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How to Accelerate with Microsoft Marketplace for MS Partners

What is Microsoft Commercial Marketplace?

Estimated Read Time: 3 minutes 

Intended Audience: Microsoft Partners

As a Microsoft Partner, you are offered a number of benefits by Microsoft to help you grow your business. One such benefit is the Microsoft Commercial Marketplace. The Microsoft Commercial Marketplace is an online products/services catalog where offers are listed and available to millions of global users, Microsoft sellers, and Microsoft resellers. By listing your offers on the Marketplace, you can engage new audiences and bring in more customers. In total, listings reach 4 million active users each month, generating 100,000 high quality leads. You will also have the chance to earn Marketplace awards while reducing the cost and time to market with the highly flexible listing options.

Microsoft Commercial Marketplace Stores

The Microsoft Commercial Marketplace includes – Microsoft AppSource for business solutions and Azure Marketplace for IT solutions. While both options allow Partners to list offers, enable trials, and conduct direct transactions, they both differ in terms of who they are for and what types of solutions and services they list. Let’s discuss each option:

Microsoft AppSource

Microsoft AppSource focuses on business solutions – these listings enable innovation and drive business outcomes to help customers get more done with existing licensing. Solutions listed on AppSource are built to extend directly into Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365, and Microsoft Power Platform, and customers can also access the solutions directly from these apps, as well as through the Azure portal. This includes Consulting Services, as well as Apps.

Screenshot of Microsoft AppSource Homepage in Microsoft Commercial Marketplace
Microsoft Commercial Marketplace - AppSource Homepage

Azure Marketplace

Azure Marketplace is the premier destination for solutions that are certified and optimized to run on Azure. It is an online store that focuses on helping developers and IT professionals looking for technical building blocks. Listings are typically for consulting and managed services designed to help customers get started with or accelerate the use of Azure. Customers can also access Azure Marketplace solutions through the Azure Portal.
Microsoft Commercial Marketplace - Azure Marketplace Homepage
Microsoft Commercial Marketplace - Azure Marketplace Homepage

Microsoft determines whether your offer is listed on Microsoft AppSource or Azure Marketplace, depending on offer type, category, and other selected options. Sometimes, an offer may be relevant to users of both marketplaces and can therefore appear in both, but in most cases will appear in only one of the marketplaces.

Table showing how Azure Marketplace and Microsoft AppSource differ
Differences between Microsoft Commercial Marketplace Stores

Leverage the Microsoft Marketing Partner for Marketplace

Getting your offer approved to be listed on the Microsoft Commercial Marketplace can be a daunting process, which is why working with experts specializing in Microsoft Partner Marketing can be worthy of bringing in the expertise in spades. By working with Microsoft Partner marketing experts, you can ensure your offering is listed in a compelling, best practices, optimized format, which tells a cohesive story that captures prospects to convert. With a digital marketing agency by your side, you have the option to create custom iconography that represents your solution accurately and catches the attention of those browsing the marketplace.


In addition to this, an agency can help ensure your brand messaging stays consistent across all platforms. At Maven Collective Marketing, we draft carefully crafted offerings that not only summarize your service but also reflect your brand voice and unique value proposition. We also design any supporting documentation and graphic design required, including one-pagers, infographics, and branded screenshots to supplement the listing. Not only that, when you choose to work with a marketing agency like ours, we extend all materials to other marketing channels to ensure you get the most out of your investments.


To deliver the expertise for crafting your marketplace listing(s), you can leverage our Microsoft Partner Marketing experts to build highly targeted social media and email marketing campaigns for cross-platform promotion that drives traffic to your listing. Beyond the initial listing on a Microsoft marketplace, Maven Collective Marketing can prepare your offering to get you co-sell ready, post your Marketplace listing approval. From drafting customer presentation materials to updating the branding of Microsoft-issued templates, a marketing agency can streamline the entire process for a Microsoft Partner.

Stand Out on the Microsoft Commercial Marketplace

As the leading results-driven, award-winning Marketing Partner for Microsoft Partners, we have helped 100s of Microsoft Partners stand out in the sea of software sameness.

 

Launch a successful offering on the Marketplace and get ready to meet requirements for co-selling with Microsoft directly by connecting with us today!

Deriving Value from a Microsoft AppSource Listing

The Value of a Microsoft AppSource Listing

Estimated Read Time: 4 minutes 

Intended Audience: Microsoft Partners

Revised August 2023

Finding the right apps or services to support business priorities can be difficult, but Microsoft aims to solve this with Microsoft AppSource. Microsoft AppSource is an online marketplace where decision-makers can effortlessly make the right decisions for their business by seamlessly browsing and testing out thousands of different apps and consulting services that enable innovation and drive business outcomes.

 

Microsoft AppSource delivers applications and consulting services built by industry-leading software providers. The catalog is comprised of SaaS applications, solutions built for Microsoft Azure, Dynamics 365, Power BI, Power Apps, consulting services offered by Microsoft Partners, and more. Users can easily filter the AppSource experience by Apps for a wide range of industries, Industry Clouds for use-case based services, Consulting Services for Microsoft solutions, and profiles of trusted Microsoft Partners that can help organizations digitally transform.

microsoft appsource homepage
Microsoft AppSource Homepage

Why You Should List Your Offerings on Microsoft AppSource

Microsoft AppSource is the premier destination for Microsoft Partners, like you, to market and distribute apps and services. Backed by Microsoft, a brand that billions of customers already know and trust, you can showcase your apps that thrive across industries, departments, and the Microsoft suite of products.

 

By publishing your app or consulting service on Microsoft AppSource you can:

 

  • Drive more leads: Increase your reach, discoverability, and app usage with Microsoft’s selling resources that help your apps and services stand out. You can reach customers in untapped market segments and distribute across industries, as customers are able to look for your offerings on AppSource itself, but also through in-product AppSource galleries on Microsoft products they already use.
  • Connect directly with decision-makers: AppSource helps you reach potential customers more quickly and allows you to connect directly with critical decision-makers by providing a single destination for business users to discover and try applications built for Dynamics 365, Power BI, Power Apps, and more.
  • Extend your sales team: By listing your apps or services on AppSource, you gain another sales channel that empowers users to find offerings that are meaningful to them without having to go through your sales team. With AppSource, you can significantly reduce the length of your sales cycle and customer journey.
  • Optimize your offerings: Microsoft will provide you with consistent actionable insights on how your offering is performing, what works well, and how to improve, which will help you ensure that your app or service is optimized to its full potential.

 

Build your business faster by promoting your offerings on AppSource, which reassures customers that you have expertise in what they need.

appsource listing examples
Microsoft AppSource Listings

How to Create Effective Listings for Microsoft AppSource

As mentioned, there are a few different ways to engage with and show up on AppSource, including building business apps or promoting your consulting service offerings.

Developing Apps for Microsoft AppSource

You can develop and promote business apps for specific industries, processes, or departments and assure users that your app is the right fit by letting them try it out prior to purchasing (e.g. free trial). There are a number of app review guidelines you are required to follow, some of which include:
  • Microsoft EntraID (Azure Active Directory): Your app must allow AAD federated single sign-on with consent enabled.
  • SaaS app for business: Your app must be a line-of-business SaaS app, business-process focused, targeted to business customers, and enable users to sign in with work credentials.
  • Free trial period: You must offer customers the ability to use your app for free for a limited time.
  • Turnkey solution: Your app must be easily configurable and quick to setup with no customization required.
  • Support: Your app must contain a support link for customers to find help if needed.
  • Availability: Your app must maintain at least 99.9% uptime.
It is also recommended, but not required, that your app integrate with other Microsoft Cloud services such as Microsoft Power BI or Microsoft Azure services like machine learning or cognitive services. Once you submit your app for review, the AppSource team will verify that you meet the criteria, onboard your app for staging and testing, publish your app, and then reach out to you about go-to-market programs to grow your presence on AppSource.
appsource consulting screenshot
Consulting Services on Microsoft AppSource

Promoting Consulting Services on Microsoft AppSource

You can capitalize on your industry by offering consulting services on Microsoft AppSource in which you choose the scope, duration, and pricing structure (fixed-price or free) of your service. While Microsoft can list your offering on AppSource, you are responsible for managing all interactions with customers, including billing and invoicing. If the primary product of your consulting service is Azure, it gets listed on the Azure marketplace, but if the primary product is anything other than Azure, such as Dynamics 365 or Power Apps, your offer will be listed on AppSource. Microsoft AppSource supports 5 types of consulting services, which are:
  • Briefing: This introduces a solution or consulting service using frameworks, demos, and customer examples.
  • Assessment: This consists of an evaluation of a customer’s environment and business processes to determine the applicability of a solution and estimate cost and timeline of implementation.
  • Workshop: This is an interactive hands-on engagement that can involve trainings, briefings, assessments, or demos built on the customer’s environment.
  • Proof of concept: This is a limited-scope implementation to determine whether your solution meets the customer’s requirements.
  • Implementation: This is a complete implementation resulting in a fully working solution.
To be eligible for publishing a consulting service offer, you must have a Solutions Partner designation in one of the solutions areas besides Azure, but the required designation depends on what your primary product is. You must also explicitly list the service duration in the offer listing.

Effectively Utilize Microsoft AppSource

Once you publish your offer on Microsoft AppSource, not only will you drive more leads and engage directly with decision-makers, but you can also work towards the next step, becoming co-sell ready to work with Microsoft sales teams and Microsoft Partners. By co-selling, you can reach a widespread audience of customers and collaborate on sales opportunities with other teams to accelerate your business growth.

 

We know all of this may seem daunting, but the experienced Mavens can help you craft your Microsoft AppSource listings and get you ready for co-selling incentives with ease to reach new customers and grow your revenue. Get in touch with us today!