Many companies carry out parts of their digital dialogue marketing in cooperation with partners or marketing teams at different locations. One example is indirect communication via sales partners, e.g. legally independent dealers in retail or franchisees in catering. The central office determines the basic alignment of the communication and provides the technical infrastructure. The partners prepare the concrete dialogue measures and carry them out, since they know the customer the best. Central partner platforms, such as ELAINE® Multipartner Platform, enable companies, sales partners, or offices at other locations to operate their own powerful dialogue marketing, embedded in a central strategy and infrastructure.
Joint marketing in indirect sales structures can lead to high coordination efforts and can offers conflict potential. The central unit orchestrates the communication, ensuring consistency at each touchpoint and specifying the following requirements for dialogue communication, for example:

  • Colouring
  • Picture language
  • Tonality of the addressing
  • Placement of logos
  • Usage of testimonials and claims
  • Formal requirements (imprint, opt-out buttons etc.)
  • …

The aim of the headquarters is to communicate a uniform message to all users.By communicating via sales partners, companies worry that those do not follow the guidelines so that inconsistencies impair the success of communication or even damage the brand. To ensure the quality of the dialogue measures with all partners, a very complex and lengthy feedback and approval processes are sometimes necessary, which can significantly impair the efficiency of communication. On the other hand, there are partners who may want to take local characteristics (e.g. special offers on their own assortment) into account when creating the dialogue measures and who may also have the data of their customers and direct contacts.

Centralised Partner Platforms Connect Both Worlds

Centralised partner platforms such as ELAINE® Multipartner Platform are suitable for resolving potential conflicts between these two worlds and pooling their strengths. This software provides different functions and user interfaces of a marketing automation technology for both headquarters and sales partners. The central unit has full access to the technology with a broad spectrum of functions. Here, it can design the individual measures as well as the logics for the lifecycle. For each action, a template, such as a newsletter template, is created, and defined which parts of the template the partners can edit and which are unchangeable for each partner.
Partners, on the other hand, “only” get to see a simplified interface with limited functions. They can access the templates, and edit the approved fields according to their own (specialised or local) needs and offers. The customer data is stored in a legally secure trust center so that the respective partner retain sole data sovereignty.