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WHITE PAPER
WHEN MARKETING
GOES ROGUE:
How platforms empower your channel partners and
prevent random acts of marketing
by Mark Iverson
age VP, CRO Business Development
G
BRINGING ENGAGEMENT TO LIFE
WHEN MARKETING GOES ROGUE
Expand the loyalty of your channel through training,
professional development and marketing automation
However, the need is to have a balance between enterprise-
Every channel marketing chief or director of indirect sales has
business requirements, and a platform that is robust enough
experienced it. An outdated brochure that won’t go away.
to provide enterprise level flexibility to drive training, sales and
An email blast with an outdated logo—or worse—featuring a
marketing resources.
product that no longer exists. Let’s face it: when you’re working
Luckily, this is the 21st century. There are technology-enabled
with your channel’s sales force, it’s possible that their marketing
frameworks and platforms to ensure that your brand stays
can go a little rogue.
on message, current and legally compliant with every sale.
Every organization that sells through indirect methods wants an
This paper will outline three model strategies that some of the
effective way to manage sales and marketing to audiences with
world’s leading brands use to stamp out random marketing,
differing goals. (They have differing goals than you because,
and also fan the flame to empower and excite a salesforce with
by definition of a channel, they are not directly owned by you.)
marketing that drives engagement and advocacy.
Without exception, every customer Gage has worked with over
The three top-line elements your channel strategy must include
the past 25 years has a platform in place in one form or another,
to thwart random acts of marketing and empower your channel:
whether this be a simple spreadsheet or a multi-million dollar
easy to use marketing resources, engaging channel training
solution which has taken years to fine tune.
programs, and strong loyalty-building incentive programs. Let’s
level scalability and the flexibility to accommodate specific
look at each of these elements in turn.
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WHEN MARKETING GOES ROGUE
I. EASY TO USE MARKETING RESOURCES
Creating marketing assets requires a disciplined approach
Chris is a channel marketing and indirect sales director at
and a thorough plan, but the time required both for delivery
a major international cruise line. While working closely on
and management can be reduced by employing a
marketing plans with a fleet of travel agents from throughout
consolidated resource/platform. Imagine
Europe and the United States, a work backlog began to grow,
marketing materials drop shipping to
requiring either additional staff or cuts in service. With so much
partners, served up as easily
to produce based on lines of service and destinations—and too
as online shopping.
much to ship out to smaller agency shops—he also found that
Always be looking
costs were accretive with a duplication of effort from sending
for ways to lower
identical resources and becoming harder to scale. The calls
the barriers for your
for print on demand, banner ads, web page descriptions and
partners, and reduce
emails were engulfing him and many of his staff. To right the
the workload for yourself
ship, he overhauled his channel program and launched a new
at the same time.
technology solution to float the market resources to his channel
with an easily accessed platform. Now his brokers could order
the brochures, digital assets and content they needed to remain
competitive without making direct service requests, leaving him
time to act more strategically.
Channel partners will sell what is easiest to sell. If the
partner thinks you’re making things too complicated, that can
lead to some renegade marketing. Simplifying the process for
retrieval of supporting marketing materials, for example, is one
way a coherent technology platform can reduce the efforts your
partners need to make.
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WHEN MARKETING GOES ROGUE
Channel partners do not always have marketing staff,
especially SMBs. Without a dedicated marketing team that
knows the brand and campaign plan, “going rogue” is the
symptom of a knowledge gap. Assuming tribal knowledge
within your channel around creative, reporting, ad channels,
or any other aspect of marketing, can limit your opportunity to
best serve their needs. If you have time and access, research
your partners’ departmental depth. If you’re unable to find a
marketing counterpart, they will depend on your expertise.
The better you can make you channel partners look,
the more they will sell for you. Can you help position
your partners as trusted resellers/VARs or retailers to their
customers? The credibility you’ve gained as a brand can
benefit your entire sales channel, and help them stay loyal to
you, as well as implementing your strategy. Can you advocate
for your channel partners in the same way you’re asking them
to advocate for you? Set an example. Use social media,
to help them tell their story, even if it isn’t directly related to
your product. Field marketing guidance and advice is also a
consultative benefit too many channel chiefs overlook.
The first ground rule of a channel relationship, of course, is
that both you and the channel partner want to make a profit
through the sale of your product. However, it’s important to
understand that, while you both want profitability, the ways
you pursue that goal are in direct conflict.
You, as the supplier, look to drive down YOUR cost of sales
by leveraging the resources (personnel, floor space, etc.)
of the channel partner. Meanwhile, the channel partner is
looking to you to minimize the cost of ramp up and reduce
THEIR cost of sales.
Under the circumstances, the only solution is to create
a joint venture relationship that takes into account the
resources both companies can bring to bear in order to
make the relationship successful. This means that YOU
need to invest resources in training, marketing and
sales support. Likewise, the channel must commit
resources to training and actively promote the solution.
Each channel relationship is therefore a strategic
investment. You don’t want to recruit too many of them.
Instead, you want the ones that you DO recruit to be as
effective as possible.
Geoffrey James
How Can I Motivate My Channel Partners? Link to article:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-can-i-motivate-mychannel-partners/
Twitter: @Sales_Source
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WHEN MARKETING GOES ROGUE
Easy to use doesn’t mean easy to ignore. A concluding
thought on the reasons to make your resources as accessible
as possible: partners are always tempted to veer off. Here’s a
scenario with just three variables:
1. You are about to launch a new product bound to disrupt
an existing market. You currently manage channel
partners in 15 countries, however, this product will only
be available to partners in five out of those 15 countries
for the first few months.
The variable here? Placement.
2. Each channel partner has a different incentive structure
base on sales volume and resource commitments.
The variable here? Pricing.
3. To top it off, the channel manager in each region wants
This may be marketing 101, however, the last thing you’re
to run a unique campaign to address their specific
eager to do is manage 15 sub-campaigns. This cartoon by Tom
market.
Fishburne captures what we see in channel marketing initiatives
The variable here? Promotion.
every day.
Building loyalty to your brand requires building trust in your
channel program. Removing barriers to acceptance of your
campaign ease of use is critical to empowering the channel and
stopping random acts of marketing.
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II. CHANNEL TRAINING PROGRAMS
shoppers browsing the floor. The lines of business relevant to
Fiona is a channel chief for a global B2C software and devices
her brand created content, evangelists maintained community
supplier. Her channel partners include retail chains in 30
relationships and, over time, the knowledge gap and the
countries, and thorough research had revealed that if customers
enthusiasm gap were closed. This empowered retail sales pros
weren’t already decided on a purchase of her brand’s
to grow the brand’s in-store sales by 17 percent in one year.
products when they entered the store, they were likely to buy
competitors’ tablets and productivity software. Experiments with
the retail show floor and placement had some effect, but further
study made it clear that the enthusiasm of the retail sales staff
for competing products had a huge impact. This led to Fiona
developing a business team to evangelize and educate retail
sales professionals.
An innovative, integrated and well-managed reward component
is just one tactic for preventing random/rogue behavior
via your channel marketing platform. As it gets easier for
customers to transact through online e-commerce, customer
experience needs to continually improve while adding value
to communications between the Channel and customers.
Improving the customer experience requires well-trained,
Beyond simply providing bullet points which could be read off
knowledgeable, positive partner staff: inside and outside sales
of the placard in front of her brand’s products, she directed
people need more than product details. They need clear,
the team to implement a worldwide campaign, built on an
consistent, disciplined guidance on the benefits of your offering
online platform, for generating excitement and passion for
and a reason to be enthusiastic. Random acts of training along
what their products could do for customers. Features, benefits,
with random acts of marketing create confusion, not only in the
and technical details were all still central to the message, but
minds of the customer, but also in the minds of the sales rep—
wrapped within a presentation dynamic that recognized the
and the confused mind always says “no.” Empower them to
unique interaction challenges that retail workers experience with
say “yes.”
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WHEN MARKETING GOES ROGUE
Platforms must provide value to all participants, to grow.
Gage refers to this as the “storytelling experience” to engaging
Don’t architect a platform that only serves the needs of one
with your brand, or the “meta” experience. The manner and
product range, or one side of the business, such as the inside
form of the content, as well as the delivery method, can be as
sales force. Think comprehensively: the high priority area may
relevant to the content being delivered. Think about it: even a
have dependencies in what you perceive to be a lower priority
great movie is hard to enjoy in a bad theater. And a great book
line of business.
is hard to enjoy in an unreadable font. Make the investment to
Choose one that enables and empowers all the stakeholders
within a partner. What does this entail? For one thing, taking
provide an entertaining, easily absorbed training content set,
and deliver it in an easy to consume manner.
the time to really understand the personas within your
Ease of sharing valuable training. Platforms must be able to
channel partner and the personas of their customers—
provide relevant training material to the most relevant audience
distinct motivations, distinct expectations.
in real-time.
Instead of providing a 60-minute webinar on effective
Platforms that unify your campaign efforts allow you to share
sales techniques that will never be consumed (yet alone
and target training/content to your partner-specific audience to
comprehended), consider providing training content to your
drive true behavioral change, advocacy and long-term loyalty.
channel partners in the form of three- to four- minute segments
(videos, for example) that can be encountered in real-time, or
on-demand. (Google refers to this “snackable content” trend as
a micro-moment).
Make the investment to
provide an entertaining, easily
absorbed training content set
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WHEN MARKETING GOES ROGUE
Only by serving needs based on the key attributes of your
experiences. If you can incorporate teams into your channel
audience at the individual level will you be able to drive content
programs, the chances of “finite variability” are lessened and
and promotions (incentives) more effectively. This is a mandatory
your channel program continues to capture attention. (For a
item for any channel platform you pick.
more in-depth discussion on the power of variable rewards,
Creating training that is engaging often includes Gamification
options. Training, from an employee perspective, can often feel
refer to Chapter Four of “Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming
Products” by Nir Eyal.)
like one more burden, and one more distraction. How can you
Channel training leads to increased sales and advocacy.
engage, grow mindshare, add reward incentives and mental
Whether it’s a B2B buyer or a consumer in a store, an informed
triggers to keep them self-motivated? How can you empower
sales representative will always instill more confidence than
your partners’ staffs? Activate a training platform that uses
someone who isn’t sure about the facts. Think of all the effort
multiple reward systems, intrinsic and extrinsic, as an integral
and expense that brands expend to get someone to know
part of its offering.
about their product, to be aware of the problem and the
Yes, money can be a huge motivator for driving sales behavior.
However, economics research shows that for driving long-term
proposed solution set, which lead to your indirect sales force
facing a prospective customer.
engagement and advocacy, financial incentives are not always
sufficient. Some individuals are driven by recognition from their
peers. Others want exclusive access to unique content or
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WHEN MARKETING GOES ROGUE
Don’t lose the value invested in that journey by tripping at the
III. CHANNEL INCENTIVES AND REWARDS
finish line. Ensure your channel partners are thoroughly edified.
Sarah is a channel marketing manager for a large paper
Randomly conducted research or DIY training by an eager
products manufacturer in the Midwest. Her brand faces
sales rep may be admirable, but it can lead to inaccuracies and
enormous shelf-space competition, mostly from lower-quality
eventual confusion on the part of your potential customer.
(cheaper) brands, and she’s done the research to determine
Research has proven time and again: an effective training
program boosts channel sales professional productivity.
Continuous training can give 50 percent higher net sales per
employee. Tie up the loose end of marketing campaigns—be
sure your sales force can close the deal.
that newer partner marketing managers have less name
recognition and feel less loyalty for her company’s well-known
brand name than prior generations. Knowing that margins were
thin and that prior pricing incentives hadn’t moved the needle
adequately, she spent time with channel partner representatives
on the phone building relationships, and getting surprising
insights about their customers. With the information she
obtained, she created an incentive program using intangible
rewards, such as a blog post interviews along with social
mentions of marketing managers and sales reps, writing
recommendations for their LinkedIn profiles—all of which are
intended to boost the reputation and standing of the marketing
professionals with whom she was working. Her rewards
platform helped her manage the difficult task of categorizing,
assessing, prioritizing, and managing communications with
these channel partners.
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WHEN MARKETING GOES ROGUE
You may have too many channel partners for a high-touch
incentive based strictly on sales.) This has the potential to open
program, such as the one Sarah undertook, to be workable.
up several project paths and workflows to avoid the perils of
The point is that incentive programs often need a creative
rogue marketing—again, technology can be your friend. Find a
implementation with a clear technological management
platform that helps you manage and direct the effort.
workflow to be operable.
A correctly-structured incentive programs shifts support to
your brand over your competition. Incentives/rewards have
a high influence on channel professionals’ willingness to sell
your products and services. How can your brand create ”True
Loyalty” in the Channel?
Here are some incentive/rewards guidelines for your channel
programs:
Reward program essentials. For channel marketing
professionals, there’s a basic understanding: you need to gain
incremental volume within a contained reward budget. The
approach for rewards must be engaging, yet flexible enough to
This requires a combination of rewards that support both
deal with your unique situation and company structure. In order
short- and long-term behaviors and are relevant to a variety
to ensure a high participation level, tracked data, such as sales,
of motivations. (We’re thinking beyond a rebate program,
must be captured in a non-intrusive way as close to real-time
which too many partner programs pursue, or another sort of
feedback and reporting as possible. When it’s not possible:
we’ve actually managed programs where channel sales is
recorded, but not reported for up to 90 days. To overcome this,
How can your brand create
True Loyalty in the Channel?
we established an algorithm to distribute sales figures based on
historical data to track the channel program—as close to realtime as possible.
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Above all, the incentive offered must be perceived to be worth
For example, if you are asking channel partners to register
the effort. This is the same as any optimization regime applied
through an e-mail message, append a unique CRM tracking-
to marketing or content: user feedback, A/B testing, research,
code to e-mail links, and pre-populate details in the registration
can help you determine what incentives drive behavior and
form. The key benefits to this simple action? One, you’ve
which ones are easy to ignore. Look for reward platforms with
provided a simple and elegant user experience. Two, you either
that feature.
confirm or provide an easy way to update key fields—location,
Simple, simple, simple. Your program must be easy to
understand, requiring minimal effort in order to participate. To
accomplish this, put robust systems in place behind the scenes.
Automate processes, and provide user-friendly tools and
features to make participation effortless.
company name, and company designation. (“Reseller and
Channel, LLC”, “R and C, LLC”, “R&C” may all be the same
organization, but ended up being entered into the partner
database as three different entries, a common error).
Basic structure. A common structure is to provide reward
members with points for purchases of eligible product, either by
SKU or invoice dollar volume. If tracking by SKU, experiment!
Your program could vary point offers to help drive specific
product purchases.
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WHEN MARKETING GOES ROGUE
For example: you could offer higher points for items with greater
Company, individual and champions. Ideally, rewards at the
margin, or offer bonus points for discontinued items that
individual level produce more memorable impact. Thus, your
need to be liquidated. Another possibility is award lower point
data should include “sales per individual.” This can often be
values for best sellers to create balance. Wherever you can
challenging, if not impossible. If this is the case, look to reward
add variability to the engagement by overlaying time-sensitive
the office instead, and encourage the earned rewards to “trickle
promotions, such as BOGOs, rebates and contests, integrate
down” to those who’ve made the greatest impact. For example,
a communications plan with targeted and meaningful emails
if sales can only be tracked by office, then target or nominate
carefully scheduled.
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She gets recruited as a
Champion, enrolls her
company in the program,
and registers her team.
Encouraged by Nicole and
motivated by rewards, Hugh
sends an email alert to drum
up business and earn points.
After three big sales, Hugh
checks his profile. He realizes
he has earned points for the
email, as well as the sales.
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Hugh checks the REWARD
site and sees that he has
enough points for a Nab It
item; he nabs it just in time.
Nicole attends an event
and discovers the
REWARDS program.
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To supplement his growing point
total, Hugh takes training courses
and signs up for the next
REWARD event.
When flush with points, Hugh
bids on an Xbox — and wins.
Nicole enters her team into
a sweepstakes for a chance
to win even bigger rewards.
They don’t win.
Nicole knows that bigger prizes
are more common for companies
with higher sales volume. She
orders promo materials to generate
enthusiasm and motivate her team to
take them to the next level.
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one key individual inside the company and identify them as a
The goal with rewards, then, is to optimize for the greatest
company “Champion” who will manage the company’s reward
member motivation for the least cost. Ensure that you have
points and redemptions. This is the individual who will enroll,
offers which are enticing enough to change behavior … without
and with whom you will communicate, as the main point of
spending more than needed to reach that impact. Look for your
contact. If offices have others in the organization who influence
partner to assist with financial models to help determine the
the purchase decision, encourage the Champion to share
correct award budget. A correctly structured channel reward
rewards to motivate these influencers as well.
program prevents random acts of marketing, and can save you
Reward structure challenges. Your relationship with your
a significant amount of money in the immediate and long term.
partner’s customer presents a data challenge: not all channel
partners are willing to share sensitive sales data. If that data is
shared, it is likely at the channel partner level rather than the
channel sales professional level.
To add even more complexity, your incentive program is
As you start to increase the performance of your channel
competing against numerous other incentives and promotions
through easy-to-use marketing tools, micro-moment training
offered by your competitors, and other channel partners, and
and a structured reward program, the fun part for channel
adherence to a budget for maximized results.
partners is reaping their rewards: the loyalty and relationship
Summary on approaches. In comparison with training and
which emanate from that helps keep them from going rogue.
marketing resources, the reward line item in any given channel
program is typically the greatest ongoing expense. Incentives
have an accrued cost, along with the work output costs for
management and execution.
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The following is a brief discussion on the pros and cons for
value, although they have perceived value to channel partners.
some common approaches, from the basics to the more
The integration of offers, and a gamification component, spurs
complex:
competition and an emotional drive. A key point here is to
Online catalogs. This is probably one of the easiest and most
common forms for rewarding channel partners. In essence, a
variety of items are categorized and assigned point values and
if the partner has enough points, they are able to redeem the
item. Members have a large variety of items to choose from and
can redeem at any time. This is the easiest of all redemptions to
ensure that offerings are never stale; update frequently. Because
of the nature of an auction, you will see high activity to your site.
On the downside, items expire; points can only redeem when
an item is offered. As this is chance-based, there can be no
guarantee the item a member wants will be the item they’re able
to win.
understand (and probably the most common). The downside is
A time-tested strategy for auctions is to complement a
that this approach requires significant point liability management
traditional points redemption plan with experiential items
and it can be difficult to control your reward budget. On-
(experiences money just can’t buy). For example: exclusive
going maintenance is needed to ensure items are current and
backstage access with a prominent keynote speaker at your
available—and as most online catalogs go with a cash-card
company channel partner event. Loyalty to your campaign plan
redemption, the rewards may not have as much significance as
to obtain a unique experience: a great way to reign in random
something that is physically shipped.
acts of marketing.
Auctions. A structure very similar to popular consumer auction
Sweepstake promotion with points. Partners can use their
sites, partners can leverage points to bid on items. Auctions are
point to buy chances to win a number of weekly/monthly prizes.
gaining popularity for one key reason: these types of rewards
All partners—even partners with few points—can participate,
allow precise control over your budget. There can be limited
with the opportunity to earn prizes. You can also tout high-value
or no point liability management. Points technically have no
prizes, garnering excitement for minimal cost. From a financial
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WHEN MARKETING GOES ROGUE
perspective, you acquire a precise reward budget. The obvious
Segmentation. Because channel partners can be very small to
downside is that this is chance-based; with no guarantee to
very large, we recommend segmenting members into like-sized
win, there are those who ignore the opportunity.
groups once a volume of points have been earned. The reward
Intermittent rewards/flash offers/“Nab It”. This approach
is based on the psychological truth that anticipation of a unique
offer can be as motivating as actually winning a prize. Retailers
such as Amazon or Costco use a treasure hunt approach to
driving traffic (foot or web). The mechanics are straightforward:
platforms/website will be dynamic with certain content exposed
based on the segment the partner falls into once purchase
data is known. This allows you to segment the message
appropriately both online and via email, providing personalized
and relevant offers and messaging.
a randomly timed offer is sent by email announcing a limited
There are numerous options you can integrate into your existing
quantity of high-interest items, offered at value pricing—when
channel programs: align the business objectives with the long-
they are gone, they’re gone. You can control the exact budget
term behavior you want to reinforce, such as adherence to a
of your offer. The downside: you have no guarantee for a win,
channel marketing strategy. As you have probably experienced,
and a relatively small number of channel partners can win.
the best programs combine a variety of the techniques and
The “if you build it, they will come” approach to having your
approaches listed above.
channel partners engage you’re your portal is a fallacy. The
The case for preventing randomness by employing Platforms.
biggest challenge you will have is driving active engagement.
As mentioned above, very few organizations are starting from
Using intermittent rewards creates significant traffic to your
scratch when it comes to managing their channel initiatives.
channel site as well as excitement about the program—and
Best practices revolve around identifying simple behaviors that
engaged partners don’t go rogue.
can be rewarded in some form. For example, with a channel
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platform in place, you can start to leverage your other activities
The modern channel marketers needs a balance between
to tie into a cohesive, ROI-based campaign to drive decades
enterprise-level scalability and flexibility to accommodate
of results.
specific business requirements, as well as a platform that is
Here are ideas for channel partner rewards which leverage
your current structure:
robust enough to provide enterprise-level flexibility to drive
training, sales and marketing resources.
• Points for taking (or conducting) training
• Ordering and using marketing materials
• Conducting or producing promotions
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mark brings extensive experience
• Attending events and tradeshows
providing global sales, operations
• Recruiting other members
management and business
• Social sharing
development for a variety of
As stated above, every organization that sells through
indirect methods wants an effective way to manage sales
and marketing to audiences with disparate goals. (They have
differing goals—they are not directly owned by you.) Without
exception, every customer Gage has worked with over the
past 25 years has a platform in place, whether this be a simple
spreadsheet to a multi-million dollar solution which has been
firms, ranging from start-up to
multinational, across financial
and technical industries. He also
serves as a board member for
local nonprofit Read Indeed and
received his Bachelor’s degree
from the University of St. Thomas.
fine-tuned over several years.
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Since its inception, Gage has been leveraging marketing and technology to help clients sell more.
After 24 years of never wavering from this philosophy, the engagement marketing firm recently introduced
the Gage Channel Performance Suite, which is designed for brands to work more effectively with their
channel partners.
The suite comprises three platforms that focus on common pain points often encountered by companies
that sell through distribution:
·Brands can drive channel partners’ knowledge and excitement for its products and services with
Gage EDUCATE. The platform offers an easy to use content creation tool to easily create and publish
a variety of content—including quizzes, videos and resource materials—using brand-compliant
templates. Administrators can also measure and assess user participation and comprehension with
EDUCATE’s robust reporting tools.
· The Gage MARKET platform provides partners with all the tools they need to quickly and effectively
create and launch localized marketing campaigns—print, email and web—that are brand compliant.
·Gage’s REWARD platform enables brands to consolidate all sales promotions into one place while
utilizing a wide range of programs—including auction, sweepstakes and loyalty rewards—to help
marketers to deliver the right sales incentive at the right time.
Gage’s platforms can be used independently to address specific challenges. Use one or combine two
or three to provide channel partners with powerful learning, marketing and rewards experiences. Gage’s
platforms are used by some of the world’s leading brands, including Microsoft, Norwegian Cruise Line,
Skype and Rich, and are backed by Gage’s marketing specialists.
Visit gage.com to learn more.
© 2016 Gage. All rights reserved.
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