Is your sales channel marketing helping you seal the deal?

GOING BEYOND MARKETING ASSETS

Companies with sales channel partners will often provide marketing assets for them to promote the brand on their own. This was the starting point for Champion Seed, a Midwest-based independent corn and soybean seed company that was looking to make headway with local customers.

The challenge was that Champion Seed’s marketing assets were just scratching the surface. The company had strong connections with local dealers and the dealer network had strong local connections that helped sell seed, but there was still opportunity to grow.

The Lessing-Flynn (LF) and Champion Seed teams set out to build a sales channel marketing pilot program to show what a full strategy could do.

EXAMPLE MARKETING ASSETS: DIGITAL AD AND DIRECT MAILER

A PLAN DESIGNED FOR DEALERS

To drive sales at the local level, we recommended a pilot program for crafting customized marketing plans that aligned with Champion Seed’s customer journey map and were specific to four different dealers.

Our strategy was to work closely with the dealers to craft meaningful messaging and creative that would resonate with local growers and drive local sales for the current buying season and seasons to come. We conducted a series of discovery calls to better understand their goals, pain points, differentiators, ideal customers and local competitors.

CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAP

PUTTING THE PUZZLE TOGETHER

After discovery, we created an à la carte menu of customized marketing tactics — all laddering up to the dealer’s identified goals. We leveraged the Champion Seed brand for the creative, building a look and message that worked for all the dealers to make the plans as efficient and repeatable as possible. At the same time, each dealer marketing plan included only those tactics a dealer selected, making each one unique for that region and the dealer’s sales and business goals.

Across dealer plans, we leveraged:

• Paid digital media placements (display banners, streaming audio spots, CTV/OTT ads and more)
• Landing pages
• Direct mailers with local yield and dealer test plot data
• Organic social media content, calendars and trainings
• Radio interview talking points

We also provided ideas for local in-person promotional strategies and offered guidance on ABM-style tactics and strategies.

CUSTOMIZED DEALER PAID DIGITAL AD, DIRECT MAILER AND LANDING PAGE

CUSTOMIZED DEALER VIDEO

STRENGTHENING DEALER RELATIONSHIPS

The individualized marketing plans helped the participating dealers build their brand, nurture leads and increase sales locally.

We knew the best way to get Champion Seed dealers on board with sales channel marketing strategies was by showing them how it’s done. Our pilot program demonstrated how localized marketing efforts are effective in driving sales, easy to carry out and worth their weight in both responsibility and spend. Plus, the individualized marketing plans for dealers showed a whole new level of commitment and partnership from Champion Seed.

MORE SEED SOLD

So, did local dealers impact local markets? Here are the details so far:

There is no doubt that Champion Seed dealers moved customers through the sales channel and helped move the brand forward. But that’s not always the case with all sales channel partners. Read more here about how to ensure your lower-funnel marketing strategies are supporting your top-of-funnel work.