How Channel Marketing Managers Can Create Engaging Website Content

Most channel marketing managers have a bear of a time creating engaging website content that their channel partners actually want to read.

But it doesn’t have to be so frustrating when you know what your partners actually care about.

Now just to manage your expectations, this advice isn’t about some high-profile market research data. There’s no $5,000 research report to buy here. These best practices are a lot more basic.

You simply have to know who you’re looking to attract.

How do you know? That’s an excellent question!

Start With a Super-Crisp Definition of Your Ideal Channel Partner

Define your ideal partner persona to know which website visitors you want to attract.

For most channel marketers, it goes something like this:

“We’re looking for partners that need the services that our firm can profitably deliver with its current skill set to its target partner base in a given geographic area.”

Gather Information on Partners and Potential Partners

This information gathering often centers around surveys and persona interviews, so you can gather the right information on partners and potential partners. Ask for example:

• What is their day like?

• What problems do they have?

• What are their long-term goals?

• How do they research IT products and services?

• Where do they hang out online? Offline?

• How do they evaluate channel partner programs?

• What do they search for?

• What matters most?

Use the Survey Results and Persona Interviews to Drive Your Keyword Research

Prior to creating content that attracts the right channel partners, you’ll need to do keyword research, so you can figure out which words to use. Consider these four factors:

1. The Persona – What type of partner or potential partner is this bucket of keyword phrases trying to attract?

2. Specificity – Is the keyword phrase specific enough to know the searcher’s true intent?

3. Monthly Search Volume – Is there a sufficient quantity of monthly searches for this keyword phrase, but not so much that the competition level will be ridiculous?

4. Competition Level –How difficult will it be to get a piece of content about a particular keyword phrase onto page one of search engine results?

Do you have more than one kind of channel partner that you’re looking to attract to your website? No problem. Simply repeat this process for each type of ideal channel partner.

This way, you’ll end up with a buyer persona and set of keyword phrases for each type of channel partner that you’re looking to attract to your website.

What else should channel marketing managers focus on when trying to create engaging website content? Let us know your tips in the Comments box below.

And to learn more about attracting the right channel partners to your website, be sure to download your free copy of the IT Channel Inbound Marketing Planning Guide. 

Creative Commons Image Source: flickr petahopkins