What is Partner Marketing Software?
Businesses cannot ignore the value of partnership marketing. The value and benefits it delivers can transform your marketing outcomes. It will help you increase ROI on your marketing budget and help attract new customers to your business through access to new audiences and increased brand awareness.
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8 Essential Criteria for Choosing the Right Enterprise Partnership Marketing Software for Your Business
1. Scalable solution - to support increasing volumes of partners and partner rewards
2. Provides access to a network of ready-made relevant partners
3. Offers platform to operate your own closed loop partner programme
4. Track record for working with enterprise clients
5. White Labelling: Speed of Deployment and Time-to-Market
6. Mobile first UI and CX
7. Roadmap of product enhancements
8. Onboarding process of new partners into rewards programmes
The success of your brand-to-brand partnerships ultimately depends upon your underlying strategy and how well your digital partner programmes are launched, scaled and optimised for the benefit of your target audience.
Partner marketing software gives your business the digital platform needed to monitor partner campaigns, track affiliate programmes, operate a closed network programme of partner rewards and incentives for your customers, and support for developing your partner marketing strategy, through programme performance data.
Why Do You Need Partner Marketing Software?
Deploying technology streamlines partnership programmes through campaign automation, the ability to track real-time partnership KPIs and metrics and a platform for effective partner onboarding to accelerate campaigns quickly and cost effectively.
Digitising your partner campaigns, underpinned by partner management software, could help you become more visible, penetrate a new industry, improve partner loyalty and engagement, and scale your customer base effectively. Here's how:
Access a support network
You can benefit from the abilities and expertise of your partners when you join a partner network. Additionally, gaining access to a network of relevant brand partners through integration with affiliate tracking software, affiliate networks, or a ready-made network of partners (and the rewards they offer) supplied by your partner marketing platform provider gives your customers extra value.
Provides transparency of digital campaign success
Partner marketing software provides transparency of partner performance, overall digital programme success and granular data such transactions and redemptions from rewards and incentives offered by partners to your customers. Having this data at your fingertips allows you to make informed decisions about partner programme optimisation.
To reduce costs
You can cut your sales and advertising costs by launching and scaling cost effective digital partnership programmes that are more likely to engage customers as opposed to more traditional and potentially expensive initiatives such as PPC advertising.
To create growth opportunities and increase exposure
By establishing new alliances, you can revamp your business and look into fresh possibilities for growth. Additionally, you can test new digital partner programmes and affiliate marketing campaigns in a secure digital environment if your rewards and partnership management platform is connected to affiliate tracking software.
Another benefit is that you can grow your business by reaching new markets and audiences by leveraging your partner's reputation and their digital rewards, which can be offered to your audience as incentives for customer loyalty and retention.
8 Essential Criteria for Choosing the Right Enterprise Partnership Marketing Software for Your Business
Although partner marketing software features and capabilities differ, here are some recommendations for selecting a technology platform capable of supporting the different types of partnership, and best assist you in building your digital brand-to-brand partnerships at an enterprise level.
1. Scalable solution - to support increasing volumes of partners and partner rewards
Carefully consider a solution that helps you shorten time-to-market, whilst offering the platform for scaling and accelerating digital partner programmes.
For example, with a white label provider, you won't have to worry about hiring developers to build your own platform, data security is taken care of, risk is decreased, and the solution is totally scalable to accommodate a growing base of customers, partners and partner rewards available to incentivise your audience.
2. Provides access to a network of ready-made relevant partners
Seek out a technology platform that helps brands instantly launch digital partner marketing programmes at scale.
Partner marketers sometimes find it difficult to identify appropriate business partners that can expose their brands to new markets, regions and opportunities. Your technology platform provider should help you avoid this constraint by offering preset rewards and deals from a network of relevant brand partners that can be tailored to engage your customers.
For organisations launching digital partner programmes for the first time, look for an end-to-end partner marketing software provider with a rich partner reward content base, technical resources, and a support team. This provides you with a framework to drive engagement for your customers and build successful partnerships.
3. Offers platform to operate your own closed loop partner programme
In addition to the customer rewards offered via the partner network, the platform should allow you to import and house your existing partner rewards into a closed network programme, track real-time user engagement, deliver campaigns and build a complete data set on what emotionally resonates with your audience.
The costs, technical skills, and people overhead to deliver a programme can be daunting. Your chosen technology should eradicate the need to allocate a separate technical and marketing resource to run the programme, meaning that you can focus entirely on customer and partner-based acquisition.
4. Track record for working with enterprise clients
A proven track record of driving results in your industry or related fields and getting the necessary outcomes is a plus. The technology provider should have a track record of successfully acquiring, developing, and converting new clients who are in the enterprise size range or smaller leading brands within your market niche.
Its capabilities must also include providing high levels of professional customer service.
5. White Labelling: Speed of Deployment and Time-to-Market
White label partnerships can help your business flourish, regardless of whether you partner with other brands or offer services directly to your own customers.
In essence, a white label solution is acquired by a company and rebranded as its own, usually from a software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider that leases out the rights to use their software on a subscription basis. By working with a white label partner, you can also access the knowledge of a large group of seasoned technology experts, easily configure the platform and programmes and significantly reduce time-to-market.
6. Mobile first UI and CX
Your ideal partner marketing software should allow you to create highly customised and optimised customer experiences - particularly for mobile devices - with the ability to cultivate and adapt your partnership programme as required. From messaging and branding, through to reward content and gamification, the platform should offer excellent flexibility as standard across multiple devices.
7. Roadmap of product enhancements
Your technology provider should have a product roadmap containing the product vision and how this will be achieved - the strategy. A clear vision and direction for the product and the ability to adapt the platform inline with your requirements will help you to evolve and deliver your partnership, customer loyalty and retention programmes over time.
8. Onboarding process of new partners into rewards programmes
Onboarding your brand partners, and equipping them with the resources they need to succeed should be straightforward and automated. Your software choice should have a dashboard that lets you monitor how your partners are doing at each stage of the process and notifies you when they want your assistance.
With the help of this tool, you can also send automatic email sequences to your partners, guiding them through the onboarding process and nurturing their interest in your business.
Partner Marketing Playbook
Download the Partnership Marketing Playbook for essential insights to help you build the ultimate partnership marketing programme with the aid of technology.
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