For partner marketers, partner activation and retention are big hurdles after acquisition. You need marketing collateral to help you remain top-of-mind and help ensure your partner’s customers are comfortable using your product or solution. Co-branded content is an excellent method to foster and retain relationships with your partners by supporting them and their customers…but what to do?
What is co-branded marketing content?
Co-branded marketing content refers to collaborative promotional material created by two or more brands, combining their identities, messages, and resources to reach a shared audience. In most transactional relationships, the entity that sells the product, solution, or service creates the co-branded content for use by their partners and/or customers.
How can I make sure my partners use co-branded content?
The secret to ensuring your content gets used boils down to making it easy. Whether copy-and-paste materials, printable PDFs or customizable templates, it should be simple to use. Read on as we explore four areas of co-branded content that will help you get and stay sticky with your partners. Let’s start this adhesive party!
1. Offer co-branded implementation materials
A logical place to start is at the beginning. Co-branded implementation materials are a must for your partner’s customers to successfully start using that product you worked so hard to get them to buy. If you’ve been paying attention, we think everything is better in package form, so consider building a co-branded implementation package for your partners to use with their customers.
To build your co-branded onboarding package, we suggest including
- How-to documents. This entails things like how to set up your account, support options, how-to guides, product overviews, etc.
- Awareness materials. Help your partners spread the news that your product or service is available through their company. Awareness materials can include copy-and-paste emails and outreach, registration landing pages, printable posters, PowerPoint slides for screens in shared spaces, postcards and more (these examples are especially helpful when your partner is an employer).
- Support for administrators. To encourage adoption, we recommend creating admin-focused documents that answer frequently asked questions, provide common troubleshooting solutions, and provide other best practices to internal administrators.
Packaging up your co-branded onboarding content lets you rest easy knowing your partners have the tools they need to support their customers who purchase your products.
2. Support with co-branded templatized marketing assets
Templates are a quick way for your partner to push out information, even if they need to customize them. Utilizing co-branded marketing templates like landing pages, one-sheets, and email templates streamlines effort. It also helps you know they are working within a structured format, so there is alignment in messaging and design.
Templates offer scalability and flexibility, enabling various audiences or campaigns to adapt while maintaining a cohesive brand identity. With standardized templates, consistency is ensured, reinforcing brand trust. Ultimately, co-branded templates help your partners use impactful marketing collateral — at a low lift.
3. Engage through co-branded webinars or training packages
Co-branded webinars and training packages are useful ways to help your partners reach their people. As a bonus, they double the attendees for both you and your partners. It’s a win-win because you both reach audiences that you wouldn’t otherwise reach.
Webinars, like many events, have many components. So, we’ve rounded up our top considerations for this package, including:
- Customized landing page. Design and develop a co-branded landing page where users can register for the webinar. This landing page should feature branding elements from both partners, compelling copy, and a clear call to action to encourage registrations.
- Promotional graphics. Create co-branded promotional graphics for social media, email newsletters, and website banners here. These graphics can highlight key webinar details, such as the date, time, topic, and featured speakers.
- Interactive presentation slides. Every webinar needs a slide deck that incorporates content cohesively. Slides might include visuals, key talking points, and interactive elements to keep attendees engaged throughout the presentation.
- Coordinated email campaign. It is helpful to plan a coordinated email campaign to promote the webinar to your partner’s email list. Include a series of pre-webinar emails to build anticipation, a reminder email closer to the event date, and a follow-up email with a webinar recording for those who couldn’t attend live.
- Post-webinar follow-up. For the icing on the cake, prepare a post-webinar follow-up package that includes a thank-you email to attendees, a survey to gather feedback, and additional resources related to the webinar topic.
Delivering a comprehensive co-branded package to effectively promote, host, and follow up on the webinar can go a long way toward getting sticky with your partners and their customers.
4. “Attend” via co-branded in-person event materials
Don’t forget about in-person events! You can create a comprehensive package of co-branded event materials so your partner is ready to go (and “bring” you along) to their next big conference.
We suggest including:
- Customized signage and banners featuring both logos and branding
- Promotional materials such as flyers and brochures highlighting key speakers and session topics
- Co-branded merchandise or swag (i.e., tote bags, coffee mugs, or lanyards that visitors to a booth can take with them)
- A dedicated event website or landing page showcasing information about the events and your partnership
- Digital co-branded assets such as social media graphics and email templates for pre-event promotion
These materials help ensure consistent branding and messaging across all touchpoints. And, they effectively promote the event while enhancing the attendee experience. Not to mention, reinforcing the partnership between your two collaborating organizations.
Co-branded…and co-produced!
Creating all the co-branded marketing content you need to satisfy your partner’s customers is no small task, but it can be so worth it. (Especially when you’re getting them up and running or during renewal season.) If taking it all on in-house seems a bit overwhelming, you can always turn to a trusted partner.
At Content Matterz, we love working with marketers (and of course, partner marketers) to create all the materials they need to succeed in their roles. If you need a boost in getting all your co-branded collateral rolling, simply reach out! We’d love to help.