The Art of Content: Highlighting Your Channel Program

Partnership Overview

In December 2019 I set on a journey to produce 52 weeks of content for my LinkedIn network that would highlight Clio’s Channel Partner Program on a weekly basis. 

Being relatively new to the Partnerships world, it was important to evaluate the role I played in the overall sustainability and growth of the program. 

Like many working in partnerships, you tend to wear many hats. As a Partner Account Manager, our primary role is to facilitate new, current, and past relationships amongst consultants within your given industry. At Clio, with a network of 500+ consultants, there was a clear need for scalability in a 1:many way. Many organizations don’t have the luxury of having multiple team members to support the partner ecosystem. For me, I’m fortunate to have colleagues Ashley Duffy and Brittney Lloyd (currently on Mat Leave) who support on Partner Marketing and Operations so that I can keep a laser focus on scaling relationships and facilitating conversations between our partners and our sales organization. 

Channel Functions:

As a small team, it's important to think about your program growth goals. It's a fine balance between getting new partners on board, and engaging your current ecosystem.

You will probably bucket your role into four main categories:

1. On-going partner relationships 
2. Driving revenue to sales through existing partners + new partners
3. Owning retention on partner sold accounts
4. Growing the ecosystem of strategic partners 

How you operate in order to be efficient is key. Bridging the gap between these four functions is no small feat. For me, growing our partner ecosystem organically was a great way to facilitate new and ongoing relationships, 'killing two birds with one stone'. Building a strategy to do that was the most crucial. What I landed on... 52 weeks of branded content, that had the power to scale and inspire– The Rundown!

Building A Content Strategy

For me, it was important to go back to my roots. Creating short clips on LinkedIn doesn’t mean a whole lot if you don’t start with a vision. With my background in Advocate Marketing from my previous role at Influitive, I understood the value of Advocacy and what motivates/drives individuals. Something that always stood out to me, was the importance of giving those you work with a voice and a platform to stand on. 

Tie that back to the value you’re offering for your partners. Remember, most channel programs are built on relationships with small and medium-sized businesses that are looking to be experts in a specific domain in order to help their clients grow.  They lean on larger organizations running those programs to help drive new business to their firms.

When producing ‘The Rundown’ I had three goals in mind:

1. Give our partners a voice. A platform to stand on– a way for them to connect with an audience, grow their networks, and be recognized as leaders. 
2. Connect with partners in a new meaningful way. Whether a partner being featured or a partner viewing the content, connecting the “partner community” was key. Formulating a relationship that is beyond the scope of the role and the ultimate driver of your success– revenue.
3. Growth of the partner ecosystem. By providing others a voice, 52 weeks over, to different people in your network, you begin to build a brand. A brand that exponentially grows to different audiences weekly that ultimately help drive new growth to both your Channel and Business.

Key Takeaways

Build a strategy, a goal, and make it part of your day job, because remember, consultants are part of many partner ecosystems, including your competitors. So what are you going to do to stand out and be different?