The Channel Marketing Industry is Ripe for Change.

Three-quarters of channel marketers agree that their current solutions have a positive impact on sales and view having the right one as a significant competitive advantage. But only about half (51%) believe that channel marketing efforts yield equivalent benefits as other marketing programs.

They are also keenly aware of the risks of doing it poorly with 90% believing it can damage a brand’s reputation. Despite this, budgets ($57MM on average) are not under threat with 40% expecting to increase spend by 5-7% in the next 12 months.

The top challenges are typically tool and system-related: Visibility is limited by analytics; processes require a lot of heavy lifting; and ROI can't be optimized with current approaches.