Mark Iafrate

The success of a partner co-marketing strategy varies depending on your business goals, but generally speaking, the impact can be measured by tracking a few different sets of metrics. Product Usage: One would be integration installs and usage over time. For instance, at Intercom, once customers use four or more integrations, key metrics such as retention, churn, lifetime value (LTV), average contract value (ACV), and customer health scores improve significantly. The number of integrations it takes to see a substantial verifiable impact varies company to company, but generally speaking, deeper integration engagement drives overall customer success and satisfaction, a stickier product, and better retention over the long term. Pipeline: This will vary depending on your GTM motion(s), but the most common partner-specific I see are sales referrals, sourced partner deals, and acquired leads from partner activations. At Intercom I also pushed for “reengaged leads” which are leads that were dormant but became active through partner efforts. Then you should also use your existing marketing attribution model to measure partner marketing campaigns the same way you measure all your other non-partner campaigns. This ensures consistency across all your campaigns and reporting. We use a W-shaped attribution model and have a specific system for naming and then reporting on campaigns. We “plugged” partner marketing into these systems so we can track those campaigns the same way. For New Business I report on Leads (Total Influenced Conv.); MQLs (Total Influenced Conv.); S2s (Total Influenced Conv.); S2 (Influenced Oppty ARR); S2 (Attributed ARR); Closed-Won (Total Influenced Conv.); Closed-Won (Influenced Oppty ARR); Closed-Won (Attributed ARR). It's the same for Expansion Business but without the Leads and MQL metrics. If you're earlier in your journey, focus on campaign-level metrics—high registration rates and engagement in joint webinars, for example, are strong indicators of an effective strategy and that your campaigns are resonating with your audience.

To improve collaboration and ensure partner-related projects get prioritized, internal enablement is crucial. Regularly educate your internal teams (marketing, sales, customer success) about the role of partnerships, the value they bring to the business, and how leveraging partners can help them achieve their goals. Quarterly presentations or internal decks can reinforce this message. Addressing lead attribution issues is also essential. Without proper attribution, it’s hard to demonstrate the value of partner campaigns. Work with analytics or marketing operations teams to ensure your current attribution model can track partner activities. Aligning partner marketing efforts with existing marketing systems, like Salesforce or Marketo, allows for seamless tracking. Tag campaigns clearly (e.g., we use a “PAR” indicator for partner attributions) to ensure visibility in reporting. Another approach is to integrate partner marketing activities into existing campaigns. If a marketing team is already planning an integrated content campaign, propose adding a partner-driven webinar that aligns with the theme. This way, you support existing goals while demonstrating the added value partners bring. Once teams see the success of these integrated activities, they’ll be more willing to prioritize partner projects in the future.

Before certifying and marketing an integration partner, ensure several key elements are in place. First and foremost, there should be a clear joint value proposition—your products should work together to create incremental value for customers. Without this, the partnership may lack a compelling reason for customers to engage. Next, assess the existing customer base. Do you have a significant number of joint customers or strong prospects? Tools like Crossbeam can help identify overlapping audiences. Clarify responsibilities for building and maintaining the integration. Often, maintenance is overlooked, but ensuring there's a clear commitment from one or both sides will prevent issues down the line. Verify that your partner has the necessary resources for joint sales and marketing, including budget, headcount, and bandwidth to support go-to-market efforts. If customers are already using the integration, check for positive feedback and successful outcomes—this is a good indication that further investment will pay off. The more of these elements you can validate, the lower the risk and the higher the likelihood of success.

Effective marketing of integration partners involves a multi-channel approach. Begin by embedding integrations within your sales and onboarding processes. For instance, during sales conversations, partners can be a part of the discovery phase, especially if certain integrations are a requirement for potential customers. Highlighting integrations during onboarding—whether through self-serve guides, solutions partners, or in-app tours—also drives early adoption. Promote key integrations in newsletters, app stores, and on your website. At Intercom, we showcase our 450+ integrations within our app and on our site, making it easy for customers to discover and connect them. Events are another key channel: partners can participate in conferences, webinars, and co-hosted dinners. These in-person and virtual events help promote integrations by providing hands-on experiences and direct engagement. Use core marketing activities, such as email campaigns, social media posts, and collaborative content, to continually surface partners and their integrations, driving adoption.

To generate leads through co-marketing, start with your focus on activities that have proven to drive engagement and ROI for you and your partner already. At Intercom that is webinars, virtual events, and in-person gatherings like conferences or workshops tend to work best. These formats allow for rich content sharing, direct interaction, and follow-up opportunities. Limit the number of partners involved in any one activity to avoid complexity and ensure alignment. For larger events, consider cost-sharing on booth space or co-hosting smaller, private events like dinners. Joint case studies can reinforce success stories but are often less effective for immediate lead generation compared to live events. While content campaigns (like blogs or whitepapers) can build awareness, they typically don’t drive as many leads, so prioritize live engagements if lead gen is your primary objective.

The key to a successful go-to-market campaign with a tech partner is to focus on high-impact channels. Again, use you and your partners’ historical data to determine where to start. Email remains one of the most effective tools; use targeted campaigns, ongoing newsletters, and personalized outreach to promote partner solutions. Additionally, include integration callouts within your product’s onboarding process—this ensures users are aware of relevant integrations right when they start. If your website has significant traffic, use CTAs and banners on high-traffic pages to drive awareness. Social media can be helpful but may not always provide a significant ROI, so weigh its value based on your previous campaign performance. Consider embedding integration features within product tours or setup processes to make adoption as seamless and natural as possible.

At Intercom, Partner Marketing is integrated deeply within the demand generation team (specifically Integrated Marketing), rather than being a standalone function. This setup fosters better collaboration, as the partner marketing lead is in tune with both the overall marketing strategies and the needs of the partnership team. This collaboration enables smoother planning and more efficient execution, allowing us to align partner activities with broader marketing goals, such as product launches or thematic campaigns. Collaboration is key: by working closely with content, product marketing, sales, customer success, and other teams, we can seamlessly integrate partners into existing marketing motions. This leads to more impactful campaigns and stronger alignment on goals. The key metrics we track include both sales and marketing indicators. On the sales side, metrics like referrals, source deals, and influenced ARR are essential. On the marketing side, we focus on acquired leads, reengaged leads, and the progression of these leads through the funnel (e.g., MQLs, S2s, closed deals). Integration installs and app usage are also critical, as they reflect direct engagement with the partner ecosystem. Over time, we track how deeper integration usage correlates with improvements in LTV, ACV, retention, and churn, helping us understand the long-term value of these partnerships. For teams just starting out, simpler metrics like event registrations and webinar attendance can provide early indicators of campaign success.