Marketing Mature Partners Realize Twice the Revenue Growth as Their Less Mature Peers

BrandMuscle, the leader in integrated local and channel marketing, announced today the release of The State of Local Marketing Report 2021-2022, the most comprehensive study on local marketing, offering new insights, trends, and data-driven recommendations that brands can leverage to maximize their marketing investments’ impact and drive revenue through sales occurring at local touchpoints.

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With millions of data points gathered from more than 10,500 channel partners over the last seven years, The State of Local Marketing represents a game-changing body of work that tracks each new year’s local marketing trends against a comprehensive map of previous years. This year, BrandMuscle worked with independent researchers at Xpedition and over a dozen large national brands across a variety of industries to assess the marketing acumen of more than 2,400 local channel partners.

This year’s report reveals that the quality of channel marketing programs provided is having a greater impact on partner marketing maturity than previously reported. A new dimension, Marketing Savvy, was added to the Local Marketing Maturity Matrix™ framework to evaluate the marketing maturity of individual partners, independent of the channel marketing program. Through this lens, the report unveils a deeper understanding of the partner spectrum and the opportunities that exist for brands to engage and activate. The Marketing Savvy dimension also provides a closer look at how partner behavior and perception, local marketing program offerings, and partner participation in those programs work together to drive revenue growth.

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This year’s research reveals a number of key insights into how brands can grow revenue and how they too often miss important opportunities:

• Marketing Mature partners realized 2x more revenue growth than their less mature peers.
• Partners who invest 1% or more of their revenue in marketing achieve 14% higher revenue growth. Even greater revenue growth can be achieved when partner investment is coupled with marketing knowledge.
• Millions of dollars’ worth of co-op and MDF funding went unused in 2021. Just 52% of partners reported using 75% of the available funds, while 25% used less than half.
• 1 in 4 partners don’t know what types of marketing support is provided to them through the channel marketing program.
• Channel marketing programs lack support for many of the most effective digital tactics. Just 18% of programs provide robust support for paid search, and while social media advertising is a top priority for partners, just 42% of programs provide even basic support.
• In previous years, over 85% of partners occupied the two lowest levels of marketing maturity (Disengaged and Developing). This year, the new Marketing Savvy dimension revealed that partners are more marketing mature than previously thought, and in fact, poorly designed channel marketing programs are holding them back.

BrandMuscle’s ongoing research aims to equip marketers with the insights necessary to assess their own local marketing programs and to make the informed decisions that will maximize ROI. Inside The State of Local Marketing Report 2021-2022, readers will find real-life success stories from companies who have used BrandMuscle’s assessment findings to make changes to their channel marketing programs and have, in turn, improved channel revenue and local partner engagement.

“Participating in the State of Local Marketing assessment was a catalyst to build a short-term and long-range plan that addresses the opportunities identified in the report,” said Christin Wam, Director of Marketing, Turf and Consumer Products at Briggs & Stratton. “We learned that our partners look to us to educate on marketing tactics and make it easy for them to participate in local marketing, and these are areas we can impact quickly and easily.”

For many companies, as much as 80% of total revenue can come through local channel partners, which means that most customers will experience the brand through a local partner. The State of Local Marketing Report provides marketers with a comprehensive playbook for building and optimizing channel marketing programs that align national and local campaigns.

“Our report consistently shows how brands drive significantly more revenue when they activate their local channel marketing ecosystem and support the customer journey from the first touchpoint to the final sale,” said Sarah Cucchiara, SVP of Channel Marketing Strategy at BrandMuscle. “Brands can leverage this year’s illuminating insights and recommendations to better activate local partners on their behalf for a win-win.”

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