The full version of this article was first published at: 3 Common Channel Marketing Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)
When exploring your work in the channel, it’s easy to try to address things with the same strategy as direct sales. Often, you can have some success with this method. Other times, you may find yourself failing. What’s important to remember is that you need to address your channel partners differently at times. There are a few mistakes that can be made fairly easily. Here are three possible failing points and how to avoid them: 1. Focusing on Partner Recruitment Instead of Engagement While it’s important to have a comprehensive list of channel partners to work with, it’s also important to make sure those partners remain engaged. If you’re spending the bulk of your time on seeking out channel partners, that means your existing work in the channel is suffering. You don’t need to spend all of your time in the channel working on re-engaging and nurturing your partners. But you do need to spend enough time that they don’t migrate away from your partnership. By striking a balance between finding new channel partners and keeping your current partners engaged, you’re showing all of your partners that you care about the relationship. Another factor to keep in mind is that if you’re only devoting your efforts to recruitment, how personalized are any of your communications? If you are using a blanket newsletter for your sales acceleration communiques, then your current channel partners are not going to feel the love. Take a little more time and use a little more effort…
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