What is Partner Marketing?

In a nutshell, is the strategic alliance between two or more businesses to achieve common marketing goals. Imagine it like this: you and another company, who aren't competitors, but offer complementary products or services, join forces to cross-promote each other. It's a win-win situation where you both leverage each other's strengths to reach new audiences, generate leads, and ultimately boost sales while sharing resources and splitting costs.

Partner marketing has become increasingly important for Pleo – today, we would rate it as 8 out of 10. It's highly valuable because it extends our reach and brand awareness, helps us tap into bigger audiences, and enhances our credibility through association. By working with partner marketing, we’re able to open doors to new markets, driving growth and nurturing long-term relationships with both partners and customers.

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The Value Proposition of Partner Marketing

Entering New Space

Technology partnerships act like bridges to fresh customer pools. By teaming up with complementary businesses, you tap into their established audience, expanding your reach beyond your own marketing efforts.  This, in turn, fosters trust. When a trusted brand vouches for your product, it adds a layer of credibility, making new customers more receptive to what you offer. 

Example: Imagine a fitness app collaborating with a wearable tech company. The fitness app gains access to the wearable company's active user base, while the wearable company exposes its users to a new way to utilize their devices.

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Trust by Association

Partnering with a reputable brand adds a layer of credibility to your own. 

Example: Many businesses, especially smaller ones, hesitate migrating to cloud providers due to security concerns. Partnering with Palo Alto allows Google Cloud Provider (GCP) to offer comprehensive security solutions alongside its cloud services. This attracts security-conscious businesses who might not have considered GCP before.

By partnering with GCP, Palo Alto expands its reach to a vast pool of potential customers who utilize GCP's services. This allows them to offer their security solutions to a wider audience and potentially capture new market share.

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Lead Generation and Sales Acceleration

Partnering allows you to combine resources and data, leading to more targeted marketing campaigns.  You can leverage each other's customer insights to create laser-focused messaging that resonates with the most likely buyers, generating a higher quality of leads.

Example: Imagine a marketing automation platform like HubSpot partnering with a CRM giant like Salesforce. This dream team can offer a comprehensive solution, attracting businesses seeking a unified marketing and sales platform. They can then leverage each other's customer data to create highly targeted campaigns reaching businesses most likely to need their combined offering.

Content Powerhouse

Collaboration breeds content creation magic. Two minds (and marketing budgets) are better than one!  Partnerships unlock the potential for co-created content like webinars, ebooks, or blog posts that cater to a broader audience.  This content creation powerhouse attracts leads at various stages of the buying journey, accelerating lead generation for all parties involved.

Example: Take a web hosting company like SiteGround partnering with a website builder like Wix. Together, they can create valuable content like "Top Security Tips for Wix Websites" or "Beginner's Guide to Choosing a Web Hosting Plan." This content attracts potential customers at different stages of the buying journey, generating leads for both companies.

Co-branded content creation, such as ebooks, blog posts and videos, allow us to share resources and knowledge while reaching each other's audiences. By collaborating on these activities with a partner, we’re able to establish credibility through association with trusted partners and maximise ROI.

Therese Paulden | Partner Lead at Pleo

Co-hosted Webinars and Events

Webinars and events are powerful lead magnets. A project management software company like Asana partnering with a communication tool like Slack can co-host a webinar on "Boosting Team Collaboration." This attracts qualified leads interested in both project management and communication solutions. By leveraging partner strengths, creating targeted content, and co-hosting events, tech collaborations can significantly accelerate your sales funnel by generating a steady stream of high-quality leads.

Even though events and webinars accrue the most ROI, readable content remains crucial in bringing these campaigns to life. One example of this is the integrated campaign we’re working on together with our partner Travelperk. It’s essentially a “Travel handbook” which we’ll then repurpose for paid advertising, customer emails and a joint webinar. Joint webinars or co-hosted events provide an opportunity to showcase expertise and/or networking with an audience of shared customers and prospects, increasing our brand visibility and generating leads. 

Therese Paulden | Partner Lead at Pleo‍

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Building a Robust Partner Marketing Program

As with any Partner Program, it’s about quality, not quantity. Focusing on a few well-chosen partners allows for deeper collaboration, targeted campaigns, and stronger brand alignment, maximising co-marketing impact. If you’re a large technology company, you might find yourself already with a curated squad of 200+ partners (well done!). While your partner and sales teams enjoy regular lead exchanges, your marketing might be seeking extra hands to identify which partners should be considered a priority when it comes to co-marketing. 

Here's a strategic framework to identify ideal partners based on three key pillars:

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#1. Target Audience Alignment

Identify your ideal customer profile (ICP) - the specific characteristics of your target audience. Seek partners whose customer base overlaps with yours, but isn't in direct competition. Ensure your offerings complement each other. This creates a joint value for both customer bases, as each partner addresses a different aspect of the customer's needs.

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#2. Look For Synergy Around Your Marketing Goals 

Are you both aiming for brand awareness, lead generation, or increased sales? Shared goals ensure a cohesive campaign with a clear value proposition for both audiences. What’s important is to analyse your marketing strengths and weaknesses. Look for partners who can fill your gaps. For example, if you excel in content creation but struggle with paid advertising, a partner strong in paid ads could be ideal.

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#3. Brand Value Compatibility

Partnering with a company whose values resonate with yours strengthens your brand image. It’s good to evaluate your core values and choose partners who share your commitment to quality, customer service, or innovation. Further, consider researching your potential partner's reputation. Partnering with a well-respected company reflects positively on your brand and inspires trust in your offering.

When developing a partner marketing program, two factors are crucial: alignment of goals and mutual benefits. Firstly, making sure you and your partner company are aligned on goals is essential. This involves a deep understanding of each other's wider business objectives, target audiences, and desired outcomes, in order to create a program that delivers value to both parties. Secondly, fostering a mutual benefit is vital for a successful partnership. This includes offering incentives like revenue sharing, resource access, or co-marketing opportunities that appeal to your partners and encourage collaboration.

By prioritising alignment and mutual benefits, you can decide which partners are most valuable for you and your ecosystem. In our case, the partners that meet these criteria are known as our Tier 1 partners. Here, we invest in a long-term (one year) co-marketing plan rather than one-off co-marketing acitivties, which can include any number of the  activities mentioned above. 

Therese Paulden | Partner Lead at Pleo

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Here’s future-proof blueprint (with a scorecard), which I created while working for a growing partner ecosystem:

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Step 1: Develop a Partner Profile

• Create a document outlining your ideal partner based on these criteria.
• Quantify Whenever Possible. Instead of simply stating "increase brand awareness," specify a target percentage increase or desired reach.
• Define Deal Breakers by outlining any non-negotiables, such as specific industry restrictions or minimum revenue requirements.
• Industry Expertise. Consider their industry expertise and market reputation as additional factors that can contribute to a successful partnership.
  

Step 2: Narrow Down Potential Partners

• Identify companies that fit your profile by researching blog articles, eBooks and social media of your existing partners.
• Attend industry events, webinars or join discussion groups with partners to see if it’s the right fit.
• Target your communication: when approaching potential partners, tailor your message to their specific needs and how your collaboration fulfills their priorities.
  

Step 3: Evaluation and Scoring

• Develop a scoring system for each pillar in your partner profile. This helps objectively compare different partners. Here's an example:

Target Audience Alignment (Max Points: 20):

• 10 points for significant customer base overlap.
• 5 points for moderate customer base overlap.
• 0 points for minimal or no customer base overlap.

Marketing Goals Synergy (Max Points: 20):

• 10 points for highly aligned marketing objectives.
• 5 points for somewhat aligned marketing objectives.
• 0 points for conflicting marketing objectives.

Brand Value Compatibility (Max Points: 20):

• 10 points for strong shared values and positive brand reputation.
• 5 points for some shared values or a neutral brand reputation.
• 0 points for conflicting values or a negative brand reputation.

Once you've scored each potential partner across all pillars, add up their total points. The partners with the highest scores demonstrate the strongest alignment with your partner profile and should be prioritised for further engagement.

By following this strategic framework and action plan, you can identify potential partners who are not just a good fit for lead generation, but also create a long-term, mutually beneficial collaboration.

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Measuring Partner Marketing Success

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Last but not least, as with any marketing strategy, it’s crucial to have a data-driven mindset. Here’s a list of key performance indicators that should be measured while running your partner marketing campaign (if you're looking for more KPI metrics to measure partner performance, check out this article):

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#1 Opportunities

Track the number of opportunities generated through partner campaigns. This could involve unique website visitors from a partner source, form submissions, or qualified leads identified by your sales team.

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#2 Brand Awareness

Monitor brand mentions, website traffic from partner referrals, and social media engagement metrics to gauge increased brand awareness stemming from the partnership.

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#3 Sales Conversions

Track the number of sales directly attributed to partner-generated leads, partner-influenced leads, or co-marketing efforts. In order to do so, your CRM might need some extra help. Explore partner sales enablement software to allow correct lead source attribution. Lastly, ensure this software is seamlessly integrated with your CRM to enable two-way communication

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#4 Return on Investment (ROI)

Calculate the ROI of your partner marketing program by dividing the revenue generated from partner-sourced and partner-influenced leads by the total investment in the program.

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#5 Leverage Data and Analytics Tools

Utilise data and analytics tools to track campaign performance, website traffic sources, and lead conversion rates. Popular tools like Google Analytics or marketing automation and partner engagement platforms provide valuable insights into partner-specific performance.

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#6 Monitor Partner Performance

Track your partner's contribution to your KPIs. Consider metrics like the number of leads they generate or the reach of their co-branded campaigns. Analyse their performance compared to initial agreements and discuss areas for improvement.

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#7. Conduct Customer Surveys

Gather feedback from customers to understand how they discovered your brand.  Include a question about partner referrals to gauge the effectiveness of your co-marketing efforts in driving customer acquisition.

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#8. Track Engagement Beyond Numbers

While numbers are crucial, qualitative measures also matter. Monitor partner communication, the enthusiasm of their marketing teams, and the overall tone of the collaboration. Strong engagement fosters a positive brand experience for both partners' customers.

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#9. Regularly Review and Refine

Schedule regular reviews of your partner marketing program performance. Analyse KPI data, customer feedback, and engagement levels. Use these insights to refine your strategy, adjust campaign tactics, and optimise partnerships for even greater success.

This data-driven approach allows you to optimise campaigns, maximise ROI, and ensure your partnerships are driving real business growth.