Whether you’re a manufacturer, distributor, buying group, or retailer, marketing can make or break your business, but how do you develop brand mindshare without just spinning your wheels?
People argue that digital advertising is the end-all-be-all of marketing. Everyone is online, so all your customers must be there.
But that’s the problem.
In a world full of competitors all vying for customer attention, your brand message is easily lost in the noise. You can invest more in online ads, but that’s a dangerous game with no guaranteed ROI.
In comparison, channel training gives organizations full control over their brand message. You’ll know exactly who engages with the training, and you can leverage training courses to boost year-over-year sales growth.
Investing in channel training is a laser-focused strategy that cuts through the noise and puts your brand in front of the right people. More importantly, it beats out digital ads in the following key areas:
- ROI of keyword spending
- Cost per capture and conversion
- Audience selection
The Keyword Game: Who Has More Money?
In search engine marketing (SEM), professionals bid for keywords to direct traffic to their sites. Keywords are terms or phrases that a regular person would look up to find a product or service.
If the products you sell are similar to your competitors, you’re all bidding for the same keywords.
In a bidding war, it’s not about who has the better product. It comes down to who has more money to spend on marketing.
Channel training lets you avoid the bidding war by amplifying your message to a more targeted audience.
For example, if you bid for keywords, only people looking up those specific keywords will see your ads. If you invest in channel training and use a platform with proven performance, like BlueVolt, you guarantee that everyone in your channel knows about your brand and how to sell its benefits.
Channel partners then amplify your brand message and value differentiator to everyone who comes to their door. Even if customers don’t know what products they need, they know which problems they need to fix. An educated channel partner can point them in the direction of your brand.
Apples to Apples: Cost per Capture
When determining the value of SEM strategies, many marketers identify if the cost per capture or cost per conversion is worth it.
For example, let’s say your company bids $500 for a single keyword, and you convert 10 customers with that keyword. That means your cost per conversion is around $50.
You can determine the same cost metric for investing in channel training. This allows you to compare apples to apples.
Imagine that you are using BlueVolt analytics to track the performance of your product training courses on the platform. You’re able to connect product training course completions to the dollar amount of that product sold. For the same $500 investment, you could convert 100 customers, making your cost per conversion $5.
Why the big difference?
When you pay for keywords, you can only convert people specifically looking for that keyword. In contrast, when you invest in continuous channel training, you’re investing in people who will have long-term relationships with your end customers, leading to more conversions at a lower cost.
Audience Choice: Passive Prospect Versus Motivated Learners
Digital ads reach a wide audience, but are these individuals active or passive prospects?
They might be active at the moment they are looking for a product, but their interest wanes over time. Despite customer interest levels, you’re still stuck paying the same cost for your ad campaigns and keywords.
Channel training gets around the problem of active and passive prospects by redirecting the focus to channel partners who can amplify your message and reach more end customers than keywords alone.
Channel partners are also more motivated to learn because the more they learn the more they sell. Many partners make their deals based on the level of customer service they provide, so being exceedingly knowledgeable about your products gives them the advantage they need to succeed.
Channel Training Offers Better Strategy and ROI Than Digital Ads
Today’s customers are not as easily swayed by keywords directing them to company websites. They want more interactions and insights into a product before they invest. Developing connections and relationships is not something keyword-based advertising was ever designed to do.
To amplify your message and leverage the power of relationships, you need a channel training platform, like BlueVolt, to get everyone in your buying chain on the same page about your brand. Continuous channel training then becomes a marketing investment that reaps significant benefits of year-over-year sales growth.
When compared to the ROI and benefits of channel training, digital advertising simply can’t compete.
