Why Your Channel Management Software Should Personalize Channel Content.

Recently, retailers have been making tremendous changes to adapt to today’s internet savvy customers. However, they are still up against the challenge of personalizing content to adapt to their target groups.

Marketers are still out there pointing out how underused personalization is when it comes to channels. But, why do channels need to personalize? 

If a national vendor has personalized his selling strategy, then what role does a channel have in this scenario?

To start, content personalization for channel sales has three main benefits

• Personalized content appeals to prospects better.

• It gives your business an edge over the competition.

• Customized marketing and sales strategies are known to convert a higher number of leads

Channels typically function on their own, separate from the marketing campaigns of the vendors whose products they sell. Channels generally do little or nothing to highlight specific brands or products. Consequently, as a product or service vendor, you have to take the necessary steps to ensure that your channels personalize your products for their prospects (while maintaining your brand equity and standards.)

Automation systems are the ideal tool to enable sales in the channel partner model. Optimally, there are three goals expect from a sales enabling automation system.

Personalized collateral

First, if a channel partner is going to personalize your marketing collateral, you will need to make that process completely hassle-free. This means that channels don’t have to spend time developing assets to promote you. A good marketing automation system should be a sales enablement system for your channel partners.

Track Asset Performance

A lot of time is invested in conceptualizing and designing assets. But if your channel management software doesn’t track how these assets perform, you are hitting a dead end. A good system will be able to not just track performance but all also parse information about the prospects that interact with you.

This means that you will be in a better position to target your audience with more personalized collateral. The result? Your prospects will consider your brand to be more value-added than the others.

Set-up Micro Sites for Channels
Personalization is not just limited to your email marketing campaigns. Your prospects expect an over-all personalized experience with your brand, every time they interact.

When your prospects become interested in you, they will want to check out your website first. Today, when every possible interaction with prospects is personalized, a generic website is pretty much a non-starter. A study by Janrain and Harris Interactive suggests that nearly 74% of online consumers get frustrated when website content (offers, ads, promotions) has nothing to do with their interests.

Opt for a system that offers the set-up of micro sites for your channel partners.
Having a good channel management system is not enough. You have to consider some key elements that are a must when you want to personalize for your channels.

What Should You Personalize?

Email messaging

Despite the other numerous marketing methods, email marketing still garners the highest ROI. Also, email is the closest that comes to human interaction on the internet. Addressing them personally is the first step for customizing the email content and drawing the reader’s attention to what you are saying.  

It doesn’t stop there. The most important part of your email is your text. If your content is not what the prospect is interested in, chances are your emails won’t be of any importance to your prospects. To avoid that, design content based on your prospect’s data. Use your system’s Big Data feed to understand what your prospects need.

At regular intervals, provide value added content to your emails like free eBooks or whitepapers. While doing so, keep in mind about responding directly your prospect’s needs.

Website

According to a research, 94% of marketers agree that personalization of the web experience is critical to a brand’s success. Your micro sites must speak the language of your targeted audience. The age of static websites is gone. Besides the regular content on a website, you need to make room for dynamic content too. Channels, especially, need to rely on visitor data and audience interests and motivations.

In order to optimize your website effectively, your channel management system must be able to define and segment your audience based on defined demographics.

Social media

Another busy point of interaction is social media. Empower your channels to create personalized videos, Facebook fan pages, timeline or cover images, twitter backgrounds, etc. While it is important to focus on your demographics for social media, you also need to personalize as per the site you are posting on.

TIP: While posting on social media sites, always post recognizing the timing when your target audience more is likely to be reading them.

Landing pages

Landing pages have to be optimized based on the most searched keywords on popular search engines. However, keep in mind that landing page content MUST address the pain points of your prospects. This way your prospects (or leads) are more willing to share their details with you.

If you have the right software that is focused on supporting channel partners, then they’ll see you as a value-added vendor that is worthy of extra promotion.

Interested in learning more about Automation for your Channel partners? Download this e-guide right here.