A Marketer's’ First Measure of Success

“People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care”
― Theodore Roosevelt

Customer Satisfaction. It is now, and should always have been the marketers’ first measure of success, as it is the most important principle of marketing a business successfully.

Marketing has now entered the "age of the customer", where customers have more information, choices, and power than ever before. The “customer experience”, the culmination of all brand and customer interactions, now matters more than
anything.
When customers interact with a brand, they expect consistency. They expect their interactions across any channel to be the same. This demonstrates to them that the company that they are dealing with really knows and understands them. They develop a "connection" and loyalty to that company.

Marketing teams have shifted their mindset and tactics from marketing at customers, to focusing on creating a cohesive customer journey, from beginning to end. If we truly put customers at the center of our thinking, we connect the heart of the business to the heart of the consumer, and that is the connection that is resilient and hard to break . It is the connection marketers and customers pursue.

image courtesy of http://www.foresee.com

In 2016, as Digital Media is declared "the King", the "customer experience" is considered the crown jewel of marketing, and both are now shaping the pace for the profession. Predictive intelligence tools such as Salesforce are making it easier for marketers to track customer behavior and use insights to create highly personalized interactions. By collecting customer data in real time, these marketers apply what they know about individuals to tailor the customer experience.

To ensure success in the future, companies must redirect all tactics, both internal
and external towards customer satisfaction. They should implement corporate wide regulations in all units and departments to align in the same vision, creating the ultimate customer experience.

*Data derived from State of Marketing Report, 2016, Trends and insights from nearly 4,000
marketing leaders worldwide

The Challenges of Partnering for Excellence

credit:http://leanentrepreneur.co

If you want to make the most out of your business, and of course that you do, besides offering quality products or services, you also need to have channel marketing, a useful and challenging addition to a company's marketing mix.
If done right, it brings great value to your business - both in terms of larger market coverage as well as revenues.

As Channel Marketing Manager, I have witnessed that building a valuable partnership over the years with channel partners, created opportunities that turned into sales. The secret sauce of channel partner success is twofold. At one hand, by understanding your customers and their needs. At the other hand, by connecting to and cooperating with your channel partners.

Customers' needs should be identified and the added value and demand for their products and services must be promoted. One very efficient way of doing so is by having a dedicated channel marketing manager who acts as the facilitator between you and your customers.
This strategy is being embraced by more and more companies nowadays that want to understand the added value and importance of channel marketing.

It’s not easy to handle the main challenge of building trust and keeping the channel partners motivated and interested.

That’s why companies support their channels partners with a newsletter to keep them abreast of the latest developments and hold webinars to enhance their knowledge in an easy and convenient way.

When focusing on developing the knowledge of your channel partners through easy access to a Resource Center, a Channel Portal and online sales training, it empowers them to identify potential customers, generate awareness of solutions and keep them interested in selling your offerings through incentive plans such as Channel Partner Programs.

By keeping them motivated and showing them the benefits of partnering with you, the company will get a competitive advantage.

More than anything, you must prepare a solid strategy before taking action and channel marketing will prove to be quite a significant aid to your business.

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Want to learn more about Channel Marketing? Contact me for more information.