RAISING the profile of Business to Business (B2B) and partner marketing is one of the core missions of a newly-launched and dedicated forum after it received Government support in the form of an Innovate UK grant amounting to almost £200k.
Partner strategy and execution specialist, Coterie, has launched the 'Coterie Community', a dedicated forum for partner and channel marketers, after being awarded a £194,000 management Knowledge Transfer Partnership (mKTP) from Innovate UK, in collaboration with the University of Huddersfield.
The funding will enable Coterie to work alongside Huddersfield Business School providing research and business development to design and develop the framework for the community, as well as developing training for the industry.
"This isn't just another general B2B marketing community, this is about developing innovative ideas, underpinned by sound academic research that helps to take partner marketing to the next level and finally get it noticed."
Helen Curtis, Coterie Founding Director
The need for the 'Coterie Community' was identified in the 2021 research report, Ecosystem 2.0, conducted by Coterie and the University, which identified a lack of support for specialist partner marketers and B2B marketers and limited marketing innovation.
The grant from Innovate UK involved Coterie undergoing a rigorous multistage process and submitting a detailed two-year project plan. With the funding, Coterie has invested in a dedicated Business Development Manager, Dorin Cernat, as well as academic leadership from Professor Shona Bettany, from Huddersfield Business School, supported by experts in organisational change (Dr Nicola Stenberg) and project management (Dr Jim Bamford).
Support, deliver training and provide research
Having academic support throughout the community to help guide skills training and provide exclusive research will give the community some real purpose, explained Professor Shona Bettany, the author of the Ecosystem 2.0 research report.
"This community will be an invaluable space where global B2B marketers can come together for credible, research-informed support and feel confident that the industry and marketing knowledge they are receiving is academically rigorous as well as practically useful."
Laura Forester-Green, KTP Manager at the University of Huddersfield commented: "We look forward to expanding our relationship with Coterie into an area where we believe we can drive real innovation and change to help partner marketers thrive in this generation and the next."
The Coterie Community will bring together partner marketers from vendors, ISVs, resellers, systems integrators and service providers, to share exclusive research, training, tools, templates and create safe, friendly discussion forums. The community will be vendor-agnostic and be run by and for its members.
"We wanted to do something proactive about the lack of knowledge in B2B marketing and partner marketing and provide training and research to raise its profile and support this community," said Helen Curtis, Founding Director at Coterie.
"The Coterie Community will be a single place where partner marketers - from any organisation - can come together to develop new skills, network with peers, and learn.
"This isn't just another general B2B marketing community, this is about developing innovative ideas, underpinned by sound academic research that helps to take partner marketing to the next level and finally get it noticed."
The community also aims to drive new thinking and help partner marketers with everything from how to devise the right strategy to drive leads, to business planning and developing marketing skills for new areas of the discipline.
