Building an Ecosystem Marketing Strategy

Featuring:

Claudia Kuzma, CA-AM
Managing Director -Global Ecosystem Program Leader | Protiviti

Chris White
Ecosystem Marketing Manager | Protiviti

When building and supporting an ecosystem, marketing is often thought of as "the answer to all business development needs." Alliance leaders may request a full slate of marketing support for their partner, from email campaigns to conference sponsorships, regional events, and webinars. Add to that requests from partners to support their own activities and marketing resources can be stretched thin. For companies with dozens or hundreds of partners, this results in a delicate balancing act to support the marketing needs of both the company and the ecosystem.

To be successful, an ecosystem team needs to eliminate traditional silos and align closely with marketing on multiple levels. In the context of a large consulting firm, speakers will discuss ways to:

• Align the ecosystem to the marketing strategy early and often
• Prioritize ecosystem requests for both budget and resources
• Build a culture of collaboration both internally and with partners
• Develop more targeted and consistent messaging for clients
• Create a strategy with enough flexibility to adjust to changing partner and market needs

With strategic and regular marketing and ecosystem alignment, sales teams can focus on what is most valuable to their customers, resulting in more pipeline, better opportunities, and greater revenue. It also enables marketing teams to build their plans with a more holistic viewpoint, focused on customer needs and how to solve them.