, IP addresses, and nearby cell towers
• Track how you interact with links on their platform – including any links included in non-public areas like direct messages
• Make advertising more relevant to you (note: within Personalization and Data settings you can determine ad categories you want to see
• Gather information from all your devices to serve you content they believe will be of interest
• Gather information about your devices including ANY desktops, laptops and mobile devices you use or have used to log into Twitter so, if you’re managing executive or Partner-facing Twitter accounts from home devices, it’s a good idea to change these settings especially if you don’t want your teenager’s preferences applied to Twitter accounts you manage for work!

Happy Tweeting!

Don’t miss this important information on Twitter algorithm changes that impact the Channel.

The post Twitter Privacy Policy Updates – What IT Vendors and Channel Partners Need to Know appeared first on Channel Maven Consulting.

If you think about it, everyone wants sales but in order to get there demand generation has to happen first. However, many Partners don’t fully understand the difference between demand generation and lead generation and how to leverage each. Vendors respond to this by offering marketing automation assets and social media and content syndication but education needs to happen first.

Partners need to understand what demand generation is, how it differs from lead generation and why the difference matters.

Demystify Demand generation:

In short, demand generation happens at the top of the funnel. It’s simply awareness building on a topic, product, solution, industry, or company.

Demystify Lead generation:

Lead generation is connecting awareness to your ability to solve problems and exchanging knowledge for contact information with the understanding that more information will follow.

Why the difference matters:

Many Channel Partners don’t have time to be ultra marketing savvy and in their minds, demand and lead generation are the same thing; revenue. In broad terms that’s true but in actuality, the difference is huge and if you’re expecting leads while executing demand generation strategy, the results won’t impress. As Vendors, it’s important to educate Partners on the differences so when they’re accessing your portal and assets, they know how to use them correctly.

A look at tactics:

Most marketing tactics that Channel Partners use have both demand and lead generation capabilities:

Social media:

Social media for demand generation entails posting thought leadership articles related to a sector, product, company, or solution. The goal is to post information (yours and other’s) that brings awareness to a prospect’s need. It’s meant to bring top-of-the-funnel awareness to pains, solutions, and providers.

Social media for lead generation is more specifically tied to an organization and what they can do. It’s about Partners amplifying their own assets and encouraging connections to click-thru on landing pages where they trade contact information for middle-of-the-funnel conversions assets that will be sent later.

Partner social media tips: Social media syndication is typically demand generation. It’s meant for awareness and should be augmented with the Partners’ own landing pages and gated content to work for both lead and demand generation.

More: The ROI on Content Syndication for Channel Partners Just got Worse

Content:

Content for demand generation is free. It can be self-served without giving away contact information but often has a call to action (CTA) pointing to some sort of lead generation tactic. For example, publishing a blog with a CTA to download an e-book.

Content for lead generation includes e-books, landing pages, opt-in email lists such as a newsletter sign-up, or other content sitting behind a form (also known as a “gate.”)

Partner content tips: Vendors spend a lot of time and resources creating assets for demand and lead generation. Vendor provided white papers, case studies, and e-books can be easily put behind a gate on a Partners’ website for lead gen. Content syndication from Vendors can be used to create social posts and deliver the free information to drive demand.

More: How to Gain More Reach for your Partner-Facing Blogs

Using demand to drive leads:

It’s difficult to capture leads without demand generation. Sure someone can arrive at a Channel Partner’s website but the fact that they got there to begin with has to do with SEO, social media or other demand generation tactics. Since demand begets leads, let’s start there.

3-key elements Channel Partners need to effectively drive demand:

1. Buyer personas. No way around if, if you don’t know whom you’re marketing to, there’s a great chance for failure. Personification is the process of analyzing common traits across customers from gender to age to region to job role and morphing them into one “persona” that encompasses the traits. Once a persona is crafted, it’s easier to create content and launch demand generation campaigns that succeed.
2. Provide value. This may seem obvious but the value coming from Channel Partners to their prospects has to map to solving pains, and personas help with that but it’s not the only thing that matters. Content, gated or free has to (HAS TO) be relevant and well written. It needs to answer questions, establish trust and create a sense of kinship with your brand.
3. Timing and measurement. It’s about delivering the right message at the right time. Sounds vague right? Right but that’s because every single situation is different and thus is why A/B testing and measurement is critical for demand generation. Partners need to understand their goals – is it website visits, followers, engagement, organic reach?

In the end, we find it’s the Vendors who are focusing programs on ease of business and educating and assisting Channel Partners on go-to market strategy that are growing Channel revenue.

More: Channel Partner Education: Small Steps Lead to Demand Generation

Looking for ways to entice Channel Partners to consume your education and information? Download our e-book: Mastering The Art of To-Channel Communications.

The post Demystify Demand Generation for Channel Partners appeared first on Channel Maven Consulting.

IT Vendors dedicate considerable resources to writing, publishing, and maintaining Channel Partner blog platforms. The topics range from solution updates, to portal asset additions, to news and launches, to upcoming events (on and offline), and more. All of which is valuable information to help Partners grow their businesses alongside your solutions… when and if they actually engage with and read the content. Sadly, there are

If your Partner-facing blog isn’t gaining reach, there are three important factors to consider:

• Topic
• Format
• Amplification

Be relevant

The topic is the most important part of your blog. Are your posts relevant to Partners and targeted to their level of expertise? Partners’ time is scarce; they’re busy experts operating a business, serving their customers, and focused on demand generation and ROI; but first and foremost they’re technologically astute. Therefore, dumbed-down or otherwise irrelevant content can be a turn-off and too many posts that don’t serve their objectives will ensure they tune out – permanently.

• Are your posts addressing your Partners’ top concerns?
• What’s in it for them?
• Will they glean useful info? (Remember: it all ties back to ROI)

Format for readability

Have you ever “read” a blog and just skimmed most of the article? Of course, you have and you’re not alone; most of us skim-read. (Surprise!) One of the best ways to engage your audience is to make the blog easy to read. Here’s how:

• The intro should be packed full of information that outlines why your Partners should consume the content. Make your point quickly. Most readers only have an 8-second attention span, slightly shorter than a goldfish, so get to the point fast.
• Use subheads, bullets, images, lists, click to tweets, and other visual interrupters to break up content blocks and stop the eye from gaining speed while skimming.
• Titles (and subheads) should attract and grab attention immediately. The catchier and more relevant, the better. Partners are busy. What’s in it for them shouldn’t be a mystery. If they have to stop and think about whether it’s worth it to click the link – you’ve probably already lost them

Shout it from the rooftops

Before we get started talking about social media and amplification, if you haven’t heard about the new Twitter algorithm changes, you should become informed. The changes are important and affect your Partners’ ability to see, interact with, and amplify your content. The changes also impact the use of social media syndication services which most Vendors offer. We recently addressed this topic in The ROI on Social Media Syndication Just Got Worse. Go ahead; read those articles, we’ll be right here waiting when you get back!

Great! Now that you know a little bit more about the recent Twitter changes, it’s time to start socializing your content:

Engage with your Partners

The algorithmic changes are new to Twitter but they’re been true for LinkedIn and Facebook for a while. The posts you see most often come from the accounts you engage with most frequently. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true. Your posts will be seen most by the accounts that engage with you, which means your posts won’t be seen on a Partners’ social feed until you build a social media relationship with them. @Mention Partners, promote their content, and start conversations to build rapport.

Relevant and varied content

Many social profiles only post their own content. That’s a mistake. Vary your sources and post industry-relevant content that helps your Partners build their business, think about different perspectives, and learn about their industry. We all love to get a tidbit of information from a new perspective and doing so helps your Partners see you as a thought leader and gravitate toward your content.

Post frequently

After you’ve spent time ensuring your Partner audience is engaged, be sure to post several times a day on Twitter and ideally daily on the other social platforms. That way, your Partners will see more of your content no matter which platform they’re on.

Hashtag it

What used to be called the “pound sign” can be your best friend on social media. Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook all use #’s for simplified keyword searches.

Caution: when applying hashtags, it’s important to think from your Partner’s point of view. What are they searching for? What interests them? Steer away from generic or too widely used hashtags. For example, it might seem obvious to use #Marketing in a post, but think about how many posts use that # every day – will yours be seen or lost?

Wouldn’t it be nice if the majority of your Partners consumed every single blog post? Stop wasting time and resources posting into the void. Instead, use these strategies to increase engagement and create more content that’s appealing to your Partners!

P.S. If you need help with content strategy, hit up Brad (on the west coast) or Debbie (on the east coast and internationally) they’ll be happy to create a custom Channel Partner blog strategy that for your Channel Partners.

Learn more about social media best practices and Download our ebook to increase Partner engagement.

The post How to Gain More Reach for Your Channel Partner Blog appeared first on Channel Maven Consulting.