TD SYNNEX’s marketing function plays a vital role in driving activity for the whole channel. We spoke to Linda Patterson, group marketing director for the UK and Ireland, about the vital role it plays – for vendors and partners, as well as the business itself.
You might not know it, but if you are a TD SYNNEX customer, you probably interact with the company’s marketing department every day. Without the marketing function, you’d find it much more of a challenge to learn about important changes and new opportunities, and generally keep your finger on the pulse of what’s happening in the market.
It’s the marketing team that provides partners with information and updates on new products, promotions and offers. It’s marketing that organises and executes the scores of events (virtual, physical, and hybrid) that TD SYNNEX puts on every month. It’s marketing that articulates the messages around the benefits and value of the solutions, propositions, programmes, and services that TD SYNNEX and its vendor partners offer.
The team at TD SYNNEX ensures that partners receive what is relevant to them and that they don’t miss out on important information
Through carefully tuned and targeted marketing, the team at TD SYNNEX ensures that partners receive what is relevant to them and that they don’t miss out on important information including how to engage with TD SYNNEX on new opportunities.
Relevant communications
Ultimately, the role of marketing is to support the attainment of business objectives. In this respect, TD SYNNEX’s marketing team performs a critical role by developing marketing plans and creating programmes that vendors can invest in, which will then drive and support partners’ sales. Executing the plans to efficiently and effectively drive business outcomes – whether to attract new partners, motivate existing partners, or nurture end user opportunities – and demonstrate return on investment is the next critical step.
Trigger action
Marketing is all about driving business activity, and in the end, that’s about triggering partners or end users (in the case of ‘for’ or ‘with partner’ marketing) to act, said Linda Patterson, group marketing director, TD SYNNEX, UK and Ireland. That means getting messages to partners and creating opportunities for them. That’s the crux of what we do.
‘We always talk about marketing as being ‘to partner’ or ‘with and through partner’. The ‘to’ part is where we work with vendors to reach our partner audience, and we work closely with the business units to support that goal. The ‘with and through’ part is where we support partners on projects to generate opportunities – or we do something with the vendor that the partners can then use to drive new business.’
Our preference is to gain support for longer-term and always-on plans that allow thorough testing, reviewing, and optimising to get the best overall results
The former could be anything, from a simple promotion that’s communicated via emails and on the website, to an extended and detailed campaign involving multiple touch points and activities. The latter could be anything from supporting partners at their own customer events, to devising, creating, and executing a complete end-user lead generation campaign. Increasingly, and where possible, our preference is to gain support for longer-term and always-on plans that allow thorough testing, reviewing, and optimising to get the best overall results.
‘Gold Standard’
As TD SYNNEX has scores of vendor partners and thousands of partner customers, the role of marketing is complicated – especially given that every vendor wants to make certain it sees a return on its investment. TD SYNNEX can’t just spend the money – it must prove that the communication and engagement with partners or end users has happened as a result of its activity.
We have a duty and responsibility to ensure compliance and return on investment
Linda Patterson explains: ‘ROI is threaded through everything now. If you are a partner you need to think about why you would invest in another business? If you put £5000 of your own money into something, you would expect to get something back. It’s just the same for vendors when they invest in the channel – we have to provide a return.’
TD SYNNEX has its own ‘Gold Standard’ in this respect and applies the most stringent ROI requirements to every vendor campaign. Each one has to be carefully planned, agreed upon and meticulously executed. ‘We have a duty and responsibility to ensure compliance and return on investment.’
Targeted investment
One critical element of marketing planning is deciding on where funding will be invested. Only TD SYNNEX customers that have the capability to turn marketing investment and support into positive results are going to receive backing.
TD SYNNEX is working on a new initiative that will provide smaller resellers with limited capabilities to generate a regular stream of qualified leads
Where partners do not have their own marketing team, TD SYNNEX can help to fill the gap. It can provide advice or specific assistance to help them acquire the skills they need and demonstrate that they are effective. This might be as simple as putting together a decent website, or as involved as developing an entire marketing strategy and programme. There are also various ‘campaign in a box’ resources available via the Trusted Advisor website (partners use their own data) and TD SYNNEX also runs marketing masterclasses for resellers that are genuinely interested in developing their skills.
Most partners probably do not realise that within TD SYNNEX’s marketing function there is a full-service agency that provides everything from conceptualisation and design of materials through to execution of entire campaigns including content, social media, paid media, and events. TD SYNNEX is also working on a new initiative that will provide smaller resellers with limited capabilities to generate a regular stream of qualified leads.
There is now full service end user demand generation capability within IQBlade – a company acquired by TD SYNNEX almost two years ago for its strong data expertise – that is increasingly providing support to partners with limited marketing resources.
Proof of the pudding
A campaign is always going to be more effective when it is properly targeted and personalised, and this is an aspect of marketing that TD SYNNEX has been working hard to enhance and improve. Where it has the requisite permissions, it makes use of the data it collects on each partner to target its communications and messaging to them and ensure all materials sent to them are personalised and relevant to their business.
TD SYNNEX has invested heavily to build its in-house team of data experts
Over the last two years TD SYNNEX has invested heavily to build its in-house team of data experts and, when combined with TD SYNNEX’s marketing expertise, this is exceptionally powerful – generating, for example, average email open rates of 30%. This capability is in addition to what IQBlade brings in terms of data to support with new partner or end user opportunity generation.
Genuine potential
Campaigns have been and are being run for a number of vendors using IQBlade and they have been very successful, Linda Patterson told us. ‘With IQBlade we can manage the whole digital data and end user campaign process – from creating the assets and the journey and automating execution. In addition, IQBlade has been supporting us in identifying new potential partners and this often results in us engaging with less obvious target audiences.’
Better targeting should mean more effective campaigns and better returns
In the post-pandemic market, digital communications have become even more prevalent and with that, targeting and personalisation are becoming even more critical. For TD SYNNEX, having a deep understanding of partner businesses and where they are in their lifecycle and development has become a core part of its capability.
Better targeting should mean more effective campaigns and better returns and that, Linda Patterson said, will benefit everyone: vendors, who will see a better return on their marketing investment, and partners, who will only see material that is relevant, useful, and offers them genuine business potential.
