How to Evaluate a Through-Channel Marketing Platform

What should you decide before looking at platforms?

Write down what the program has to achieve and for whom. A short brief keeps demos honest:

• Who your partners are, how many, and how they're organized (regions, tiers, multi-location owners, brands).
• Which channels they actually use today, including print, signage and direct mail if they matter.
• Whether you run MDF or co-op, and how claims work now.
• What you need to report, and to whom.
• Which systems it has to connect to: CRM, partner or dealer portal, single sign-on, printers.
• The two or three things that are failing today. Those are what the new platform has to fix.

How do you judge the partner experience?

Look at it as a partner, first and longest. Partners decide whether a program works, and most of them market in spare minutes between running their business. In a demo, ask to see:

• What a partner sees when they sign in, and how quickly they can launch a campaign from there.
• How much they have to type. Their details should already be on every piece.
• How it works on a phone.
• How a partner with several locations works across them.
• What happens when a partner gets stuck: help, training, a person to call.

Then ask a partner to try it. Their reaction will tell you more than any scorecard.

What should you test in template control?

Whether you can lock exactly what should be locked and open exactly what should be open, per field. Whether partner data fills in automatically, including logos. Whether different partners can see different templates, offers and disclaimers by region, type or tier. Whether approvals can be required for some pieces and not others, and whether there's a record of what every partner published. See brand control vs. local flexibility for what good looks like.

How do you check channel coverage?

Take one real campaign and ask to see it in every channel your partners use: email, social, local search, landing pages, and, if they matter to you, print, direct mail, signage and merchandise. A platform that's strong in digital and weak in print (or the reverse) splits your program in two. If print matters, ask to see a real press-ready file and how orders reach your printer. How variable-data printing works covers what to expect.

What should you ask about MDF and co-op?

Whether it can run your programs as they are: separate funds with their own rules, balances by partner or location, eligibility checked before the spend, claims with proof, approvals and payment, and utilization reporting. Ask to see a partner spend funds on a campaign in one flow. If it can't, you'll be running funds in a spreadsheet next to it. Background in MDF vs. co-op advertising.

What reporting do you need?

Participation first (which partners are active, which campaigns they use), then results by partner, region, campaign and channel, then fund utilization. Ask how results get back from channels the platform doesn't control, and how leads and revenue connect to your CRM. See how to measure the ROI of partner marketing.

What should you check about integrations, security and data?

• Single sign-on for corporate users and partners.
• CRM and marketing automation: where leads go, and how outcomes come back.
• Your partner or dealer portal: can the platform sit behind it, or replace it?
• Partner data: can it sync from your systems of record instead of being typed twice?
• Print and fulfillment providers: can orders flow to the ones you use?
• APIs for everything else.
• How customer data is separated from other customers' data, who can see what, and which security certifications or reports the vendor actually holds.

What should you ask about implementation and support?

Who does the setup, and what you have to provide. How existing templates, assets and catalogs get migrated. How partners are onboarded and trained. What happens when you need something the platform doesn't do yet: is there a way to get it built? Who your contact is after launch, and how quickly they respond.

How should you compare pricing?

Compare the total cost of running the program, not the headline price. Ask what's included for partners (seats, locations, training), which channels or modules cost extra, how print and media are billed, what onboarding covers, and how price changes as your network grows. The pillar guide has a short overview of how TCMA is priced.

How should you run the evaluation?

1. Send each vendor the same brief and one real campaign.
2. Ask them to demo that campaign with a sample of your partner data, as a partner and as corporate.
3. Score the partner experience with actual partners in the room.
4. Check references, including a partner (not just the corporate buyer) at a current customer.
5. Agree on a pilot with a group of partners and a measure of success before signing for everyone.

What are the red flags in a TCMA evaluation?

• The demo never shows the partner side, or shows it last.
• Every personalization needs the partner to type their own details.
• Print, funds or reporting are "on the roadmap" with no date, when you need them now.
• No way to connect results to your CRM.
• References are all corporate buyers, and none are partners.

Where does OnBrandify fit?

We'd welcome being evaluated this way. Send us your brief and a real campaign, and we'll show it in OnBrandify as your partners would see it, across every channel you use, with your funds and reporting. Request a demo, or start with the platform.