Ten Rules for Channel Marketing Communications

Effective Channel Communications is Difficult and Expensive (Photo from Flickr)

Communicating with channels partners is a difficult and expensive proposition. Manufacturers spend significant time and resources to create and distribute quality marketing materials and, for a lot of reasons, most reseller partners do use the marketing materials they receive. It’s a hit or miss process. And few technology companies manage it well.

There is no silver bullet. Communicating with channel partners is complicated and even though we understand that half of our channel communications efforts are wasted, we don’t have any easy way to determine which half. So we keep doing everything the same way and hope for the best. Unfortunately, markets change and channel communications have to keep up.

Today, effective channel marketing messages are delivered in 140 characters and videos are viewed in five minutes – and usually not on a terminal in an office. Less is more in this environment and there is increasing pressure on channel marketing to get it right. Here are ten rules to follow when trying to communicate with your resellers.

1. Have something to say (and make it obvious)
2. Tell a story about value (not product) and keep it short
3. Tailor information to the audience (there is no such thing as “one-size-fits-all” in the channel world)
4. Tailor the content for online usage (banner ads, icons, and links)
5. Make important materials easy for resellers to find and customize
6. Let partners access your materials from anywhere, no matter what device they use
7. Stop sending mass emails. (Partners are begging you!)
8. Get feedback and measure the impact of individual communications
9. Stress visual formats (seeing) over text documents (reading)
10. Make “Overall Communications” a budget line item and manage it

It’s not always easy, but that is why channel marketing people make the big bucks. Did I miss anything?