the missed var opportunity: building a more effective ...€¦ · building a more effective channel...

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THE MISSED VAR OPPORTUNITY:

Building a More Effective Channel Marketing Strategy

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The Roadmap

5 Questions for Partners

LinkedIn is Here to Help

A New VAR Mindset

Inside this Guide

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93%

Better Lead Strategy, Long-Term ROIMore than ever, marketers live and die by the numbers.

As every move a customer makes becomes more

trackable, 93% of CMOs say they are under intense

pressure to prove ROI. This pressure is more acute for

channel marketers of VARs (value-added resellers), who

are held to their own marketing objectives alongside

those of key partners.

93% of CMOs say they are under intense pressure to prove ROI

The Roadmap 5 Questions for Partners LinkedIn is Here to HelpA New VAR Mindset

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A New VAR Mindset

Short-Term Plans, Short-Term CustomersWe often see channel marketers pushed

to the bottom of the funnel while dealing

with a complex marketing tech stack and

struggling to develop long-term plans

alongside partner goals. So they try to

do a lot via a “lead-gen-or-bust” volume

mindset, at the expense of quality.

The Roadmap 5 Questions for Partners LinkedIn is Here to Help

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CUSTOMER LIFETIME VALUE

Customers who stick around are valuable when they buy again, and their endorsement may be worth far more than any marketing campaign.

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Lead Quality Over QuantityBut the majority of leads never convert, and if

you rush them through the process, they burn

out fast. The volume play can be effective,

but it’s only as good as lead quality and final

conversion rates. If channel marketers don’t start to think differently, they’ll keep missing true long-term ROI opportunities.

• It can cost anywhere from 5 to 25 times as much money to acquire a new customer as to retain one.

• Existing customers are 60% to 70% more likely to purchase another product or solution.

A New VAR Mindset The Roadmap 5 Questions for Partners LinkedIn is Here to Help

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The Mindset Mistake: Annual Plans, Annual Vision, Annual ResultsUnlike other technology segments, VAR

channel marketers have the opportunity to

utilize vendor dollars in a partner marketing

program. The marketing practices and plans

are often heavily structured around short-

term sales cycles and products vs. solutions.

The lead-or-nothing mentality leaves VARs

without the time or energy to experiment

with audience development or long-term

strategies. But VARs have unique stories, services and insights to share — they just

need to find a way to hit the right people with

their message.

The Mindset Mistake: Annual Plans, Annual Vision, Annual Results


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It’s Also Not What Technology Buyers Want AnymoreToday’s tech buyers expect to be nurtured

via expert content, participation in online tech

conversations and clear value messages.

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90%

55%

33%

90% of tech buyers look outside their co-workers

for counsel on B2B tech solutions — with reviews,

surveys and usage stats from fellow technology users

making up 51% of these trusted educational sources

consulted throughout the buying cycle.

In fact, 55% of B2B decision-makers say thought

leadership is an important way to vet vendors,

and 33% of customers say they have abandoned a

business relationship because support, flexibility

and personalization were lacking.

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KEY TAKEAWAY


You must demonstrate your value well before the purchase

process even begins.

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Design Always-On Strategic Nurture Campaigns

The Roadmap

When channel marketers focus efforts on individual products

or solutions, the VAR brand, and the value it adds to the

vendor, is lost. Instead, fold this message into a strategy that

embraces the modern tech buyer’s journey, with integrated

campaigns that nurture buyers.

A New VAR Mindset 5 Questions for Partners LinkedIn is Here to Help

66%

66% of marketers say that

leads created in a nurtured,

account-based marketing

campaign are more likely to

provide positive references

and advocate for their

companies.

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STEP 1.

Build Your Campaign Roadmap

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The RoadmapA New VAR Mindset 5 Questions for Partners LinkedIn is Here to Help

Make your brand matter: You are not the third wheelDefine your brand promise and explain why

buyers need you:

• Convey who you are and your unique story.

• Then layer on solutions and products.

Utilize your unique perspective and thought

leadership to emphasize the partnership value

to your customer: 58% of B2B decision-makers

say thought leadership led them to award

business to a company.

Any size VAR can achieve this level of branding

through a dynamic shift in how they think about

their marketing.

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The Roadmap

STEP 2.


What makes them or their buying experience unique?

How do you replicate these customers?

Is this who you want to target?

This is an important step, because a guess is just that,

but research can reveal your path forward. Maybe you

have better luck with enterprise marketers than

IT decision-makers, or maybe most of your best

customers don’t come from the C-suite, but rather the

associate level.

Begin targeting! On LinkedIn, channel marketers

can confidently target audiences by:

• Title

• Account

• Seniority

• Vertical, skills

• Other areas of expertise

• Lookalike Audiences, active users who bear similar

traits to your selected audiences

• Interest targeting, users who like other content

similar to yours

Target the right people by finding your biggest fansTurn to your current customers.

Who has the highest lifetime value, based on data?

• The customers that have been with you longest

• The customers that have made the largest or most

purchases

• The customers that have recommended you to their peers

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STEP 3.

95%

Get out of the churn and into the “always on”A nurture campaign cadence is vastly different from

straight lead-gen. It involves multiple touchpoints

spread across many channels and capabilities. On

LinkedIn, we see 95% of channel marketers only

utilizing Sponsored Content, and while that’s a good

place to start, it’s not telling the whole story or staying

with the buyer through his or her entire journey.

Begin to generate awareness and engagement via:

• Company updates

• Employee feed shares

• Influencer and employee posts

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STEP 3.

64%90%

Get out of the churn and into the “always on”

Marry your campaign goals to LinkedIn’s

capabilities. This produces deeper content that

drives better results.

• Video speaks to buyers: 90% say product videos

are helpful in the buying process and 64% are more

likely to purchase after viewing a video. Customer

testimonials, demo videos and tutorials are popular.

• Carousel ads reinforce your brand and contain multiple

cards that can contain different URLs, driving different

actions from a single ad unit.

• Dynamic ads can be customized to meet campaign

objectives and personalized for buyers. 71% of tech

buyers are more likely to consider a brand’s products or

services if they receive personalized communications.

Tip: The most successful campaigns take these

messages outside a single platform and integrate them

into a broad campaign across channels that include

nurture emails via a marketing automation platform,

search and even remarketing.

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The Roadmap

Partner Reporting that Adds Value

LinkedIn can support detailed campaign reporting that

demonstrates economic value to OEMs.

• Conversions through LinkedIn via Lead Gen Forms and

Sponsored InMail:

– Deliver 2-3x better conversion rates when compared to

standard Sponsored Content campaigns

– Enable 1:1 conversation

All of these tactics are made more powerful by exposing

customers to content first.


STEP 4.

Expand how you measure and record successAn integrated marketing program helps you

begin to measure business impact. It provides

comprehensive data that can determine

optimal partner investment and marketing

program execution.

Consider More Meaningful KPIs

Channel marketers need to work with their partners

to develop existing and implement long-term KPIs

by integrating the following isolated metrics:

• Views/impressions • Likes

• Comments • Clicks

• Shares

Track them to your website and the content

you’ve promoted.

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The Roadmap

This shift can be a difficult adjustment for partners,

but it’s necessary if you want to focus on quality

over quantity.


Expand how you measure and record successAdjust Campaign Windows to Achieve Better Results

Most channel marketers have a pre-determined

quarterly spend budgeted for social packages across all

social platforms, and they don’t optimize or reallocate

that between channels mid-campaign. Make ad spend

commitments match long-term investment.

• Rather than focusing on quarterly spend, think in

terms of a 6-month to 1-year timeframe to have the

opportunity to pivot and see success over a longer

marketing cycle.

• With LinkedIn, using A/B testing or setting up

campaigns with different content or messaging means

marketers have more overall control and the ability to

enhance their ROI.

STEP 4.

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Flipping the Script on Marketing Planning

A New VAR Mindset LinkedIn is Here to HelpThe Roadmap

Here are five questions all VARs should ask their

partners during the marketing planning process to

foster the mindset shift.

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At LinkedIn, we help channel marketers measure KPIs and

track and report on end-user audiences from initial touch

through nurture engagements that drive sales. With this

comprehensive reporting, you gain visibility into program

performance and return on marketing spend, helping

determine optimal investment and campaign execution,

while enlightening partners on in-depth audience insights.

1. Which marketing KPIs are most important and why?An effective campaign starts with a clear vision

of how your partner defines success. But for most

channel marketers, this translates to KPIs that

don’t account for the whole long-term picture.

Generating quality leads requires abandoning

a lead-churn mindset in favor of focusing

on marketing programs and campaigns

that support the entire buyer journey across

awareness, engagement and nurturing. It also

requires targeting the needs of all IT buying

committee members.

Current KPI Mindset: Quantity over Quality

• Lead count• Cost per lead• Sales revenue

A New Way of Thinking: Comprehensive Reporting

• Multi-touch engagements• Lead scoring• Audience insights• Return on marketing spend

5 Questions for PartnersA New VAR Mindset LinkedIn is Here to HelpThe Roadmap

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2. How are you nurturing the entire buyer experience?Are your partners on board or do they need more education?

Keep in mind that each phase includes different content.


The awareness phase includes

Non-promotional content that generates engagement, demonstrates thought leadership and builds awareness.

The consideration phase features

High-value content that helps educate buyers.

The acquisition/conversion phase showcases

Specific information about the brand, product and service.


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Tips for Partner Communication:

• On the Value of Nurture Content: Educate your

partner on how to generate new and leverage

existing content with the power to nurture buyers.

• On Clarifying Expectations: Discuss how much

content the VAR is responsible for creating vs. how

much the partner will provide.

• On Engaging Partner SMEs: Ensure partner buy-in

for access to their subject matter experts for content

development or sales support.

67% 50%

67% of the buyer’s journey is done

digitally. Over the two-year process, key

prospects are interacting with your brand

and your partner’s brand, typically before

engaging sales.

50% of leads are qualified but aren’t

immediately ready to buy something

from you. Even the best leads, those

most likely to convert to customers, may

need nurture time.

5 Questions for PartnersA New VAR Mindset LinkedIn is Here to HelpThe Roadmap

2. How are you nurturing the entire buyer experience?Tech buyers will not respond to a “one and done” approach

when considering business investments.

• The average tech purchase process takes just over

two years — how are your partner programs supporting

buyers along the way?

• It can be 5 to 25 times more expensive to acquire a new

customer than to retain an existing one — how are you

nurturing existing customers to become loyal ones?

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The Benefits of Taking the Long View

By encouraging partners to commit to multi-month

outbound marketing programs, channel marketers lay the

groundwork for strategically driven spend on thoughtfully

developed, synchronized marketing programs.


3. Are you willing to make a 6- to 12-month commitment to outbound marketing programs?Shifting a marketing mindset requires willingness to

take the long view. Too often, partners and VARs

concentrate on immediate goals at the expense of

longer-range goals like:

• Who do I need to influence?

• What are my most effective messages?

• How do my goals fit into a cohesive strategy that drives

better quality leads?Integrated partner programs allow more flexibility to nurture buyers via marketing tactics that drive better ROI.

On LinkedIn, for example, we see that when marketers combine lead-gen focused Sponsored InMail with nurture-based Sponsored Content, those InMails perform 128% more effectively.

Did you know?


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Our research shows that, from end users to

decision-makers, 4 out of 5 employees now impact business technology investments.


4. Which key audiences do you find most challenging to reach?Getting your message to the right people

and building relationships with them is

vital to success. But without adapting to

tech buyer expectations, you may not

be engaging all who shape decisions for

new technology investments. Today that

goes well beyond traditional IT roles to

finance, operations, business development,

accounting, purchasing and more.

Additionally, more than half of tomorrow’s technology purchasing committees will be younger than 36, and 34% of entry-level and early-stage career professionals will directly contribute to the decision-making process.

LinkedIn is the only platform where you can target the full breadth of tech buying committee members by title, account, seniority, vertical and other influential factors. Lookalike audiences and interest targeting expand these capabilities further.

Did you know?


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5. Which products or solutions are top priority today — and which are a future focus?Adopting a long-term perspective means

knowing about emerging products and services,

as well as those currently on the market.

That means:

• Developing a multi-year strategic approach that

paves the way for new products and services,

and for entering new markets.

• A timeline that helps buyers prepare for their own

innovation roadmap.

• Effective VAR + partner branding, positioning you

as an indispensable resource in navigating the

emerging tech journey.

So, ask your VAR if they have good “s-marketing”

practices — are marketing and sales siloed?

Where, when and how does sales come in for the handoff?

The Sales Perspective: Companies with marketing and sales alignment

• generated 208% more revenue from marketing efforts • saw 36% higher customer retention • attained 38% higher sales win rates

Did you know?


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LinkedIn is Here to Help

Deepen Customer ConnectionsLinkedIn’s IT decision-maker audience is large

(63 million strong) and engaged. Our past data shows that 80%

engage with content at least once a week, and they’re

looking to consume straightforward, well-written educational

resources with interesting perspectives relevant to

their business. ✓

A New VAR Mindset The Roadmap 5 Questions for Partners

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Multiple Avenues of EngagementWithin LinkedIn, there are multiple avenues of

engagement. Sponsored Content is popular, but

it must be married to a strategy that embraces

multiple touchpoints. For example, Sponsored

InMail is 128% more effective when the user has

been exposed to content beforehand. If your

partner is merely filling a budget line with cash

to put toward paid content or basic advertising,

challenge them to do more.

LinkedIn is Here to HelpA New VAR Mindset The Roadmap 5 Questions for Partners

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Align Your Campaign to the Sales CycleDoing more requires a longer lens and a plan to

constantly test, adjust and optimize campaigns

to enhance ROI. By utilizing LinkedIn’s concierge

channel marketer support and reporting

capabilities, marketers can deploy A/B testing

by setting up campaigns with different

content, graphics or messaging, and then

evaluate performance.


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Improve ROI Through Better Buyer AlignmentAs marketers move to nurture buyers and create a

multi-touchpoint journey, ROI becomes less

straightforward. Ask pointed questions about

campaign reporting and challenge your partner to

produce more actionable results that delve deeper

and tie those clicks to time on page and average

sales. Then determine if those clicks are from

returning customers or new ones.


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Make Measurement More Meaningful for PartnersThis may require a multi-touch attribution system. Is

your partner there? Are they using LinkedIn tools like

Conversion Tracking, a set of capabilities that allows

marketers to easily measure leads, sign-ups, content

downloads, purchases and other desired actions on

LinkedIn Sponsored Content and Text Ads campaigns?

These metrics will illuminate:

• Conversion count

• Cost per conversion

• Conversion rate

• Return on ad spend

While LinkedIn (and all social media spend)

is only one piece of the puzzle, this is the kind

of data you want across all channels.


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Interested in learning more?

Reach out to your personal LinkedIn expert on IT Channel Marketing,

Jason Carriere


FINAL THOUGHT

The shift to always-on nurture campaigns takes patience. When results are focused on lead quality vs. quantity, you may feel you’ve lost something in the short term. Be patient.

In reality, you’re gaining better and more profitable customers.

the missed var opportunity: building a more effective ...€¦ · building a more effective channel...

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