Progress Software Introduces New Partner Empowerment Tools

Progress Software has been committed to delivering market-leading technology innovations that empower their partners and customers to dramatically improve the development, deployment, integration and management of their business applications. With more than 2,000 partners, Progress Software’s Partner+ Program is dedicated to helping its partners turn ideas into business realities through thought leadership and technical empowerment programs.

Progress understood that a content-driven strategy could help the company combat market saturation and help differentiate itself in the market. With numerous partners in various fields, the software company wanted a marketing solution that could be utilized by all partners, but still be tailored to meet their different needs. In addition, the company needed a solution that could help in the creation, implementation and execution of a content marketing strategy.

Powered By Progress

To address these goals, Progress Software created a new marketing program, the Powered by Progress Communications platform. It is a partnership between Progress Software and ContentMX, a content marketing company. Using ContentMX’s content marketing platform, partners are able to easily define and implement a content marketing strategy.

“We use ContentMX for our own communications, and we have found the ContentMX platform has made it easy for channel partners to leverage their own communication efforts,” said Chuck Sicard, Global Partner Marketing Manager at Progress. “An integrated content strategy is really important to us, and for our Partners. ContentMX is ideal for us because it allows us to engage with our Partners and customers easily. We’re excited to be able to offer the solution out to all of our partners.”

Since developing the program, Progress has identified three principles that have aided in empowering all Progress Partners to utilize a content marketing strategy:

1. One-stop access to resources: When partners register for the program, ContentMX sets them up with a custom content library. Each library is tailored to meet the content needs of the partner, and consists of recommended content from Progress, their own original content and curated content from trusted resources. The library pulls content from web sites, blogs and social media feeds.

The custom library makes it easy for partners to use original and curated content to sustain their content marketing strategies. Having access to the library helps with the creation and distribution of content. Each partner is set up for success by having great content at their fingertips.

2. A symbiotic relationship drives partner enablement: To help the partners overcome the challenge of creating content, Progress Software sends partners approved and recommended content to the partners, and the partners submits their original content to Progress who then syndicates the content. The symbiotic relationship is an efficient and mutually beneficial relationship that engages the entire channel. The content library is the channel of communication that drives this interdependent relationship:

Content is delivered weekly to partners;

Partners publish content out to all their digital networks;

Partners generate their own content and submit it to Progress for sharing; and

Progress can then syndicate and socialize the Partner generated content.

3. One integrated effort: The ContentMX platform makes it easy for partners to approach their content marketing strategy as one integrated effort. The partners can access and post to all their web sites, blogs, social media channels and email newsletters from one hub. Their content libraries are automatically populated with content, and they can easily search for and discover new content. And most importantly, the platform makes it easy to participate in social selling, enabling partners to easily interact with customers and track new leads.