Nearbound Daily #567: How Partner Pros Can Help Marketing Close the Content Gap
Beam Content just put out a report on content marketing that’s their reflection from conversations with over 400+ GTM professionals. I’m going to lay out some of their best findings, and how you can action them as a partner pro.
Welcome to the Nearbound Daily Newsletter—the #1 partnerships newsletter in the world keeping thousands of partner professionals on top of the latest industry principles, tactics, and trends. nearbound.com is a project of Reveal. Join the movement here.
PRINCIPLES
Sell the vision with wins
To get someone excited, you have to share the vision. To keep someone excited, you have to facilitate wins.
Everyone’s focused on their day-to-day. They’re not going to think about nearbound unless you’re right there making it easy.
This means two things:
- You need to get good at finding champions and facilitating wins
- You need to get really good at selling the vision of nearbound through these champions’ success
The only people who will follow you to the promised land are those who believe it’s more than just talk. Help them believe.
Read how Johan Jansson (Partner Manager at Oneflow) does this inside of his company.
TACTICS
Closing the content gap: 400+ GTM professionals weigh in
Content marketers are not order takers.
They’re strategic partners.
They’re storytellers and interpreters and deep thinkers who make their customers and audience the stars of the show.
Beam Content just put out a report on content marketing that’s their reflection from conversations with over 400+ GTM professionals.
I’m going to lay out some of their best findings, and how you can action them as a partner pro.
#1 Un-silo your content marketing
Content marketing is siloed. Companies put content on their blog, podcast feed, and more, but often companies treat content like a broadcast.
Customers are not looking for you; they’re looking for solutions.
So you have to make it easy for them. Instead of siloed value, create expert content, driven across channels.
Read this quote from Tara Palwak (Senior VP of Marketing Revenue at Grid).
As she puts it, content marketing is about declaring your company’s point of view on something in your industry and market.
To do that, you have to be connected to the industry and market. You can’t have a relevant point of view in isolation.
Takeaways for partner pros:
- Set up your cadences and rituals with Marketing. Learn how to do that here.
- Connect marketing with the trends, stories, and people in your customers’ ecosystem.
#2 Get partners involved in your content
Most GTM professionals recognize the importance of adding more voices into content.
But here’s where partner pros have a standpoint to bring to marketers:
Partnering internally with your GTM teams to add more voices to your content is valuable, but you also need to find the people who have already built trust with your audience and partner with them.
Takeaways for partner pros:
- Challenge Marketers to find and participate in your buyers’ watering holes.
- Help them to establish relationships in those watering holes with key thought leaders. Teach them the essentials of partnering.
#3 Get your list of content marketing topics from your partners and customers
Your customers and partners will tell you what the best topics are for you to write on.
Here are a few questions to ask yourself:
- What is your GTM team saying?
- What are your customers saying?
- What are your partners saying?
- Which topics are most relevant in-market?
Great content isn’t created to check a box. It solves problems and contributes to the conversation.
Read the full ungated report here.
FROM THE ECOSYSTEM
Hot take on partner recruitment
You don’t need to know your IPP before you start recruiting.
Cory Snyder (Head of Partnerships at Teamwork) is doing an event with PartnerStack tomorrow on partner recruitment, so I asked him,
What’s your hottest take on partner recruitment?
This was his response.
You can have a 70-80% baked idea, put it in your recruitment process, recruit a lot of partners, onboard and enable those partners, collect data and within 6 months your IPP will go from 70-80% to 90-95% dialed in.
You won’t have a 100% perfect plan from the beginning, so don’t be afraid to start.
If your north star is your partner’s success you’ll end up on the right path.
What’s your hottest take on partner recruitment? Reply with your answer.
And register here to learn from Cory about partner recruitment.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Stuff you don’t want to miss!
- TODAY—Evolving ABM and Next-Gen Digital Marketing Strategies—Join nine experienced leaders to explore the current state of ABM while looking at the trends that will redefine the ABM landscape in 2024 and beyond. Register here.
- April 24th—What Makes a Partnership “Strategic”—Join Valerio Martelli (Sales and Partnerships Director at Wisepops) and Scott Pollack (CEO at Firneo) where they will dive into the intricacies of forging impactful partnerships in the tech sector, guided by insights from industry experts. Register here.
- April 24th—Partnerships Secrets: Cory Snyder Teaches Partner Recruitment—Teamwork.com’s Head of Partnerships, Cory Snyder, spills the tea on how he’s growing his partner program in 2024. Powered by PartnerStack. Register here.
- April 25th—RevOps Leadership Summit—Join Sangram Vajre (Co-founder and CEO of GTM Partners), Lindsay Cordell (Senior Analyst at GTM Partners), George Alifragis (SVP of Operating Expert Network at Metropolitan Partners Group), and Ashton Williams (Director of Strategic Programs at Slack) to learn how RevOps can propel your GTM strategy for success. Register here.
- May 2nd—The Era of Ecosystem Orchestration is (Nearly) Here—Join 360 Insights and their close partners to unveil their new ecosystem project that stands to redefine their marketplace forever. Register here.
- May 7th—MartechDay 2024—Join Scott Brinker (VP Platform Ecosystems at HubSpot) and Frans Riemersma (Founder, MartechTribe) to release the latest Marketing Technology Landscape graphic. It’s a celebration of the thousands of talented people working in martech, at brands, vendors, and across the community. Scott and Frans will also be interviewing key leaders for their deep domain-specific knowledge. Register here.
- Nearbound Summit 2023 Recordings—The future of GTM is Nearbound. Watch the recordings to hear how B2B leaders across departments unite with Nearbound strategies and tactics. Listen here.
You’re all caught up.
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See you tomorrow
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