You are a partner marketer. You love your job, but by the end of every week, you’ve had to toggle between messaging for B2B, B2B2B, and maybe even B2B2C (did we mention B2B2B2B2C) audiences too many times. It’s no wonder you feel like the melting emoji smiley face by Friday.
For many partner marketers, asking for help is hard. Whether you turn to folks from your internal team or an external agency, you might feel like you have yet another audience to educate on messaging (in all your spare free time). Le sigh.
If you need a go-to resource to help people understand the complexity of partner marketing and multiple audiences, this article is for you.
B2B marketing basics
Let’s start with good, old, B2B. That’s business-to-business if you want it spelled out. When you’re a marketer in tech or professional services, chances are most folks in your world have at least a foundational understanding of this sect.
The skinny on B2B: You (a business) have a product, solution or service that will help your prospect do their business.
Example: Your budgeting software will benefit businesses because it makes managing departmental budgets easier.
When you market to B2B audiences, your approach revolves around meeting the needs of other businesses. The key audience is often decision-makers. This means your marketing campaigns emphasize efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and building long-term relationships. Pretty simple so far.
Defining B2B2B marketing…
B2B2B marketing (business-to-business-to-business) requires navigating additional layers in the supply chain. B2B2B involves marketing to businesses (often called partners) that sell or refer your product to other businesses (end-users), which adds complexity and requires managing multiple messages.
Example: Your budgeting software makes it easier for businesses to set goals and track expenses. Therefore, you partner with financial advisors who work in the business sector. Your partner businesses (the financial advisors) sell your budgeting software to their own clients (other businesses).
In this scenario, you must create marketing messaging directed at the partner businesses and a second set of messaging for the end-user businesses. Each of these audiences will have different reasons for being attracted to your solution. The financial advisors will want to offer a product that helps build trust with clients, gives them better insights into clients’ financial needs, and, ultimately, beats out their competitors.
On the flip side, your end-user doesn’t care about any of that stuff. They want software that works well for their business. And solves their budgeting pain points. Who cares if it helps their financial advisor get more clients?
Is your head spinning yet? Ok, let’s take a look at B2B2B’s funky cousin, B2B2C.
…vs. B2B2C
B2B2C is similar to B2B2B except that the end user is a consumer rather than a business. This necessitates a delicate understanding of B2B vs. B2C dynamics.
Example: Your budget management software makes it straightforward and simple for consumers to plan for retirement. Instead of (or in addition to) selling directly to consumers, you sell your software through a network of financial advisors who work with consumers. In this B2B2C scenario, you must market to the businesses (financial advisors) by illustrating how your product will make them more sticky with their clients. Then, you market to the end consumer to promote how the software can benefit them in advancing their retirement goals.
Just like B2B2B, this entails creating separate sets of marketing materials for each audience. The difference in this scenario is that you will create one set designed to resonate with business partners and another for consumers.
And B2B2B2B or B2B2B2C?
Sounds confusing, right? This is complicated, but yes, sometimes this audience(s) exists, too. In this scenario, it’s marketing to partner businesses that sell to businesses that also sell to businesses. Whew. What does that mean?
Example: You sell budgeting software to a partner financial advisory organization which, in turn, promotes/sells your software to its network of independent financial advisors who promote/sell the software to their end users. Simple enough, right? 😉
Audiences aren’t the only reason partner marketing is so complex
We’ve already covered how partner marketers need to create two, sometimes three, sets of marketing materials to reach their audiences. But wait, there’s more!
Partner marketers also need onboarding materials to teach their partners how to sell the product and some really enticing rewards and incentives to keep them engaged. And it doesn’t stop there; for your partners’ customers and prospects, you’ll need to arm them with materials to get the end-user onboarded as well as resources for after-sale support for through-business. As you can imagine, that messaging is totally different.
Luckily, P2P agency help exists
If you’re a partner marketer in need of assistance, good news! There’s a P2P (partner-to-partner) content marketing agency that has just the ticket to tackle all your B2B to B2B2B(2C) projects. Spoiler alert, it’s the team at Content Matterz. Want to learn more? We got you.