Build a Better Co-op Program - 7 Steps Channel Marketers Should Consider

For brands executing local marketing, money talks. Offering marketing funds to your channel partners is a fundamental element to getting the word out about your brand’s products & services. However, building and optimizing a channel marketing program across regions, verticals, and sometimes continents is no easy task. As you reflect on how you can help your channel partners drive awareness and sales, ask yourself these important questions.

1. Do I Have the Time to Manage Co-op Advertising? 

It can be hard to get out of the weeds and focus on the strategy necessary for growth. Be careful not to take on more than you can handle. This can seem obvious, but many channel marketers try to tackle everything at once. Unfortunately, this approach can create confusion and chaos for your partners. 

If you’re confident in your current marketing, don’t be afraid to ask for help in the form of marketing dollars or resources in order to execute an effective co-op program. On the other hand, if you’re not so confident, consider scaling back your efforts to focus on specific regions, product lines, or even marketing tactics where you see the most opportunity.

2. Are My Co-op and MDF Guidelines Clearly Defined?

Complicated guidelines will quickly deter your channel partners from portraying your brand correctly, if at all. Your guidelines, at minimum, should include:

• Eligibility of products and/or brands
• Expectations and deadlines for claim (reimbursement request) submissions
• Eligibility of media types and marketing tactics
• Reimbursement percentages and timelines, including earned dollars and insufficient funds
• Pre-approval and compliance recommendations
• Proof-of-performance documentation and advertising requirements
• Approved vendors for marketing execution (e.g. print vendors, digital agencies, etc.)
• How to request additional funds
• Support contact information

3. Is My Channel Marketing Program Easy to Use?

This question isn’t whether or not you find the program easy to use but if your channel partners find it easy. Think about the following from their perspective:

Are you offering a unified co-op platform? Eliminate confusion by keeping the technology simple. Don’t send your partners to multiple sites and vendors in order to produce one marketing tactic or campaign. By offering a one-stop-shop, you’re empowering your partners with the ease to manage co-op funds independently and within your guidelines. (As reference, check out how BrandMuscle streamlines the process by offering an Integrated Local Marketing Platform)

Do you have co-op marketing guidelines that are easy to find? Not having program guidelines is like assembling a piece of IKEA furniture without instructions. Channel partners need (and want!) guidance and instructions in order to conduct marketing on your behalf. Having your guidelines in an easy to find location, typically alongside marketing collateral, will increase engagement and minimize denials. 

Are you providing excellent customer service? This service should act as an extension of your marketing team. Your channel partners should know where to go to receive strategic direction, ongoing training, and professional guidance. By providing value through great customer service, you’re ensuring your channel partners are generating the greatest return on your co-op investment because they will be satisfied and actively engaged in marketing your brand. 

Are you reimbursing your partners quickly? There’s nothing worse than submitting an expense report for flights and hotels and your boss taking forever to approve it. Your channel partners feel the same way when they have spent money out of their pocket to advertise your brand, but you aren’t reimbursing them in a timely fashion. The faster you reimburse them, the faster they market your brand more. 

4. Am I Selling My Channel Marketing? 

If you want co-op and MDF funds to be spent on local marketing, the process needs to be easier and more beneficial to local, channel partners – a process that usually starts by opening the lines of communication.

Partners need to be informed of your co-op program. How are you getting their attention? Your co-op participants are often busy managing their entire business and depend on you for reminders and support. This communication needs to be ingrained in your email newsletters, conversations with your marketing team and channel partners, and alerts through your Through-Channel Marketing Automation (TCMA) platform. Continuously offer training to educate your partners, and don’t forget to make it exciting by including incentives to invest in the tactics you know drive the highest ROI.

5. Is My Channel Marketing Program Driving Campaign Co-op Funds Utilization Across Tactics?

To ensure you’re developing an effective channel marketing program, it’s important to consider the tactics that are most valuable and most utilized by your channel partners. Our State of Local Marketing research found that channel partners’ top marketing priorities are using Social Media Advertising, Website/Landing Pages, Events, Email, and Direct Mail/Flyers. Now that we have the data to be more strategic in targeting buyers at the right time, it’s important that you incentivize your partners to think bigger and beyond simply “one-and-done” tactical execution. Offering your partners access to turnkey, integrated campaigns and co-op dollars to support the effort is a great way to incentivize participation and boost ROI.

6. Does My Co-op Program Provide Channel Partners the Right Tools and Support to Easily Market My Brand?

Many co-op and MDF programs are still being managed with spreadsheets (no kidding - tons of them are), phone calls, and faxes. If your channel partners are calling your marketing team to find out what their available co-op or MDF balances are, odds are you have a significant number of partners who aren’t advertising your brand locally or using your program at all because they don’t know how much they can spend.

A Through-Channel Marketing Automation solution can change the game for marketers and their channel partners. The best TCMA solutions provide corporate marketers and their channel partners with a one-stop-shop for co-branding marketing collateral, managing co-op and MDF programs, digital asset management (DAM), events, digital and traditional marketing execution, ordering print, signage, and promotional items, etc. All of these capabilities can be seamlessly integrated into a TCMA platform, giving your channel partners a single tool to use for all of their co-op marketing activity. When you make it easy for your partners to use your marketing assets it increases program engagement and partner satisfaction.

7. Is Reporting Defined and Measurable?

There are two types of reporting that will help you monitor and optimize ROI. The insights you offer your channel partners should be meaningful to them, and reflect the core objectives of your full channel marketing program:

1.) Information and insights that are most meaningful to your channel partners:

• Used and unused co-op fund balances
• Claim status updates
• Co-op fund expiration dates
• Partner scorecard ranking their utilization across all partners
• Recommendations to improve their marketing and sales

2.) Program reporting that enables you to be more strategic by providing insight into funds utilization and risks:

• Total claims by tactic and/or campaign
• Total cost by tactic and/or campaign
• Total requested amount by tactic and/or campaign
• Top partners by highest total cost, requested amounts, and paid amounts
• YoY Funds Utilization

By defining these types of KPIs early on, you will gain incredible insights into how channel partners are engaging with your program and what is having the most positive impact (on their business and yours). The insights found by asking these co-op marketing questions will be key to evolving your program over time and ensuring that the co-op and MDF funds you are making available to channel partners generating the best results.

Ready to build a better marketing fund management program?

Contact the BrandMuscle team to learn about our fund management software and personalized marketing services.

Questions around how BrandMuscle helps clients manage and evolve their Marketing Funds programs? Give me a shout at [email protected]. 

James Morse bridges the gap between business requirements and technical capabilities for both BrandMuscle clients and prospects in his role as Senior Director of Solutions Consulting. He has more than 10 years of experience in distributed marketing, project management, new client implementations, & co-op marketing for Fortune 500 brands. With a deep understanding of BrandMuscle’s software and services, James has successfully led large client on-boardings working directly with client stakeholders to truly understand their business objectives from start to finish.

This article was originally posted on brandmuscle.com in two posts: Part 1 & Part 2

BrandMuscle helps brands scale their local channel marketing, spend more efficiently, and ensure brand compliance.