Welcome:

Welcome to Demo 2.0! This is the inaugural edition of Runaware’s e-newsletter. The purpose of this newsletter is to keep you up-to-date with the latest online marketing and demo practices, tips and examples of what online marketers in the software industry are doing to keep their brand and products in the public eye.

We hope you will find this monthly newsletter helpful and informative. We welcome your personal contributions to further enrich this publication so please don’t hesitate to contact us and share your point of view.

Special Feature:

Want to Get Branded… Turn to Distribution

Go to any supermarket and walk down the aisles. What do you notice….branding overload. Individually each has its own value, characteristics and essence that encourage devotion with target customers.

Using strategically planned distribution to enhance brand equity is ideal. Even though gaining new distribution with an alliance partner is less common, it can be exceedingly powerful. The power of marketing partnerships brings expanded credibility and a cost-efficient means to gain widened distribution.

Many companies today are effectively using promotional programs, partner programs, licensing and couponing to name just a few. Today most companies and brands are engaging in “Partnership Marketing” or “Strategic Partnerships. True success in this approach lies in its power to open up different channels of distribution for the companies and brands that are involved.

Strategize your brands’ face time

The concept behind Partnership Marketing is to find customers where your company does not currently compete. This not only provides your brand with added credibility in aligning with another company but also opens up distribution channels allowing you to reach and market to customers that may not be aware of thinking of your brand.

The key to this is integration. Successfully implemented partnership marketing should include every possible messaging element that your business has with its customers including Internet, advertising, promotions, public relations, conferences and many other marketing vehicles.

To really extend a partnership marketing program, other activities such as joint selling and a distribution team between both companies should occur with the goal of gaining incremental and sustained distribution. Even corporate programs can come into play.

Even a more desirable result is to create an umbrella infrastructure where at least three companies and brands align to share in their distribution and marketing programs, with the goal of providing even greater value to all three company’s customers. This in turn allows for a win-win situation where both the customer, the consumer and the buyer are introduced to several brands, new products and features, not to mention promotional elements that are designed to induce trial and build loyalty while providing value.

Source: www.marketingprofs.com “Partnership Brand Marketing-It’s About Distribution Channels”.

Extending buying power with TestDrive

If your business includes a distribution channel, then providing them with powerful selling tools is one of the primary ways to make your partners successful. If you are seeing success in your marketing, build programs that help your partners do the same. Leveraging your current investments in marketing is a smart way to squeeze extra value out of your sales tools. There is nothing wrong with asking your partners to share in this investment, to a small extent, especially if it means they have the opportunity to dramatically increase their sales.

Recently, Sage Software launched a new program to their Certified Consultants. This program makes use of the TestDrive demos already offered on Sage web sites for Peachtree® by Sage, ACT!® by Sage and Timeslips® by Sage. By offering each partner their own lead capture form, and the ability to share the online demos, these Certified Consultants were able to benefit by offering a TestDrive from their own web sites for very little investment. These partners also had leads delivered to them directly and in real time.

Sage Software will now see more value out of their investment in TestDrive and is able to provide a successful sales tool to their channel.