Through-Channel Marketing vs. Through-Channel Marketing Automation: What's the Difference?

What is Through-Channel Marketing?

Through-channel marketing, which is also known as indirect marketing, is a B2B marketing strategy used by vendors to sell their products through resellers rather than directly to consumers. While there are advantages to this marketing structure, there are also some disadvantages that affect both the vendor and the reseller. One of the primary drawbacks is the need for alignment in sales and marketing efforts between the two parties to drive revenue and provide customers with an excellent experience. Despite having different goals and strategies, both the vendor and the reseller must consistently work together to ensure success. This alignment can be challenging to achieve, as Forrester's B2B Benchmark Metrics Data shows that only 23% of channel marketers have tight alignment with field/regional teams.

In this article, we will explore the differences between through-channel marketing (TCM) and through-channel marketing automation (TCMA), and why it is important to combine the two strategies for optimal channel marketing success.

What is TCMA and How is it Different From TCM?

Through-channel marketing (TCM) is a strategy that involves using channel partners to reach customers, while through-channel marketing automation (TCMA) is a technology-driven approach that uses automation tools to streamline the process. Although TCMA can save time and money, and provide detailed insights into customer behavior, it does not address all the complexities and nuances of most distribution channels.

Marketing and Sales Enablement

For example, in B2B brands with multiple SMB resellers, these resellers often have limited resources and budget for marketing. They depend on their vendors for marketing and sales enablement. TCM best practices, such as marketing and sales enablement, are essential compared to TCMA's ability to help:

TCMA offers several features that can help streamline channel marketing efforts, including:

• Creating targeted lists of resellers to receive sales enablement content quickly and easily.
• Scheduling automated emails and tracking their performance, allowing vendors to optimize and improve their communication strategy with resellers.
• Triggering automatic sales enablement emails based on specific engagement events, such as filling out a form or clicking a button, to help guide resellers through the sales process.
• Creating training email templates that can be saved and reused as needed, making it easier to provide consistent and effective training to resellers.
• Sending surveys to resellers to gather feedback on their current product knowledge and identify areas for improvement. This feedback can be used to develop more targeted and effective training materials and sales enablement content.

While TCMA can be a useful tool in executing a through-channel marketing (TCM) strategy, a full TCM strategy is needed to address the complexities and nuances of distribution channels. Here are a few examples of why a full TCM strategy is necessary:

• Working with subject matter experts or product specialists to create detailed and accurate sales enablement content that resonates with target audiences and helps drive sales.
• Creating sales enablement assets in a variety of content formats and media channels to meet the needs of different resellers and target audiences. This may include creating content in pdfs, infographics, ebooks, specs, and other formats that can be distributed through email, learning management systems, and other channels.
• Motivating resellers to complete training by providing channel incentives, such as rewards or special offers, that help drive engagement and improve overall sales performance.
• Using the results of training efforts to create better, data-driven training content and initiatives for the future. By analyzing training outcomes and identifying areas for improvement, vendors can continually refine their training materials and initiatives to better support resellers and drive sales.

Although TCMA can be useful for sending fast, automated emails and providing insight into resellers' sentiment toward training and products/services, it's important to note that email click/open rates are becoming increasingly inaccurate and unhelpful as an engagement metric. Cybersecurity systems can perform email "clicks" and "opens" on behalf of the user, resulting in false positives.

While TCMA can lead the horse to water, it can't make it drink. Automated emails alone may not be enough to motivate resellers to participate in training, and they can't provide insight into the effectiveness of that training. To truly understand the impact of training efforts, vendors need a content or learning management system that tracks resellers' engagement with training materials and assesses their performance on tests and certifications.

Personalization

Ultimately, the best way to address the needs of channel sales enablement is through a combination of channel marketing technology, accessible performance data, and human interpretation of that data. TCMA alone cannot provide a comprehensive solution to these challenges.Personalization is a key aspect of through-channel marketing that involves using data-driven insights to tailor content and experiences to different customer or channel partner segments. This can include several tactics, such as:

• Segmentation, which involves dividing channel partners into groups based on shared characteristics to better understand their needs and tailor messaging to them.
• Dynamic content creation, which tailors content to different customer segments using customer data to create more personalized and engaging campaigns.
• Personalized offers, which are exclusive to specific customer segments and leverage customer data to create targeted and relevant offers.

However, all of these tactics rely on customer data, which is crucial to successful personalization efforts. When it comes to personalization, there are both demands that TCM places on vendors and capabilities that TCMA can provide.

Through-channel marketing automation (TCMA) offers several features that can help personalize marketing efforts, including:

• Using email tokens and dynamic content to tailor messaging to individual resellers by swapping out content placeholders with their names, companies, and other relevant details.
• Creating surveys and forms for resellers to complete to gather valuable sales and customer data. Automated email campaigns can help drive resellers to these forms and surveys.
• Adding unique and/or custom fields to online surveys and forms to collect more specific and relevant data.
• Analyzing resellers' response and engagement rates to determine the success of personalized campaigns and offers, and using this information to refine future marketing efforts.

While TCMA can help with personalization efforts, it's important to note that it's just one part of a larger TCM strategy that should also include the collection and analysis of customer data. By using customer data to personalize marketing efforts, vendors can create more relevant and engaging experiences for their channel partners and drive more sales.

While TCMA can help with personalization efforts, a full through-channel marketing (TCM) strategy is necessary to fully leverage customer data and develop successful personalization campaigns. Here are a few examples of why a full TCM strategy is essential:

• Compiling data on purchase history, geographic location, company size, industry, product demand, and other factors can help vendors develop more personalized campaigns and offers that resonate with different reseller segments.
• Gathering specific contact and firmographic data about resellers is essential for properly segmenting them for personalization campaigns and strategies. This allows vendors to deliver the right messages to the right partners and drive engagement.
• Collecting unique data about resellers that sets them apart from competitors can help vendors stand out and provide a more personalized experience that resonates with channel partners.
• Assessing the performance of personalized campaigns and offers is crucial to keeping track of the changing interests and needs of different reseller segments. By analyzing performance data, vendors can refine their personalization strategies and continually improve their marketing efforts.

While through-channel marketing automation (TCMA) can help collect customer data quickly, it may not always provide the right data or motivate channel partners to submit that data. To effectively gather customer data, vendors need a combination of engaging content, incentives, timing, and assurance that submitting data is worth the resellers' time.

TCMA also cannot provide insight into specific factors affecting sales, such as local disruptors like political conflict, climate disasters, or economic recessions. It may also not be able to identify resellers who are hesitant to submit sales or customer data without some return benefit. To truly understand and address these challenges, vendors need to build solid relationships and engagement with their customers. This is the core of through-channel marketing (TCM), while TCMA is more like a vein that helps carry blood to the heart of the strategy more quickly and efficiently.

Content

Content is a critical component of successful through-channel marketing (TCM). Whether it's blogs, emails, mailers, white papers, or training, the brand that offers the most engaging and accessible content is likely to be the one that resellers and end-buyers gravitate toward. While artificial intelligence (A.I.) content-writing is advancing rapidly, it's not yet fully integrated with TCMA platforms and may not be capable of providing unique and stand-out insights.

However, creating engaging content is only half the battle. According to Marisa Kopec , 60-70% of content produced by B2B marketing organizations goes unused due to a lack of buyer insights.

While TCMA can help with content distribution and analytics, a full TCM strategy is necessary to create and deliver content that resonates with channel partners and end-buyers. This includes identifying buyer insights, conducting market research, and tailoring content to specific customer segments. By combining engaging content with buyer insights and personalization, vendors can create a comprehensive content strategy that drives engagement and sales.

Through-channel marketing automation (TCMA) offers several features that can help with content distribution and engagement, including:

• Sending automated and scheduled emails to pre-made lists of resellers, making it easier to reach a wider audience with targeted messaging.
• Adding saved, pre-made assets such as images and content snippets to email templates, streamlining the content creation process and ensuring consistency across messaging.
• Gauging email open and click rates to get an idea of resellers' and customers' interest in specific products and services, allowing vendors to refine their messaging and better understand their audience.
• Syndicating and re-sending previously written thought leadership and news pieces, ensuring that valuable content reaches the maximum number of resellers and end-buyers.

While these features can help with content distribution, TCMA alone may not provide the level of personalization and unique insights necessary to create engaging content that resonates with channel partners and end-buyers.

However, a full through-channel marketing (TCM) strategy is necessary to develop unique, engaging content that resonates with channel partners and end-buyers. Here are a few examples of why a full TCM strategy is essential for effective content creation:

• Developing unique content that's relevant and engaging to resellers and customers requires a deep understanding of their needs, interests, and pain points. This involves conducting market research and using buyer insights to craft content that speaks directly to them.
• Crafting compelling co-marketing content that reinforces your brand and your resellers' brand requires collaboration and alignment between vendors and their channel partners. This can involve joint content creation efforts and a clear understanding of each other's goals and messaging.
• Tracking and analyzing data to inform specific and personalized content for specific segments of your channel involves leveraging customer data to create tailored messaging that speaks directly to their needs.
• Providing thought leadership and industry news, as well as helpful content on product details, is essential for establishing your brand as an authority in your industry and building trust with your channel partners and end-buyers.

By incorporating buyer insights, personalization, and collaboration with channel partners into their content strategy, vendors can create engaging and effective content that drives engagement and sales.

The area where through-channel marketing automation (TCMA) is least helpful to through-channel marketing (TCM) is in content marketing. While automation technology may make it easier and faster to distribute direct and outbound marketing, it cannot create compelling marketing content. The most crucial aspect of content marketing is the development of high-quality, relevant, and easy-to-understand materials that resonate with the target audience. Despite the capabilities of TCMA platforms, the responsibility of creating and managing such content still falls on the shoulders of channel marketers or even resellers.

Scholarly research emphasizes the importance of content quality in effective content marketing strategies. According to a study by the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), creating engaging content is the top priority for B2B marketers. The study found that 72% of B2B marketers prioritize the creation of engaging content, while 55% prioritize creating content that speaks directly to their target audience. Furthermore, research by the Demand Gen Report shows that 96% of B2B buyers prefer content that addresses their pain points and challenges.

While TCMA can help streamline content distribution and provide basic analytics on performance, it cannot replace the importance of creating high-quality, relevant content. Instead, vendors must develop a comprehensive content marketing strategy that includes the development of compelling materials that resonate with their target audience. By combining engaging content with effective distribution and analytics, vendors can create a successful through-channel marketing strategy that drives engagement and sales.

In Conclusion

Through-channel marketing automation is a valuable tool for through-channel marketing that can help vendors automate and streamline email sends, personalize content and offers, and provide basic analytics on performance. However, it is important to recognize that TCMA is just one piece of the larger TCM puzzle. An effective TCM strategy must also include holistic data analysis, performance measurement, and human expertise to create compelling content and develop strong relationships with channel partners and end-buyers.

Research has shown that while TCMA can help with certain aspects of through-channel marketing, it cannot replace the value of human expertise and creativity in developing effective content and building strong relationships. For example, a study by the B2B Marketing Zone found that 56% of B2B marketers believe that the human element is the most important factor in content marketing success. Additionally, a study by Gartner found that human expertise is crucial in analyzing data and making strategic decisions in channel marketing.

To maximize the effectiveness of TCMA technology, vendors must incorporate it into a larger, comprehensive TCM strategy that includes human expertise and performance measurement. By strategically and selectively leveraging TCMA technology alongside expert insights and services, channel marketers can create unique and effective through-channel marketing solutions that drive engagement and sales.