James Bennie, Senior Director, Customer Success EMEA at impact.com explains the whys and hows of partnership marketing in five steps…

Once upon a time not too long ago, a marketer with a budget could spend it on advertising – maybe traditional, maybe digital – and be reasonably confident that if they did it right, good things would happen.

That’s not where we are now. Trust in advertising has dwindled, worn away by shady practices and intrusive tactics. Digital has grown and grown at the expense of all other channels, but is increasingly costly and under the control of a small handful of huge players. And cookies, meanwhile, are on their way out – generally unlamented, but still leaving a hole that needs to be plugged.

The audiences are still out there, of course, but advertising has lost its way through to them.

Partnerships, though, are potentially the new route to those consumers; and the new path to brand awareness, digital transactions and revenue growth. 

Modern-day partnerships encompass a diverse mix of partner relationships, from discount and incentive affiliates to influencers, content creators, commerce-minded publishers, media houses, aggregators, B2B partners, podcasts, mobile app partners and more. 

It’s a long list, with numerous different strengths and compensation models. But with the right partnership platform, a thriving network – one that selects the right partners for the goals of your business – is within easy reach. Partnership automation streamlines the partnership journey, including technical integration, partnership recruitment, contracting, tracking and reporting, as well as engaging, monitoring, optimising and paying partners.

So how does it work, and why should you do it?

1) Find the trust

Modern consumers, we all know, trust traditional advertising methods less and less. This reduction in trust, combined with consistent cost increases across other digital channels, means that it is more important than ever for businesses to leverage more trustworthy and cost-effective channels.

Where is that trust to be found? It’s all around – in the content consumers return to, in the brands they already use, in the influencers they look to for recommendations. These are the entities that inform buying decisions, in the way advertising used to, and they offer an opportunity for brands.

By identifying the content providers that specific customers and audiences trust, brands can leverage that trust to build awareness, leads and sales. And if they do it right – with respect, with care, with a good eye for the right fit – they have uncovered a new, long-term way to expand their reach and create relationships with new groups of consumers.

2) Never forget – the consumer is in charge

You can see the rise of partnerships as a huge swing of the pendulum towards consumers, after years of bombardment from advertising. “The consumer has not been honoured since the beginning of media,” says impact.com CEO David A. Yovanno. “Advertisers dominated the entire experience and jammed their messages through.”

But now the tables are turned, and consumers are the ones with the power. They control who they trust and how they source information, whether from publishers or favoured brands or influencers on social media. The challenge for incoming brands is to partner with the trusted and earn the right to become recipients of that trust.

3) Understand the value

Is this marketing, or is it commerce? It is both. A recent study from Forrester shows that brands that actively engage in building mature partnership programmes have seen their overall revenue grow by 28%, and they grow twice as fast as companies with less mature programmes. 

These same companies reported that their partnership channels gave them a competitive advantage, and 76% said that partnerships were key to delivering on their revenue goals. During the pandemic, retailers looked to the partnership channel to provide accountability and attributability, zeroing in on partnerships as an ROI safe haven.

4) Find the incentive structure that works for you – and them

Brands have control over what they define as ‘value’ and can commission partners accordingly. Depending on the toolset in place, brands also have flexibility in the way they incentivise partners to drive value. These incentives can range from revenue share, flat fees or hybrid commissions all the way to basket value, SKU, deposit amounts, subscription types, and a partner’s contribution to the consumer journey (first click, last click, last to cart and more).

5) Be patient – you’re growing something great

Partnerships require a strategic approach and a willingness to play the long game. Discovering and recruiting new partners, building partner relationships, setting out contracts, measuring performance, and optimising partnerships – none of these things happen overnight. If they did, they probably wouldn’t work nearly as well. However, with the right tools and technology in place, these processes can be accelerated and executed in a scalable fashion. 

The partnership lifecycle is complex, and whether a business is launching a new program or optimising its existing setup, it’s important to automate manual processes and interactions to enable scalability. Another interesting piece of research by Forrester shows that for companies that have fully invested in partnerships, partnership automation offers 314% ROI with a payback window of less than six months.

And the sooner you start, the sooner maturity will beckon.

Also published in: Performance Marketing World

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