Broadvoice Names Lauri Martinez As Vice President of Channel Marketing

Broadvoice, a provider of hosted voice, unified communications (UC) and SIP Trunking services for businesses, announced the appointment of technology channel marketing veteran Lauri Martinez as Vice President of Channel Marketing.

Martinez brings more than 20 years of B2B marketing experience to Broadvoice, where she will work to ensure that Broadvoice’s partner program aligns with the company’s overall growth strategy and delivers value to Broadvoice partners. Specifically, she will oversee the development of strategic marketing plans to help recruit, onboard and enable partners to market and sell Broadvoice solutions. She will be responsible for all to-channel and through-channel campaigns and will also manage the Broadvoice Partner Advisory Board.

Before joining Broadvoice, Martinez served as Senior Director, North America Field, Channel and Customer Marketing at PGi. Previously, she held senior marketing positions with CA Technologies, TSL Marketing, Windstream and IBM.

Martinez took a few minutes to with CMR about the Broadvoice partner program and her role at the company.

CMR — In the press release announcing your appointment, you commented that your first objective is to “support our partner program…proof of Broadvoice’s commitment to the channel as a true go-to-market partner.”

Lauri Martinez — As a channel-first company, it is imperative to our business that our partners feel supported through a program that rewards success, offers tools and resources to help them grow their own businesses and ultimately keeps Broadvoice top-of-mind. 

CMR — What are some of the elements of Broadvoice’s partner program that you think have contributed greatly to its success?

Lauri Martinez — The Broadvoice partner program gives every Elite partner the opportunity to make a pitch for a custom co-marketing campaign.  I took this one step further – not only will we help our partners with funding (MDF), we will work to craft a joint value proposition and focus on what we both bring to the table for our end-user customers.  I anticipate we will work to scale this opportunity so that more partners can tap into this co-marketing resource.

CMR — Are there any under-appreciated components of the Broadvoice program that you will be giving more support?

Lauri Martinez — My main goal is to get the program more widely circulated and solicit feedback on all the benefits – from our points program to our benefits available at each level of the program. I think as partners start to realize what’s included in our program, they will start to take greater advantage of what we have to offer!

CMR — The Broadvoice website says the company offers its partners comprehensive marketing resources. Are any of these resources automated? Are there new through-channel marketing practices or technologies that you think could boost the partner program’s performance?

Lauri Martinez — Our partner portal is amazing and includes several resources that can be automated. Our tool offers partners diverse options – from a custom microsite for a specific customer or the ability to create a landing page for event follow-up and meeting scheduling.

CMR — Are you now or planning to take advantage of technologies such as intent data to help partners identify opportunities?

Lauri Martinez — Definitely.  More to come on this!

CMR — What are some of the channel marketing concepts or practices that you are most excited to bring to Broadvoice?

Lauri Martinez — Throughout my career I have worked with all partner types – from VADs and VARS to MSPs and ISVs.  I hope to use some of “market-to” best practices to help recruit additional partner types who will lead with our full portfolio of communications and collaboration solutions.

CMR — Your website suggests that the Broadvoice President’s Club will be celebrating in Punta Mita this year. Assuming that the pandemic will allow that, has Covid compelled you to rethink other activities for engaging partners? What remote or virtual tactics did you see in 2020 that you will continue to employ? 

Lauri Martinez — This is something that I think about for every marketing activity. We have started to see some events open up and use our Bubble text messaging and marketing solutionas a way to gather attendee info and keep in contact. I spent all of 2020 in “pivot” mode (e.g., moving from live road shows to virtual road shows), so my plan is to continue with this practice for smaller events. We will definitely continue to keep an eye on the COVID stats for our President’s Club and work to make concessions for any winner who is not yet ready to travel.