Co-marketing is working. That’s the good news.
Partner requests are up. Everyone wants to collaborate. Joint webinars, listings, blog posts, launch emails, case studies. Your ecosystem is active, visible, and hungry for exposure.
The bad news? Every single request feels like a small fire.
What should be a growth lever has turned into approval hell. Endless coordination. Asset reviews. Brand checks. Legal loops. Internal stakeholders chiming in late. Timelines slipping. Energy draining.
If this sounds familiar, here’s the hard truth:
Approval hell isn’t caused by demand. It’s caused by how you’re running co-marketing.
Approval hell is a self-inflicted problem
Most co-marketing programs break the same way.
They treat every partner like a strategic partner.
A long-tail integration partner gets the same bespoke treatment as a top-tier alliance. Custom coordination. Manual reviews. One-off decisions. The full approval gauntlet.
That model doesn’t scale. It was never meant to.
As co-marketing demand rises, the process collapses under its own weight. Not because your team isn’t capable, but because the system assumes everything is custom.
When everything requires human approval, your program becomes the bottleneck.
The real issue: no automation for the long tail
Let’s be clear. Not every partner needs a high-touch co-marketing motion.
Most partners want something much simpler:
- Visibility
- Credibility
- A place to point customers
- A way to show they’re part of your ecosystem
They do not need:
- A custom webinar
- Six internal reviewers
- Legal redlines on every sentence
- Weeks of back-and-forth
When long-tail partners are forced through a bespoke process, approval hell is guaranteed.
Two lanes. One team. Very different motions.
Healthy co-marketing programs separate partners into two clear lanes.
Lane 1: long-tail and same-size partners
This is where automation should live.
These partners benefit most from:
- Self-serve marketplace listings
- Pre-approved messaging and positioning
- Evergreen co-marketing surfaces
- Clear rules of engagement instead of one-off decisions
This lane should require almost no manual coordination.
Lane 2: strategic and large partners
This is where your team’s time actually matters.
This is where you invest in:
- Custom campaigns
- Joint launches
- Executive alignment
- Creative storytelling
- Revenue-focused initiatives
Approval hell happens when lane one and lane two are treated the same.
Why marketplaces are the escape hatch
If your marketplace is just a directory, you’re missing the point.
A real partner marketplace is your default co-marketing operating layer.
It gives long-tail partners a clear, automated path to visibility without dragging your team into every decision. Listings are structured. Messaging is standardized. Placement is intentional. Approvals are built into the system, not handled manually.
Instead of saying “we’ll review this,” you’re saying “here’s how this works.”
That shift alone eliminates most approval loops.
Evergreen beats one-off every time
Manual co-marketing creates short bursts of value that immediately decay.
Evergreen co-marketing compounds.
Marketplace listings, integration pages, in-app discovery, and developer-facing content keep working long after they’re published. They don’t need to be re-approved every quarter. They don’t expire when a campaign ends.
Automation doesn’t cheapen co-marketing.
It makes it durable.
What you actually get back
When long-tail co-marketing is automated, three things happen fast:
- Approval hell disappears
Not because people move faster, but because fewer things need approval at all. - Partners get clearer answers
Less waiting. Less confusion. Fewer dropped balls. - Your team gets its time back
Time to focus on the partners and campaigns that actually move pipeline.
Approval hell isn’t a workload problem.
It’s a prioritization problem.
Stop treating every partner like a bespoke project
If co-marketing demand is rising, that’s a win. But if every request requires manual coordination, your program will eventually stall.
The fix isn’t more process.
It’s fewer exceptions.
Automate co-marketing for the long tail. Make your marketplace the default. Protect your team’s time for strategic partnerships that deserve it.
That’s how co-marketing scales without burning out the people running it.
