Joint campaign planning

Joint campaign planning works when both partners agree on the segment, route to market, and result before choosing activities. Build the plan in that order so each channel and message has a purpose. A perfectly executed tactical plan can still target the wrong segment.¹ A strong marketing plan can still fail when it reaches sales.² Use those risks as design checks: can both partners reach the same people, and will their teams act on the demand the campaign creates?

Start with the foundation

Start the joint planning conversation before either partner commits to a channel or activity. Leave it with a segment definition and a reason both sides can use in the campaign.

Co-marketing belongs in the planning and organization stage.³ Start segmentation by asking who you want to target or what you are selling. Either focus can be appropriate.^{4, 5} A product company may focus on what it sells.⁶ A services company or reseller may start with whom it supports.⁷

Then ask which customers both partners can reach and which problem or offer gives that segment a reason to respond. Write the answer down before choosing channels, creative, or timing.

Map partner fit and build the brief

Once the segment is clear, compare what each partner brings with what the campaign will require. This exposes gaps that a polished campaign will not fix later.

Spend time identifying the partners' commonalities.⁸ Use a shared brief covering the ICP, persona pains, use cases, competitors, required proof, distribution plan, and localization needs.⁹ Run a thorough SWOT analysis of both partners together, independently, and where they overlap.¹⁰ Pay particular attention to the skills of both partners.¹¹

Write down audience differences during initial planning. A broad software market and a partner's focus on financial decision makers in large insurance companies are different starting points that need to be surfaced before campaign design.¹²

Choose the go-to-market path

The message path should follow how the target customer will make a decision. Decide how the partners appear in that path before writing campaign copy or choosing an offer.

Let the target customer guide the value proposition choice.¹³ Partners may go to market with a joint value proposition or present one partner before the other.¹⁴ A sequential value proposition can move from one partner to the other and then to both.¹⁵

When one partner mainly handles fulfillment, the selling partner can use its own value proposition.¹⁶ After the customer agrees to buy, that partner can bring in the other partner to help implement the product.¹⁷

Ask what the customer needs to understand first, which partner earns the initial attention, and where the second partner enters. Use those answers to set the campaign's message order.

Check execution capacity

A campaign depends on partner teams to create demand, sell it, and support the resulting work. Check those capabilities before committing to a plan that depends on them.

Assess technical skills as part of overall planning,¹⁸ then check marketing and sales skills directly.¹⁹ Determine what skills each partner brings to the joint relationship instead of assuming they exist.²⁰

Ask, "are you able to sell net new business?"²¹ Define net-new business as brand-new customers that did not come from a referral.²² Then ask, "tell me about your sales team, how much of their quota is on net new business?" or "how much net new businesses did they generate last year?"²³

Sales representatives can achieve 100 percent of their quota through existing customers.²⁴ A representative who can do that may not spend time on an early-stage opportunity.²⁵ Match campaign complexity to the weaker capability: when one required partner has basic marketing skills, a simple plan is the better choice.²⁶

Pick the campaign motion

Choose the customer motion before the channel mix. The motion tells both partners what kind of audience the campaign must reach and what response the offer should produce.

A joint plan can target customers who are brand-new to both partners.²⁷ It can target cross-selling to one partner's customers, the other partner's customers, or both.²⁸ In that motion, one partner sells into the other partner's customer or install base.²⁹

The plan can also target upgrades.³⁰ An upgrade may move a joint customer from an older product to a newer offering.³¹

Record the chosen motion in the brief so channel decisions follow it.

Set goals before activities

Goals give the partners a shared test for later campaign decisions. Set them at the beginning of planning and revisit them before the plan is final.³² Ask, "how many new customers do we want, what's the revenue there, how much are we going to get from upgrades, how much are we going to get from cross-selling?"³³

Call the desired closed business a closed business goal.³⁴ Define the pipeline goal as the pipeline needed to achieve it.³⁵ Add sub-goals where the campaign needs another measure.³⁶ Awareness may be a sub-goal when the partners are taking a joint value proposition to market.³⁷

Build channels and execution

Choose tactics only after the segment, partner fit, message path, campaign motion, and goals are settled. At this point, channels deliver the agreed plan.

The next planning stage covers tactics and messaging intended to achieve the goals.³⁸ Coordinate the partners' marketing efforts for maximum impact.³⁹ A proposal may combine podcast ads, sponsored webinars, and newsletters.⁴⁰

Before setting the schedule, check whether journeys or campaigns overlap by timeline, audience, or channel.⁴¹ Assign each channel a message and connect the activity to the chosen campaign motion. Note where partner teams need to act, and resolve overlaps while the plan is still being shaped.

What not to do

Keep these failure points visible while the partners make decisions.

• People often choose tactics and activities before establishing the right foundations.⁴²
• Do not assume technical skills are already covered during planning.⁴³
• Nearly 100 percent of people say they can sell net-new business when asked.⁴⁴ Check quota and prior output instead of accepting that answer.
• A joint value proposition is not always required.⁴⁵
• Use a few clear top-line goals rather than too many.⁴⁶