Channel Marketing Association Debuts, Brings Together Top Marketers

Some of the top marketers in the channel are coming together to share best practices as part of a brand-new peer group.

Poised to make its official launch at the Channel Futures Leadership Summit, Oct. 30-Nov. 2, in Miami, the Channel Marketing Association (CMA) is accepting members now. Its founding was fueled by frustration over the lack of suitable places for IT channel marketing professionals to meet and connect.

Channel Marketing Association’s Amy Bailey

“When I started in this channel industry, I really thought people were out for themselves. But I realized that people really want to help each other out,” said Amy Bailey, founder of Unusually Unusual Consulting and co-founder of the new Channel Marketing Association. “There’s just not a place right now where channel marketers can go for the latest information and sharing best practices.”

Beyond best practices, Bailey hopes channel marketers will join forces to be sure no one is missing out on valuable insights, and to have discussions about the strategies that are proven to work in the channel. Essentially, it’s “anything goes” to improve marketing in the channel, a specialized industry where some tricks of the trade work differently than in other sectors.

“I think there are a lot of tools out there that channel marketers can use that people aren’t that familiar with,” Bailey said. “Or, ‘Hey, we tried this event and it [wasn’t great]’ and this is what we could differently. Or ‘we tried this event’ and people responded to it. Channel marketers are very warm and welcoming, and they want to share. It’s just about giving them a place to do that.”

Channel Marketing Association Fills a Gap

Fellow co-founder Kathryn Rose, who also founded channelWise, a network of trusted experts, says this is an organization that the channel has needed for a long time.

Channel Marketing Association’s Kathryn Rose

“I had just assumed that [channel marketers] all talked to each other,” Rose told Channel Futures, remembering the time she got back into the channel a number of years ago. “They go to the same events and they stand next to each other at booths. I don’t necessarily think it’s because they were trying to hide their ideas; they just didn’t have a place to talk about them.”

Channel marketing pros can join now for free. There will likely be a membership fee down the road to cover some of the association’s costs. The CMA also is planning an annual conference, the first of which will take place next April in Grapevine, Texas.