Measuring the performance of your partner marketing initiatives helps you understand where the gaps lie in your partner marketing process so you can fix them. For example, learning that a particular joint-marketing webinar didn’t meet the targeted number of sign-ups or a certain email marketing campaign didn’t get the desired open rates, could mean that there’s a problem with the content or the lead list used in the campaign. The point is, you can’t fix what you can’t measure. Successful companies set clear, measurable, achievable, yet challenging goals for their partner marketing teams and then consistently monitor their performance to identify the gaps and fix them. Another advantage of consistent monitoring and measuring is that course correction and guidance for improvement don’t have to wait until the year-end. It also helps understand what really works and establish a set of best practices for the partner marketing team to follow in the future. Let’s take a look at the KPIs that your partner marketing software should track. The term, KPI, refers to key performance indicators, i.e. important metrics or factors that help us measure and understand the effectiveness of the process being tracked.
Some partner marketing KPIs that should be measured by your partner marketing software are –
Your partner marketing software should measure the following partner engagement metrics
Partner engagement is one of the most important indicators of partner marketing performance. The following metrics may be used to measure partner engagement levels.
Partner portal adoption
Partner portal adoption by channel partners reflects their interest in the company’s brand. The number of partner portal logins by partners is a great indicator of their engagement level with the company. So, how does this tie back to partner marketing? Well, the partner portal houses various partner marketing elements such as co-branded assets, latest training materials, MDF management mechanisms, etc, and the partners have to log into the portal to access them. Hence partner portal adoption trend can provide insight into how effective partner marketing is in terms of keeping the partners engaged.
Asset usage
Another partner marketing KPI is asset usage. Answer questions like-
- Are the channel partners using the marketing materials created by the partner marketing team?
- How often?
- Are those effective?
- What are the click-through/open rates on them?
If channel partners are consistently accessing and using the marketing assets created by partner marketers, it means they truly add value to the channel marketing and sales process.
Partner certification
Getting partners trained and certified is a partner marketing function in some ways. Partner marketers are the ones designing the content for training and certification because they know the product or service the best. Plus, they are the ones who will be working with the channel partners to promote the company’s products and services. The higher the number of partners getting certified, the more effective the partner marketing process has been in helping partners understand the product/service they are going to sell.
LMS Usage
Along the same lines as partner certification, comes LMS usage. LMS refers to a learning management system. Most companies deploy LMS to train and educate their channel partners about the company’s brand, vision, products, and services. As with certification, a lot of the materials for the learning and development courses are generated by marketing, which makes the LMS usage a relevant KPI for measuring partner marketing effectiveness.
Content download
This is pretty straightforward. Partner marketing is in charge of creating all the marketing materials that the channel partners may need when selling the company’s products and services. The assets created by partner marketing are usually shared with the channel partners via the partner portal. Channel partners have to log into the partner portal and download the assets for their use. More channel partners downloading the content generated by partner marketing consistently suggests that the content created and shared by partner marketing is effective and useful.
Event attendance & Joint marketing activities
Event attendance and participation in joint marketing activities by partners is a great indicator of partner engagement and consequently partner marketing effectiveness. Engaged partners are eager to share the stage with the company and look forward to participating in industry events and engaging in joint marketing activities such as joint webinars, podcasts, or even email marketing campaigns with the company.
MDF usage
Engaged partners leverage the company’s brand, expertise, knowledge, and any other resources provided to them to sell the company’s products and services. MDF or Market Development Funds is one such resource. MDF refers to the funds allocated by the company to its channel partners to market its products and services. Usually, channel partners have to submit a plan for utilization of MDF and get it approved by the partner marketing team of the vendor organization. Upon approval, the funds are released to the channel partners for their use as per the plan. Engaged channel partners actively seek to use the MDF to market and sell better.
Partner satisfaction
As discussed before, partner marketing is the bridge between channel partners and the company. Since partner marketing interacts with the channel ecosystem closely, partner satisfaction is a great indicator of partner marketing performance. Channel partners depend on the partner marketing team for support at every stage of the sales cycle–right from generating leads to closing them. Hence, asking your channel partners about their satisfaction levels with the partner marketing team and process, in general, can help gauge partner marketing performance.
Your partner marketing software should measure channel marketing campaign ROIs
Apart from partner engagement, another set of metrics that can be used to measure the effectiveness of partner marketing function is the ROI on channel marketing campaigns. While partner engagement metrics tie to the performance of channel marketing function indirectly, channel marketing campaign ROIs are more direct. The KPIs on this front include-
Lead inflow
This is a pretty straightforward KPI. It measures the leads that were generated as a result of various partner marketing activities. These include email, social, print campaigns, joint webinars, podcasts and even tradeshows and events. Higher the number of leads, better the campaign performance and ROI.
Lead closure or conversion ratio
Lead closure or conversion ratio looks at the number of leads that were closed, i.e, converted into customers after a successful sale, vis-a-vis the total number of leads that were generated. For example, let’s say a joint webinar had 100 signups of which 70 people ended up buying the company’s product. This means 100 was the lead inflow and 70% is the lead closure or conversion rate for the webinar.
Revenue
The revenue generated as a result of partner marketing campaigns is also a solid KPI that can be used to measure partner marketing effectiveness. Apart from overall revenue, a consistent increase in deal sizes is also a positive indicator of partner marketing effectiveness.
Your partner marketing software should be able to measure channel growth rates
Channel growth rates are also reflective of partner marketing performance. Some channel growth metrics to consider when measuring partner marketing performance include the number of partners, deal registrations, and partner retention rates. A consistent increase in these metrics is an indicator that partner marketing is doing a great job in helping channel partners sell effectively.
Ultimately, the question to ask when measuring these partner marketing metrics is, “Are these partner marketing initiatives helping the company’s channel partners grow as a result of being associated with the brand?”. When your partner marketing software and strategies are effective, it naturally results in a strong channel network and promotes quick channel growth while also helping channel partners generate revenue by selling the company’s products and services.
