AWS Marketplace

Best practices for driving traffic to your AWS Marketplace listing

In this blog post, I will share AWS programs and resources you can use to increase awareness and drive traffic to your AWS Marketplace listings. AWS Marketplace is a curated digital software catalog that lets AWS customers find, test, and purchase third-party software licenses. All purchases are consolidated into a customer’s AWS bill.

Developing a go-to-market (GTM) strategy is critical for the success of your cloud marketplace business. This post will help you plan and execute tactics to develop and nurture AWS leads and convert prospects to customers through key AWS programs and resources. I will show you how to develop your product messaging through the AWS Marketplace Academy and how to plan and execute demand generation tactics using the Seller GTM Program Guide. I’ll also introduce the AWS Partner Network (APN) which provides co-selling programs for sellers to engage AWS sales teams. Using these programs and resources can help customers learn about and adopt your product listings in AWS Marketplace more quickly.

AWS Marketplace versus APN

I’m often asked about the difference between AWS Marketplace and the APN. Here’s a quick summary: AWS Marketplace is a procurement channel for independent software vendors (ISVs) and AWS Partners to easily transact with AWS customers. It’s not a top-of-funnel lead generation engine or discovery platform, so I recommend sellers have a solid GTM plan in place to market their solutions. By contrast, the APN is a global partner program focused on providing partners programmatic, technical, business, and go-to-market support, including co-selling and co-marketing with AWS. In short, your AWS Marketplace presence should complement greater partnership efforts established by your participation in the APN.

Prerequisites

To follow this tutorial, you must be registered as an AWS Marketplace seller. If you are not, review the following AWS Marketplace blog posts to get started: 7 Tips to Successfully Submit Your Product Listing in AWS Marketplace and Best practices guide to successfully list your SaaS contract solution in AWS Marketplace.

For more information on the seller registration process, review the AWS Marketplace Seller Guide: Seller registration process section.

Walkthrough: best practices for driving traffic to your AWS Marketplace listing

Step 1: Develop your AWS Marketplace strategy using the AWS Marketplace Academy

Prior to publishing your product listing, I recommend developing strategies and tactics for targeting and converting AWS customers.

The best resource to do this is the AWS Marketplace Academy. This portal provides training modules with onboarding and self-service resources designed to help you build, activate, and measure demand generation campaigns for your product listing. These modules are outlined in the following list. They contain videos, webcasts, and a self-service workshop that guides you through AWS-recommended GTM activities to bolster awareness for your product listing. You can choose to complete all of them or only the ones that apply to your business.

  1. Understand the fundamentals: Build the foundation for listing your offering in AWS Marketplace by defining a “better together” story and a use case that resonates with your customers.
  2. Develop your GTM campaign: Develop your GTM campaign, define key performance indicators (KPIs) and how to measure return on investment (ROI), and review foundational campaign assets.
  3. Prepare to launch: Prepare to launch your GTM campaign elements and enable your sales organization to sell in AWS Marketplace.
  4. Execute your campaign: Learn how to use promotional, nurturing, and retargeting tactics to create assets that drive demand for your offering.
  5. Measure, track, and report GTM metrics: Measure GTM performance by tracking key activities against the KPIs you defined in module 2 to optimize where necessary to increase ROI.
  6. Expand your reach: Learn how to broaden your customer reach and increase engagement by using the Consulting Partner Private Offers program (CPPO).

To register for the AWS Marketplace Academy, do the following:

  1. Sign in to the AWS Marketplace Management Portal (AMMP).
  2. In the Home tab right side bar, navigate to the Marketplace resources section. If you are a first-time user, you must first register as a seller. Once registered, you can sign in at AWSMarketplaceAcademy.com, formerly known as www.180daygtmacademy.com.

Step 2: Plan and execute demand generation tactics

I recommend you announce the availability of your product listing in your owned channels through press releases, blog posts, and social media posts.

1. Press releases

Press releases should highlight the customer’s benefit for adopting your solution and contain a clear call to action. Keep in mind that AWS Marketplace does not endorse any seller feature, product, or benefit. You may state that your feature or product is available in AWS Marketplace. You can work with your AWS Marketplace Business Development Manager to ensure your press release complies with AWS branding guidelines. Here are examples of approved language for press releases:

    1. “AnyCompany announced the availability of its [software product] as both a private listing and public offer in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Marketplace.”
    2. “AnyCompany company’s addition to the AWS Marketplace allows customers to quickly access its [software product] through a consolidated billing and procurement process, allowing customers to leverage AWS budgeting services for AnyCompany software purchases.”
    3. “The engagement with AWS builds on an existing relationship. Together, the companies are providing a complete cloud services and cloud management portfolio that will give customers fast, flexible access to the cloud.”
    4. “AnyCompany application runs on the flexible, scalable, pay-as-you-go AWS Cloud.”
    5. “AnyCompany and Amazon Web Services are working together to….”

2. Blog posts

Blog posts are a great way to dive deeper into customer use cases, common challenges, or announcements. I recommend publishing a blog post to your owned channels and using the AWS Marketplace blog channel to assist with content development. The feedback I hear most from customers is that the most beneficial posts are ones that provide deep-dive, technical tutorials that show how to use AWS Marketplace products and AWS services to solve a common challenge. You can work with your AWS Marketplace Business Development Manager to ensure your blog post complies with AWS branding guidelines. Here are examples of well-performing blog posts featuring AWS Marketplace listings:

    1. Setting up OpenVPN Access server in Amazon VPC
    2. Launch a blockchain-powered ecommerce store with Dshop in AWS Marketplace
    3. Centralize authentication using Ping Identity, AWS Control Tower, and AWS Single Sign-On

3. Social media posts

Social media posts are a great way to amplify announcements and increase awareness. You can increase your chances of having a tweet re-tweeted on the AWS Marketplace Twitter page by following these tweet guidelines:

    1. Follow or like AWS Marketplace and/or AWS social media accounts.
    2. Tweets can link to the seller’s AWS Marketplace listing page, a PR announcement, educational blog, landing page, webinar, or other content.
    3. Include an image or animated video.
    4. Mention the AWS Marketplace Twitter handle: @awsmarketplace.
    5. Tweets should link to paid offerings. It is possible to promote free offerings if a content review validates the value to customers.
    6. All tweets should be in English.

Here are examples of seller tweets that were appropriate to be retweeted by AWS Marketplace:

    1. MongoDB Atlas (Pay-As-You-Go) is now available on @awsmarketplace
    2. Dropbox and @HelloSign are now available on @awsmarketplace
    3. TrilioVault for Kubernetes is now available in the @awsmarketplace

You can also work with your AWS Marketplace Business Development Manager to submit social media amplification requests to our AWS Marketing teams for increased exposure to AWS customers.

Additionally, I recommend creating a landing page that includes a call to action to view your product listing in AWS Marketplace. These sites are great for highlighting the benefits of your solution, growing your email subscriber list, and capturing metrics on viewers who click through your linked resources. For more information on approved language, AWS logo usage guidelines, and branding requirements for your landing page and other marketing activities, consult these resources:

    1. Review the AWS Marketplace GTM Program Guide.
    2. Review the APN Messaging and Branding Guide and AWS Co-Branding Guide.
    3. Reach out to your AWS Marketplace Business Development Manager.

Step 3: Plan and establish co-selling with the APN

The APN is a global community of partners and independent software vendors (ISVs) that use programs, expertise, and resources to build, market, and sell offerings to AWS customers. Together, ISV partners, AWS Marketplace sellers, and AWS can provide innovative solutions, solve technical challenges, win deals, and deliver value to our mutual customers.

Sellers are increasingly seeking access to AWS customers to grow your cloud business by engaging AWS field sales teams on joint customer opportunities. To support this growing interest, APN designed the APN Customer Engagement Program (ACE), which provides visibility and tracking of qualified opportunities for your products with AWS customers. The purpose is to maintain a co-selling tool to drive successful customer engagements together. Co-selling provides better customer outcomes and assures mutual commitment from AWS and ISVs.

AWS also established the AWS ISV Accelerate Program to strengthen your co-selling partnership with AWS. The program helps you drive new business and accelerate sales cycles by connecting you with the AWS Sales organization. Benefits include:

  • Incentivizing the AWS Sales teams and providing cash incentives to support Partners’ AWS Account Managers.
  • Providing AWS Sales with visibility to ISV Partner solutions via an internal solution library. AWS also provides opportunities for Partners to educate AWS sellers on their value proposition.
  • Prioritized access to dedicated co-selling support teams.
  • Accelerate sales cycle and automate customers’ procurement experience through AWS Marketplace with discounted listing fees for your transactions.

To get started with the AWS ISV Accelerate Program, register with the AWS Partner Network and join the AWS ISV Partner Path. As you progress along your path, you will be connected with a Partner Development Representative (PDR). That PDR can help you join the ISV Accelerate Program to unlock access to focused co-selling opportunities.

Looking for more information?

If you have questions on the information I shared in this blog post or would like to get started, do the following:

  • Contact your AWS Account Manager and have them get in contact with the AWS Marketplace Business Development Team.
  • Get registered as a seller. In the AWS Marketplace Management Portal, use the Contact Us form to submit a request to speak with a member of the AWS Marketplace Business Development team.
  • Get registered as an APN Partner. In the APN Partner Central portal, to begin the onboarding process, select Let’s get started.

Conclusion

As you prepare to publish your AWS Marketplace product listings, you need a GTM strategy to enable the success of your cloud marketplace business. In this post, I introduced the AWS Marketplace Academy and GTM Program Guide to help you develop strategies and tactics for targeting and converting AWS customers. I also showed you how to plan and execute demand generation tactics such as press releases, blogs, and social posts to preferred marketing channels with AWS. And finally, I recommended establishing co-selling with the APN, including taking advantage of co-sell programs like APN Customer Engagement (ACE) with AWS Marketplace as the sell-through channel. Using these programs and resources can help speed the process by which customers learn about and adopt your product listings in AWS Marketplace.

About the author

tyler-althoffTyler Althoff is a Technical Business Development Manager helping ISVs and AWS Partners adopt AWS Marketplace as a strategic sales channel. In his role, Tyler helps Partners interpret technical requirements for launching products and shares best practices for transacting through AWS Marketplace. He has over six years of experience working in information technology and three years of experience working at AWS Marketplace. He is based in Seattle, Washington, and enjoys snowshoeing, reading, and restoring video game consoles.