CMOs, Master Your Partnerships in 2022

But ultimately, in a hopefully soon-to-be-kaput covid era, Forrester’s predictions still ring true: Strong CMOs owned their company’s regrowth after 2020 and your biggest responsibility in 2022 continues to be delivering on overall revenue growth. Part of this regrowth involves tossing irrelevant practices and erroneous beliefs and building new plans. Yet despite your best efforts, most CMOs still struggle with something amiss. Our experience tells us that this missing piece lies in optimising the partnership channel. 

Yet, in the many complexities that take root in the contemporary ecommerce landscape, even the most seasoned CMOs who are just dabbling in the partnership channel, have questions. 

• How can I prevent partnerships from competing with my other marketing channels?

• How can I leverage partnership beyond just being a channel that closes?

• How can I control messaging and allow for more relevant content on the most influential sites?

• How can I leverage partnership when I don’t have dedicated resources for other marketing efforts?

• Does partnership add new customers or enhance the experience of my existing customer base?

• How do I even measure success in the partnership channel to determine if it’s worth the work?

 

To put these questions into relative context, it’s necessary to understand the current state of an unrelenting and complex ecommerce landscape where the dynamics of marketing are undeniably different than they were even just a few years ago. Today, control of the purchase journey has ceded from marketer to consumer, increasing pressure for omnipresence within the buyer journey. We’ve been saying this for years now: Gaining operating leverage is the only way to win in this landscape, and partnerships are your only viable weapon to achieve the omnipresence necessary to accomplish this. 

The marketers who are winning here are masters at turning their partnerships into a profit centre. They understand well that the partnership channel can support growth and help put profitability and ROI at the centre of their marketing strategy. The channel effectively enables these winning CMOs to subsidise the high cost of their primary sales and marketing channels, alleviate pressure on unit economics and gain operating leverage through scale and automation on a pay-for-outcome model. This is how you turn your partnerships into profit centres.

So What is the Partnership Opportunity All About?

With flexibility to find, recruit and optimise diverse, right-fit partnerships, the partnership channel makes omnipresence possible for marketers at a cost they can control. For example, did you know the broader partnership channel, affiliate in particular, accounts for 16 percent of all global ecommerce sales? It’s true. Perhaps this can be partly attributed to the fact that there is no other digital channel quite like it. Partnerships offer a wide publisher reach and distribution making it easier than ever to build profitable partnerships that help supply efficient ROI and ROAS. Compared to other digital channels, partnerships are outcome-based and primarily measured by CPA, as opposed to CPC. And since partnerships are all about creating connections and building on these mutually profitable relationships, there is a strong desire for publishers and influencers to protect brand integrity. 

Clarifying Complexities

Despite this, partnerships remain a somewhat misunderstood channel. Partnerize seeks to champion the partnership channel and clarify the complexities that hamstring you from becoming a partnership master. We know marketers deserve the best from their partnerships in a brand-safe, high-engagement environment. The partnership channel can confidently take its seat at the CMO’s table delivering on trust, transparency and ROI value—hallmarks of every effective marketing strategy. 

Becoming a Master of Your Partnerships

Turning your partnership channel into a profit centre requires that you have the software, education, and service practice that enable you to deliver on your brand and your performance marketing objectives—all while driving profitable growth via automation and data analytics. We can help.

Want to learn more about becoming a partnerships master? Reach out to us here or explore our resources here.

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