The key to effective partnership management lies within your team

This year marks a period of significant growth in affiliate and influencer marketing, with both brands and creators looking to grow their share of the creator economy. Recent impact.com research reveals that 76% of brands plan to increase their influencer marketing programmes in 2024, while 86% of creators want to work with more brands. 

To move the conversation forward, iPX London is back and bigger than ever this July, packed full of keynotes, panels and networking opportunities for partnership economy players - not to mention the iconic happy hour and after-party. 

This year, I’m looking forward to moderating a panel called Collaborate to elevate: Breaking down internal silos and fostering holistic partnership success. In this session, I’ll be talking to performance marketing specialists Maria Milenkova from Bitpanda, Lydia Perrin from B&Q, and Glosinda Goes from Skyscanner, about the key challenges and opportunities facing affiliate, influencer, and other marketing teams today. 

Achieving long-term partnership success relies on breaking down those all too prevalent silos that prevent business teams working in unison - and 31% of organisations still admit siloed mindsets and behaviours present a challenge for navigating digital transformation. 

On our panel, we’ll explore practical measures to break through departmental barriers and build collaboration to reach a shared objective. This includes tactics to help teams go beyond the limits of traditional partnerships, make collaboration seamless and, crucially, garner support from stakeholders.

It is worth giving a preview here of the way we look at such challenges.

Breaking down silos for more efficient partnership marketing 

Currently, partnership management teams weave such a complex web across a vast sea of stakeholder touchpoints - from data analytics and tracking, through finance and legal, to multiple marketing teams, each with their own creative assets and guidelines - that it is no surprise they’re susceptible to silos. 

Therefore, instilling a culture of collaboration from the outset - in which teams can be mindful not to overlap in their operations and raise concerns about the potential for disrupting other channels - is crucial. Merging affiliate and influencer marketing channels has also been shown to help drive operational efficiency. This, in turn, helps to expand reach and bolster credibility, which ultimately leads to increased conversions. 

Learn to spot the silo

It can also be hard to know when and where silos are forming, so it’s important to be aware of the signs. For instance, are you finding things out after the fact? Are seemingly straightforward tasks taking too long? Are you constantly facing unexpected hiccups that take time out of your day to solve? If so, it might be time to reevaluate your partnership management workflows, and take steps to foster collaboration, including regular calls with contributing teams. Don’t be afraid to give deadlines - or even SLAs - so each team knows what is expected and when. 

It’s important to stress that the person leading the conversation doesn’t necessarily need to be in a senior position. Choose a project leader who isn’t afraid to roll their sleeves up and apply their skills, but also listen to fresh perspectives. 

Agree on meaningful metrics 

With so many teams involved in the partnership management cycle, it’s understandable they will have their own ideas about the kinds of metrics with which to measure success. However, being aligned on objectives and targets is the single most important consideration when it comes to affiliate and influencer marketing. 

Start with agreeing on one common business objective, before breaking it down and establishing which team will contribute what. Then agree on the core affiliate marketing metrics you want to measure - whether that is clicks, conversions, commissions, credited revenues, attributed revenues, conversion rates or average order value.

With partnership marketing teams aligned on both strategy and KPIs, it’s all to play for in 2024. The future of affiliate and influencing marketing looks bright, and here at impact.com we can’t wait to share in the hottest industry discussions at iPX - hope to see you there.

Also published in: Martech Record