This is part of a series of posts where I talk about my experiences managing large channel marketing content programmes. This time I look at what smaller channel partners can expect.

Large channel partners and even those that are medium-sized (they can still be $1bn+ large!) have had lots of experience working with agencies. If that’s you, you might want to skip this post. But thousands of smaller, also really impressive channel partners, might not have worked with large ISVs or cloud hyperscalers for their marketing. And if that’s you, read on.

Any good agency should get it. You might be a technical founder, still very much hands on, and growing your business organically. No one should expect you to know the ins and outs of a marketing plan or how MDF works. (For example, you can use marketing development funds – not medium-density fibreboard version of MDF 😀 – to pay for content but generally can’t put it towards events with that vendor, or headcount in your marketing team.)

So how should any agency help make this work for all parties? Here’s what I do.

First of all, I need to build trust – between our agency and the new partner, so that the partner has faith in the whole process. This assumes we’re already a trusted partner of the software vendor or hyperscaler (which we will be).

I’ll do a kick-off call, answer any questions there and then, or circle back with explainers and examples of work.

We also really want to get to know you, your company’s plans and ambitions, and who you’ll be partnering with long term.

Additionally, I’ll show the value of working with high-level content in your marketing. This is really our agency’s bread and butter, as opposed to the many agencies that only offer content strategy and creation as add-ons, and often outsourced.

And lastly, I’ll talk about the use of that content from the outset, including complementary content items and distribution for things like lead-generation. And good core content can keep on delivering for months or even years. (I’ll expand on this more in an upcoming post.)

In one recent example, I did some educational sessions first. This was with a small, fast-growing implementation partner that had a few dozen staff. We looked at a few assets they’d started on internally and course corrected those. Then we created some core assets using MDF budget and a month or two later started on a whole website revamp (copy and design).

Bottom line: they’re now concentrating on their core capabilities and growing strongly, while they’ve handed off more marketing responsibilities to us than they knew was possible.

If you’re not already working with Collective Content and just want to find out how this all works, feel free to email me at becky.thompson@collectivecontent.agency