Exponential Power of Collaborative Marketing

An e-commerce marketplace misses a huge opportunity to drive sales when it doesn’t enable sellers with performance marketing programs derived from aggregated customer data.

All the best performance marketing practices, customer behavioral data and insights, and world-class creatives languish because a national brand can’t get them into the hands of its local partners in a timely fashion that achieves legal compliance.

What’s missing in both cases? Answer: Collaborative marketing.

Collaborative marketing is a paradigm shift in marketing where companies and their partner networks share audience data, expertise and technology to inform and execute growth strategies, deliver a consistent brand experience, and achieve business outcomes.

The CMO Council, in partnership with Evocalize, undertakes a critical study to understand how businesses are turning to collaborative marketing to work together for mutual benefit.

Collaborative marketing is poised for explosive growth. Forrester predicts a single subset of collaborative marketing technology, called through-channel marketing automation, to hit $1.18 billion by 2023, a CAGR of 25.2%. Why the sudden interest?

Some companies now have access to vast first-party audience behavioral data, rich customer insights and testing methodologies that enable them to execute digital marketing best practices. But when companies, such as local companies and marketplace sellers, lack these necessities, they must form collaborative relationships with their partner network, enabling them to execute best practices and grow exponentially.

Collaborative marketing also ensures consistent use of brand-approved creatives, messaging and engagement, as well as the distribution of co-op funds. All of this avoids a fragmented customer experience that will unravel into confusion and frustration and erode trust.

Another driver for collaborative marketing is the rising tide of privacy laws that make third-party data more difficult to acquire. Privacy changes from the likes of Google and Apple, such as getting user permission before tracking their data, are accelerating the need for businesses to embrace marketing collaboration in order to gain first-party audience data and expertise from their partner networks.

But marketing collaboration isn’t easy. It requires new distributed marketing technology, a commitment from all parties, and a communications pipeline that fosters sharing and reinforces a shared purpose. Most importantly, it requires courage to stay the course.