Guiding the IT Buying Journey: Key Strategies for Partner Marketers
At BrightTALK’s event, Reach: Intent. Content. Demand., Michael Latchford, VP of Strategic Alliances & Partner Marketing at TechTarget, hosted a panel discussion on Guiding the IT Buying Journey: Strategies for Partner Marketing. The session featured insights from Laurie Mitchell (VP of Partner & International Marketing at Wasabi), Meaghan Moore (VP of Global Partner Marketing at ServiceNow), and Amy McNew (Director, North America Ecosystems Marketing at Palo Alto Networks). They shared valuable advice for B2B technology partner marketers, offering strategies to engage buyers effectively for joint partner solutions.
Here are four key takeaways to enhance your partner marketing efforts:
1. Help Your Partners Target the Right Audience
Joint solutions, by their nature, are more complex and expensive than single-vendor products. They serve a broader range of needs, meaning the buying committee is larger and includes both technical and business decision-makers. To improve campaign effectiveness, partner marketers must guide their partners on whom to target and provide them with the right content to engage the full buying committee—both from the top-down (executives) and bottom-up (practitioners).
Amy McNew from Palo Alto Networks explains:
“The buying process is becoming more complex, requiring input from multiple stakeholders. We guide our partners to target both C-level executives and practitioners, as both play critical roles in the buying decision. We then provide them with asset recommendations to ensure they reach the right people at the right time.”
Key takeaway: Identify the key decision-makers within the buying committee, understand their unique concerns, and equip your partners with the right messaging for each persona.
2. Provide the Third-Party Validation Buyers Crave
Today’s tech buyers are less influenced by traditional marketing materials like brochures. They want to see proof of value through third-party endorsements, such as analyst reports, peer reviews, or customer case studies. These types of assets help buyers feel confident in their purchasing decisions.
Laurie Mitchell from Wasabi adds:
“Decision-makers want to feel assured they are making the right choice. Customer references, third-party validations, and analyst reports are crucial in helping buyers feel confident about their decision.”
Key takeaway: Build a comprehensive content library that includes a mix of thought leadership assets (e.g., webinars and e-books) and later-stage content, such as third-party validations, customer case studies, and technical assessments.
3. Balance Scale with Flexibility in Campaigns
Partners vary in their marketing maturity. Some have robust teams and resources, while others may lack the expertise to run effective campaigns. To create scalable, successful programs for all partners, it’s important to offer customizable, self-service campaign tools. This way, partners with limited resources can still execute high-impact campaigns tailored to their needs.
Meaghan Moore from ServiceNow advises:
“Start with thought leadership and awareness programs at the top of the funnel, and offer a variety of campaigns for different stages and budget levels. It’s crucial to give partners flexible, self-service tools that they can personalize to their needs.”
Key takeaway: Provide simple, customizable campaign packages for less mature partners, enabling them to run effective programs without requiring significant marketing resources.
4. Guide Partners on Effective Follow-Up
One of the biggest challenges for partner marketers is ensuring that leads don’t stall at the top of the funnel. Many partners, especially those with fewer resources, may lack the infrastructure or expertise to nurture leads effectively. To address this, partner marketers must provide clear, step-by-step guidance to help partners engage and convert leads throughout the buyer’s journey.
Amy McNew from Palo Alto Networks highlights:
“When running a content marketing campaign, it’s not enough to just generate leads. Partners need guidance on how to engage those leads. We provide a structured journey for our partners, outlining how to start conversations, which personas to target first, and what content to share at each stage of the funnel.”
Key takeaway: Don’t just focus on lead generation—ensure partners have the tools and strategies needed to follow up effectively and move leads through the pipeline.
How Marketing Vogue Can Help
Whether you’re going to market with, through, or to partners, Marketing Vogue’s dedicated Partner Marketing Services team can help you refine your messaging, create compelling content, and generate leads that convert into pipeline. Contact us to explore how we can support your partner marketing efforts and drive better results.
