As a Partner Marketing Manager at Microsoft, I engage with all types of partners at different stages of their digital transformation journey and recognize that many of our partners don't have dedicated marketing teams. To help partners take their solutions to market and reach more customers, we offer a wealth of marketing resources to members of the Microsoft Partner Network (MPN).
I've identified a few ways to jumpstart your marketing strategy in 2019 by taking advantage of the resources available to Microsoft partners.
1.Start on the reach customers section of the partner site where you can find ready-to-go marketing and sales content, tools and access to sales and marketing training and events. Here are some of the resources available to our partners:
- Customizable campaigns
- Logo builder
- Library of more than 1,000 marketing assets
- and more!
2. Get a solid start by engaging with Smart Partner Marketing, which provides step-by-step guidance for building and executing a marketing plan. Smart Partner Marketing takes partners from fundamental marketing concepts to accelerating the reach and impact of their marketing to recommendations for enhancing customer engagements and relationships.
Start by taking the assessment to receive marketing recommendations that suit your specific needs. Then, go through the path of developing your marketing plan - build a foundation, amplify your presence and strengthen customer relationships.
3. Leverage Microsoft Digital Marketing Content OnDemand, which connects your social media accounts and email lists and enables you to select, customize and share content. Digital Marketing Content (DMC) OnDemand, powered by PartnerOn, offers 10-week digital campaigns that include to-customer content and to-partner resources. Start using the gated content feature to gather leads directly from your social media accounts, use the auto-update feature to push content to your company's social media accounts without any action from you, and leverage the pre-created emails, social posts, and other great content available.
The results that partners are experiencing speak for themselves:
“We have been a Microsoft partner since before they started the Dynamics division in 2001. This marketing offering is absolutely the best resource that Microsoft has ever offered to the partner community. Thank you for all your efforts!” – Micro Force
"We use DMC every week! We post videos on LinkedIn [and] we get 1000 views a week. People are looking at our stuff…Your platform makes us look a little more professional. We use it and it works." - Bass International
"I definitely like the content and materials that your company are producing for me….Hands down, the auto creation of the blog content is the biggest time saver for me."- Hogan Consulting
Watch the video below and visit the DMC registration page now to get started.
4. Use your go-to-market (GTM) benefits. Our GTM benefits (summarized below) include those mentioned above that are available to all partners, as well as new offerings for partners who have attained a competency or published their app on Microsoft's marketplaces. These partners have access to GTM specialists who can review your website, marketing materials and even your value proposition.
I hosted a webinar in early December with the GTM benefits program owner, Samantha Bowman, who reviewed these services and how to activate them. You can watch the recording and download her slides here.
These are just a few of the resources and assets available to partners to develop and execute successful marketing strategies. Jumpstart your 2019 marketing plan and leverage these resources and more on partner.microsoft.com.
Sarah Broadbent is a Partner Marketing Manager at Microsoft. As part of the US One Commercial Partner Go-to-Market organization, Sarah's charter is to nurture our powerful US partner ecosystem and ensure that partners are maximizing the opportunities available to them as members of the Microsoft Partner Network. She has an MBA with a focus in marketing and technology management from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and has marketing experience spanning several industries - pharmaceuticals, automotive and now technology.
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