activities

Co-Marketing

This involves joint marketing activities with vendors aimed at lead generation and sales. This involves various types of initiatives, training, workshops, and investments in partner marketing. The more significant a company’s growth and visibility, the stronger and more reliable a vendor’s support becomes. Despite its many advantages, co-marketing has one substantial drawback: the complexity of vendor-specific approvals and reporting, which often discourages companies.

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When do companies turn to co-marketing?

Financial support from the vendor

Need for large clients

Market entry or product launch

Stimulating sales growth

Why is it beneficial to use vendor marketing funds?

Active collaboration with vendors enables companies to strengthen their marketing strategies and expand their marketing plans. While it requires adhering to the vendor’s strict rules and guidelines, it also helps you achieve your own goals of expanding your customer base and increasing sales. Financial support helps share the costs and risks of running marketing activities. However, not all companies take advantage of these opportunities, even though they provide significant benefits and help companies stand out from their competitors. Successful, dynamic companies are usually rewarded by the vendor, strengthening the partnership and leading to more investment.

Key stages

Identifying vendor and partner priorities. Creating a balanced concept that considers the interests of all participants. Managing expectations.
Selecting focus areas and activity formats, and defining the target audience. Creating the ICP
Define the target audience. Create the ICP.
Create content and adapt existing materials.

Medium-term expectations
Define key performance metrics, ROI, and ROMI

Carry out activities in accordance with the agreed-upon plans, methods, tactics, and requirements.
Monitoring interim results and adjusting the process as needed.

The most important stage is preparing reports in accordance with the vendor’s requirements and uploading campaign results.
Reimbursement of costs for the co-marketing activity

Large vendors have many marketing and sales funds and initiatives designed to support partners. The level of collaboration sometimes depends on the partner’s status and expertise. However, IT vendors also actively look for opportunities to expand their partner network, support small and young companies, provide training, and increase sales, including those of their new solutions and products, by motivating and stimulating sales teams.

Do you need to attract new clients through co-marketing?

Important Points to Pay Special Attention To:

Vendor compensation after activities

It is important to note that the allocation of marketing funds typically requires the partner to make an initial investment, carry out activities, and receive reimbursement only after reporting to the vendor. Therefore, the partner must be financially prepared and account for the reimbursement time, which is usually three to six months after reporting.

Balancing the interests of all co-marketing participants

Co-marketing initiatives must consider the priorities of both the vendor and the partner, which don’t always align. It is not worthwhile to conduct campaigns or generate leads on topics where the partner lacks sufficient expertise. It is better to choose topics in which the partner already has deals, experience, and successful projects.

The key is unique creative content

Vendor-approved content and creatives are not always well-suited for these types of initiatives. While they are easy to use since everything is ready and requires no extra effort, it must be noted that both the vendor and other partners have already used these materials in their campaigns. The effectiveness of a campaign based on materials used elsewhere repeatedly drops sharply, especially for digital activities. It’s better to add your own expertise and cases and adapt the materials to your brand. Refining the creatives in your company’s style also increases the campaign’s uniqueness.

Reporting requirements

It is crucial to understand the approval conditions and reporting documents before starting, whether the partner conducts activities independently or with an agency. Each vendor has its own requirements. These may include a campaign description with key metrics, as well as a list of materials confirming the activity. For offline events, this may include photos, a registration list, and creatives. For online activities, this may include technical specifications for the landing page and creatives, screenshots, access to analytics and metrics, contact and lead lists, and financial documents.