Date: October 13, 2022
Author: Daniel Nissan
Last month, StructuredWeb’s Chief Growth Officer, Steven Kellam, published a compelling and even a little bold eBook that analyzes the differences between true Through Channel Marketing Automation platforms and those that pose as TCMA but are clearly not delivering the goods. As mentioned in the eBook titled, “Pretenders vs. Contenders: The Truth About Through-Channel Marketing Automation (TCMA) Platforms, Kellam “lifts the veil on TCMA to educate customers so they might avoid a decision that will tie up a budget and sub-optimize marketing for years.”
Since founding it nearly two decades ago, StructuredWeb is still the only pure-play TCMA provider globally. That’s important because many partner marketing and engagement solutions claim they provide effective TCMA, but when you look under the hood, it’s clear that not everything is there. As Forrester proclaimed, “Enabling partners of all types to leverage vendor content, messaging, branding, and demand generation initiatives in their local markets is critical to driving a winning customer experience, but only about half of brands have implemented TCMA, with only 17% fully satisfied that they are getting the most from the systems.”
With that, I thought I’d take a moment to drive home a few key takeaways from the eBook, as well officially introduce the sixth “C” in our lineup of TCMA must-haves. Because the truth is, you can’t have a TCMA platform without the following:
Partner Marketing Enablement:
TCMA platforms worth their salt must take into account the entire partner marketing ecosystem and then offer the most advanced tools that can dive deep into those environments – delivering accessible, personalized and segmented content that partners can edit, share and track. This is where StructuredWeb’s five “Cs” come into play. Created more than seven years ago the five Cs are a framework to help our customers understand the channel marketing process, which includes the following: create effective and engaging content; connect that content with partners and the right time; communicate to end customers through a variety of channels; capture leads and convert them to sales; and calculate results with real-time analytics.
Adding to the powerful 5-C lineup, the team at StructuredWeb understand that partners need to have greater transparency into their marketing efforts overall. This begins with understanding the partners’ “voice” and then aligning channel marketing efforts with customized go-to-market messaging. This can only be successful by the collection of ecosystem-wide data that is both vast and granular at the same time. Therefore, our sixth “C” is appropriately identified as “collect.”
Global Customization:
Channel ecosystem marketing and enablement is both a global and local endeavor. As such, TCMA cannot be executed in a one size fits all approach – a non-negotiable for today’s global channel organizations. As such, effective TCMA platforms must have the ability to adapt content to the native language of a partners’ local buyer in their local markets, and it must be done immediately – all in the same place. Advanced TCMA platforms like StructuredWeb simplifies this process, making content translation available to channel partners in their own portal – streamlining content management and significantly reducing translation costs for brands.
Marketing Concierge:
Rapid attrition rates and low adoption rates stem from limitations on partners’ time and resources, along with the lure of competition. Effective Marketing Concierge Services allow vendors to offer unparalleled, personalized partner marketing support – increasing revenue opportunities for both you and your partners. This support includes campaign planning, content customization, lead management, and campaign analysis. True concierge services, as part of a comprehensive TCMA strategy, augments and extends the capacity for white glove partner marketing, freeing up partners’ time and resources.
Automation:
TCMA platforms have to offer the right automated technology infrastructure for vendors to communicate and inform the brand’s value proposition – keeping channel partners engaged and excited. The five Cs are meaningless if the underlying technology infrastructure isn’t fully automated. This kind of advantage allows brands to create deep customization and execute multiple channel marketing campaigns at the same time without having to use up precious time and resources. The “A” in TCMA is what sets this suite of solutions apart from the rest.
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