The report examines the opportunities and challenges national marketers face when improving and promoting their local partner channel marketing programmes.

According to the report, a third of national marketers say that 40% or more of their companies' revenue comes from local business partners.

Yet two-thirds of national marketers have only a moderate understanding or worse about their local partners' business and marketing challenges and how to kickstart local demand.

Individuals can download the National Brands Kickstart Local Demand here.

The key findings of the report are as follows:
  • 95% of national marketing leaders say it's important (41%), very important (41%), or even critically important (25%) to increase revenue through their local partner channel.
  • 75% have only a moderate understanding (40%), limited understanding (29%), or no understanding (6%) of local partners, their challenges and how to optimise their performance.
  • 55% say that the overall effectiveness of their local partner channel marketing programme is only moderately effective or worse.
  • 43% say it's very important, even critical, to improve digital marketing among local partners; yet 48% don't even offer fund reimbursement for digital marketing tactics.

"Local partners are the last mile to purchase and have the most interaction with customers," says Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council.

Neale-May adds, "If national marketers really want to know their customers, they need to work closely with local partners, collaborate on marketing projects and share data. Shoring up your local partner channel marketing programme is a great place to start."

According to the council, there is a significant opportunity for national marketers to improve their local partner channel marketing programmes, such as:
  • making services more easily accessible
  • getting more creative with funding, and
  • providing marketing training, content and digital marketing tactics that are meaningful at the local level.

"The opportunity to grow revenue incrementally through local partners should be a priority for marketing leaders," says Kyle Coughlin, VP of marketing and demand generation at BrandMuscle.

"Given the amount of revenue already being generated through local channels, optimising and enabling partners to better align with marketing objectives and drive a positive ROI will help both the brand and partners succeed," adds Coughlin.

Coughlin concludes, "Partners are often the last touchpoint before a sale. By helping them be better marketers, they become more active brand advocates in the path to purchase, which is a win-win for everyone."

Methodology
The report is based on a survey of over 140 marketing leaders across the B2C and B2B industries.

Additionally, the duo conducted in-depth interviews with executives at:
  • SHARP Home Appliances
  • Caterpillar
  • Gap
  • Invesco
  • Nationwide
  • BNY Mellon Wealth Management
  • KloudGin, and
  • MisfitsGaming.

For more information, visit www.cmocouncil.org. You can also follow CMO Council on Twitter.