AMA: Segment Former Group Partner Marketing Manager, Alexandra Sasha Blumenfeld on Partner Product Marketing

I think the skills are analogous: 1) Customer storytelling Have a compelling customer story to lean on makes my job infinitely easier 😅Especially if you have a technical product or solution and may not be a technical product marketer, having the customer tell that story themselves can help engage your audience with the language/visuals they expect. Plus, it's great social proof and gives sales and customer success collateral to help close deals and give current customers ideas on how they can br ...Read More

I typically see the partner marketing team tracked on pipeline numbers and opportunities. That said, I think it depends on your partner marketing strategy and your marketing/BD team goals as well. Ideally, we try to balance activities that will influence in-quarter impact where we will see an immediate impact on pipeline (eg digital events, gated content) with activities that are more strategic/longer-term that will see an outsized impact a few quarters (or years) out. eg working with larger par ...Read More

Great question! At my former company Segment, there were two categories of partners:  Technology (ISV) partners  Solution (SI/agency) partners  The go-to-market is slightly different for those two categories, but a few lessons learned that are relevant to both are: 1) Incorporate the voice of your customer in everything you do. Building a compelling joint narrative is key to successfully going to market with partners. The best way to do this is through mutual customers. Anecdotally, our most suc ...Read More

Build joint customer stories and clearly showcase the value you + partner deliver. It might seem basic, but the way we've found to get buy-in and attention from the partner's sales team is by 1) Driving joint wins (this is typically done in partnership with the BD team) 2) Documenting those wins in the form of case studies or customer webinars where you highlight the joint solution and how it unlocked business impact for the customer 3) Providing enablement via one-pagers or lunch and learns on ...Read More

It depends on what the campaign or asset is. As a platform, we try to be as tool agnostic as possible. That said, there are certain times where adding a partner adds value/context to the narrative or campaign.  Things to consider:  Can the partner provide subject-matter expertise and enhance the narrative? By positioning your brand alongside this partner can it provide credibility to your campaign? Will the partner unlock additional reach with the target audience? An example where it made sense ...Read More