Calculate — The Final Stop in the 5 C’s of Successful Channel Marketing Programs

I hope you’ve enjoyed our tour through the 5 C’s of Successful Channel Marketing Programs. So far, we’ve explored Create,  Connect, Communicate and Convert. Those four represent the building blocks of every channel marketing program. Now we come to the fifth C, Calculate. Think of Calculate as the mortar between those building blocks — it holds our marketing programs together, giving them strength, substance, and longevity. Enough with the building analogies — what do we mean when we talk about Calculate, and what makes it an integral part of the 5 C’s of any successful channel marketing program?

Track and Measure

In the 5 C’s, Calculate refers to your ability to track and measure performance at every point of interaction (POI). We’re talking data analytics, reporting and dashboards here. For channel marketers, those POIs are two-fold, consisting of your interactions with your channel partners and your partners’ interactions with prospects and end users.

Below are a few of the metrics channel marketers can and should be paying attention to.

Partner portal success — measured in terms of how many partners log in and how much content they download, cobrand and syndicate.

Campaign success —  measured in terms of how many partners leveraged elements of the campaign and how effective the campaign was in driving new leads and opportunities.

Personalization success — measured by partner engagement in multiple languages and content translations into additional languages.

Content success — measured by which assets are used most and which generate the most engagement.

Partner engagement — measured by how often a partner interacts with your platform and how many campaigns they launch or how much content they syndicate.

Partner scoring success — measuring each partners’ lead and opportunity producing metrics to identify the winners and also those partners that might benefit from additional support.

Levels of success — Evaluating performance at multiple levels, including reseller, vendor, distribution partners, vendor regions and global.

The Right Tools

You can’t monitor what you can’t measure, and you can’t measure without the right measurement tools (I know, another building analogy). Performance metrics and traceability are critical elements in every channel marketing strategy. With comprehensive reporting and real-time analytics, Brands can calculate performance at each POI throughout their channel, supporting strategic decision making and driving a strong ROI. This type of insight would be impossible to obtain with technology built for the task.

Through-channel marketing automation (TCMA) platforms provide comprehensive performance data surrounding your partners’ interactions with your enablement tools, and insight into how successful partners are at putting those tools to work generating new revenue. The StructuredWeb platform fully supports the 5 C’s framework with smart solutions and innovative technology at each critical stage of channel marketing. Thank you for joining us through the tour of the 5 C’s and we invite you to learn more by requesting a free demo.