Many large corporations depend on channel partners to market and sell their products and services. Continuously recruiting new partners is essential to the growth and health of channel partner ecosystems. Identifying those that will be profitable prior to launching your recruiting efforts will make your campaigns more effective. Here we take a look at four marketing tactics to help you recruit new channel partners.

Online Events

Hosting an event and inviting ideal partner candidates to attend can be a very effective means of recruiting new partners provided there is value and incentive involved. A webinar that combines entertainment and free gifts is a lot more likely to be successful than one that is simply featuring your product. Compelling keynote speakers can be a great draw for your event and giving away company branded merchandise or raffling off a big-ticket item can provide the incentive necessary to increase attendance.

Teleprospecting

In order to recruit channel partners, you are going to need to pick up the telephone. Building a relationship is necessary in order to onboard your most desired partners, and teleprospecting allows for that much needed live touch. While you may be able to generate leads through a variety of different channels, teleprospecting gives you an opportunity to further qualify them and to really sell them on your partner program. Cold calling may not be the best avenue to recruit, but partner lead qualification has no better solution than teleprospecting.

Email Campaigns

Email can be used in a variety of ways to recruit channel partners. Email blasts that identify those with immediate interest, workflows that nurture those interested but not ready to buy, fulfillment pieces that provide additional information on your program and pieces that simply provide something of value will all help you to recruit the right partners. Email is always most effective when used in conjunction with the other tactics noted in this article.

Paid Advertising

Running paid advertising campaigns through Google and LinkedIn can help get your program in front of a much wider and more targeted audience. These ads should highlight the benefits of your partner program and the success stories of your current partners. Identifying what your ideal channel partner looks like will help you to better target your ads and avoid wasting your budget on companies that are not a good fit.

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