Patrícia Landim

At OutSystems our primary focus isn’t on acquiring new partners but rather on nurturing and enabling our existing partner ecosystem. We’ve built a robust network over the years, so our focus is ensuring continuous enablement and engagement with top-tier partners as well as activating less engaged partner sellers and marketers through tailored initiatives. When it comes to attracting new partners, we have running paid media campaigns for less engaged partners with assets that also target prospective partners. I'm talking about foundational messaging, such as "Why partner with..." to communicate the value of joining our ecosystem. While new partner acquisition isn’t our primary focus, we want to ensure that the right opportunities are reaching the right prospects.

For strategic partners, we offer access to our Partner Marketing Funds program. This program goes beyond just financial support for co-marketing activities, we also provide hands-on marketing guidance to help partners maximize their impact and the sales team is involved. We collaborate on strategic initiatives like target account campaigns, demand gen and lead-nurture programs, and even sales development support to follow up on leads generated through co-marketing efforts. A major advantage of this program is that opportunities from these activities are co-sell or co-sell classified, which ultimately benefits the partners. By combining marketing and sales enablement, we create a win-win environment where both sides see tangible growth. For strategic partners, we also offer an agency support model for demand-generation campaigns. Our agency provides a turnkey solution—handling everything from co-branded content creation and asset design to lead collection and nurture strategies. The partner then works the leads directly, ensuring a seamless handoff from marketing to sales. Ultimately, our goal is to provide the right mix of resources, strategy, and support to help our partners grow their business alongside us.

With a global partner base, I’ve seen firsthand how different tactics resonate depending on the region, cultural factors, and market maturity. What works in one market might not be as effective in another, so adapting to regional nuances is key. In less mature markets, I’ve found that thought leadership webinars, especially when hosted by high-performing local partners and customers showcasing industry-specific use cases, consistently perform well. These help establish credibility and build trust in regions where awareness is still growing. In more mature regions, webinars still play a role, but pairing them with in-person events, tradeshows, or exclusive networking opportunities tends to drive stronger results. In some areas, we’ve had great success with co-sponsoring industry events with partners, running highly targeted digital campaigns, and hosting roundtables to spark meaningful conversations. At the end of the day, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. The most successful partner marketing strategies always combine thought leadership, networking, and tailored campaigns, but the secret sauce is understanding what works where and being agile enough to adapt.

We provide our partners with foundational sales materials like positioning guides, messaging framework, and ideal customer profile documentation, where to each profile, they find the most adequate messaging. This helps partners understand how to tailor the product pitch for different customer personas, to then add value to their own solution. We also share valuable use cases that partners are also encouraged to use in pitch meetings, nothing resonates with potential customers more than hearing about other enterprise accounts that have solved similar challenges. These materials equip our partners to confidently discuss our solutions and drive meaningful conversations with their clients.

A strong partner marketer leads with empathy and collaboration. To me, the best way to approach this role is by truly putting yourself in the partner’s shoes, seeing partners not just as external collaborators, but as an extension of your own team. That mindset lays the foundation for building genuine, long-term relationships. Building strong relationships with both partners and Partner Account Managers is crucial. Open, transparent communication helps you understand their challenges, priorities, and how best to support them. In many ways, you’re the bridge between the partner and your company — their inside eyes. To do this well, you have to be an internal champion, advocating for partners across different teams to ensure they have the visibility, resources, and support they need to succeed. Beyond relationship-building, great partner marketers are adaptable, proactive, data-driven and strategic. They don’t just react to challenges, they anticipate partner needs and identify gaps and improvements to help keep enabling partners for success. At the end of the day, your job is to make sure partners feel supported, empowered, and truly invested in the success of the partnership.

My role in Partner Marketing focuses on nurturing and engaging partners with to-partner focused programs. A big part of my work involves keeping partners engaged with the company's marketing content and sales activity, so one of my goals is building mindshare so that our company is top-of-mind next to 12 other vendors our partners are working with, some also in the low-code space. To achieve this, I run regular newsletters, partner-exclusive virtual and in-person events where partners can get together with other partners, but also our company's executives and sales teams, and ready-to-use digital campaign kits designed for minimal customization. On a day-to-day basis, I'm looking at campaign responses from partners to track engagement. Broadening the scope for the sum of the tactics, I'm looking at net new partner seller contacts and engagement, and marketing influence opportunities. Other usual metrics in Partner Marketing include the number of sales-qualified opportunities, marketing-qualified leads, deal registrations, new ARR, etc. Internally, collaboration is key. On top of the great Partner Marketing Team I'm part of, I'm working closely with our channel and sales teams to ensure that our to-partner motions address priority topics and provide tangible value. Regular touchpoints with the partner sales and technical enablement teams ensure that we align on the tools, strategies, and agendas needed to help partners succeed. My guiding principle is simple: partners are an extension of our team. When they succeed, we succeed, so our job is to empower them with the resources they need to thrive.

There’s no one-size-fits-all formula for partner marketing success. It really depends on factors like region, market maturity, and how engaged the partner already is. That said, some of the most effective initiatives I’ve seen include exclusive partner events, highly targeted enablement programs, and co-marketing campaigns tailored to a partner’s specific goals. The key is personalization, a well-crafted initiative that aligns with a partner’s unique challenges will always outperform a generic approach. Now, if I take this in a slightly different direction, what would I love to implement for partner engagement if budget wasn’t a constraint? One thing I’d focus on is ongoing, dynamic email nurtures for less engaged partner contacts. Imagine a program where content is updated almost in real-time, constantly optimized based on engagement data, and packed with compelling CTAs that guide partners at different stages to the most relevant assets... We actually do this, it's a scalable program that caters partners to engage with our content, equipping them with the knowledge to get OutSystems as top-of-mind against other vendors, yet the struggle of securing a budget for continuous updates is real. It takes technical expertise and ongoing iteration, but the impact on partner engagement with no budget constraints would be undeniable. With the right execution, it could turn passive partners into active, highly engaged ones instead.