In a cookieless future, businesses are going to need to rethink their marketing strategies. One method that has been gaining traction over the past several years is building brand partnerships. When done correctly, it’s a win-win for both parties involved.
4 simple reasons why you should be investing time and effort into developing brand partnerships:
- Building industry relationships. It’s all about who you know, right? Making meaningful connections is sure to open doors and provide opportunities for your success as well as theirs.
- Increase brand exposure. Once the initial legwork is done, you are able to increase your audience size and thus exposure for your business with fairly minimal effort. The new brand’s audience becomes your audience and vice versa, Again, it’s a win-win.
- Break into new markets. When you strategically pick a brand partnership from a complementary industry/market, you are able to more effectively break into that market. Having that established brand back you allows you to find success in markets you may not have been able to break into on your own.
- Adds value. Picking a meaningful brand partnership that you are confident your audience will resonate with, adds value to their lives. Complimentary products/services help provide that feeling of a “one stop shop” and helps streamline the purchasing process for your customers.
While it may not be possible to build meaningful brand partnerships when your business is just starting out, once you get established, have some significant sales under your belt, and nail down your offering, you are ready to take advantage of this strategy.
6 tips for developing meaningful and effective brand partnerships:
- Clarity. Clearly define your own offering and market (you’ll need this to pitch effectively). Then clearly define what the ideal brand partnership/complimentary product or service would be. Lay out how a partnership would be mutually beneficial.
- Research. Do the research up front. Learn everything you can about companies or influencers that have a similar target audience and a product/service you’re confident would compliment yours. Ensure that your missions and values align and that they’re someone you’d be able to trust and proud to partner with.
- Avoid generics. The best brands and influencers out there are getting a plethora of emails pitching collaborations each week. You have a limited amount of space/time in that first part of an email or phone call to show that you’ve done your research, this is a personalized, meaningful pitch, and you’ve clearly thought out how to make this partnership work for both parties. You need to emphasize the value you’ll bring to the table and why it’ll be worth it to them. The ideal scenario? Find opportunities to build real relationships and meet with people in person when possible.
- Get it in writing. While you of course want to be partnering with people you trust, you should always get your agreements down in writing. This allows you to make sure you are both on the same page when it comes to each parties’ roles and responsibilities, timeline, follow-through and monitoring.
- Prepare for launch. It’s essential that you collaborate and put out a unified effort to promote your partnership. Take the time to prepare for an exciting launch and synchronized campaigns.
- Monitor progress. Have a system in place for monitoring how effective this brand partnership is in driving customers to each other’s business. This could be as simple as a survey in the check-out flow asking “how did you hear about us?”, or a special offer code just for that partnership. Check in on the metrics regularly, analyze the methods each party is using to promote the partnership and adjust accordingly.
