Marketing

Mastering Partnership Marketing Strategies

Collaborating with other organizations can help you take your business to the next level. The fact is, by working with other people and like-minded entrepreneurs, you’re exposed to a big world of opportunities.

Some of the benefits of partnership marketing include opportunities such as entering new markets and using shared resources to amplify the reputation of your brand. In this post, we will be exploring partnership marketing strategies that drive business growth.

5 Tried-and-True Partnership Marketing Strategies

 1. Choose the right partner

This is the step that lays the foundation for your collaboration. Before making this decision, you must figure out which objectives you wish to pursue with the partnership. Ask yourself whether you are in it to expand your reach or just focus on broadening the range of services you offer.

Once you narrow these down, the rest is easy. You can start conversations around areas where both you and your partner can make maximum impact on customer experiences as well as the best plan for hitting this and other key objectives.

2. Iron out details of the agreement 

After a successful pitch to your desired partner, both of you must agree on the nuances of the partnership. To avoid conflict and misunderstanding, you must create a partnership agreement that summarizes all the nuts and bolts of your relationship, including:

  • Goals
  • Incentives
  • promotion strategies
  • Benefits
  • Responsibilities of each party

Create a contract that leaves no room for ambiguity concerning the consequences of a breach of terms. This will help you have a long, sustainable, and mutually beneficial relationship. 

3. Start small 

If you are new to partnership marketing, the best recommendation is this: start small and build upon projects gradually. Of course, you should never pack your eggs in one basket, so don’t pause any of your ongoing campaigns.

Start with a less complex agreement and fewer channels and objectives.  This allows you to test the waters with a smaller budget to validate feasibility before going big. 

Examples of “starting small” include co-hosting webinars, collaborating on white papers, doing combined live streams, etc.

As the relationship matures, you can begin recommending each other's products. At this juncture, you can now collaborate on product launches and offer discounts to the other's customers.  

4.  Track impact

Upon maturity of your business development relationship, don't forget to measure results. You must be a numbers guy. The alternative is dangerous.

You can employ select analytics and systems that help track the lead generation efficiency of your deal. For example, you can focus on tools that help you see which leads came from which partner.

UTM parameters help you to see which URLs generate the most leads. These parameters can help you predict the most profitable partnerships in the short term.

Partner relationship management (PRM) software is great at simplifying the process of onboarding, monitoring, and managing relationships with your partnerships. 

5. Anticipate

When working on any given collaboration project, challenges are typical but surmountable. To help you better prepare, here are some common issues you might face:

  • If you're dealing with European customers, consider GDPR laws. If and when receiving data from your partner, ensure they have legal permission. Also, ensure that there's a transparent data processing agreement in place.
  • The content shared across partner platforms should interest your audience; otherwise, your subscribers might leave.
  • Are each of your partners making the same effort and achieving equal outcomes? Even if your KPIs are slightly different, you need to work together.
  • Watch out for any conflicts of interest that may arise.  An example is if a brand ambassador writes for a newspaper, then a partnership between that newspaper and another may not be possible.

Conclusion

Partner marketing is a very affordable way to speed up your growth. You won’t see overnight success, but your business will experience better visibility in the long run. One way to improve efficiency is by choosing a partner who shares your values. Start small and grow as you gain expertise. 

Master Partnership Marketing Strategies for Business Growth
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Marketing

Mastering Partnership Marketing Strategies

Master Partnership Marketing Strategies for Business Growth

Collaborating with other organizations can help you take your business to the next level. The fact is, by working with other people and like-minded entrepreneurs, you’re exposed to a big world of opportunities.

Some of the benefits of partnership marketing include opportunities such as entering new markets and using shared resources to amplify the reputation of your brand. In this post, we will be exploring partnership marketing strategies that drive business growth.

5 Tried-and-True Partnership Marketing Strategies

 1. Choose the right partner

This is the step that lays the foundation for your collaboration. Before making this decision, you must figure out which objectives you wish to pursue with the partnership. Ask yourself whether you are in it to expand your reach or just focus on broadening the range of services you offer.

Once you narrow these down, the rest is easy. You can start conversations around areas where both you and your partner can make maximum impact on customer experiences as well as the best plan for hitting this and other key objectives.

2. Iron out details of the agreement 

After a successful pitch to your desired partner, both of you must agree on the nuances of the partnership. To avoid conflict and misunderstanding, you must create a partnership agreement that summarizes all the nuts and bolts of your relationship, including:

  • Goals
  • Incentives
  • promotion strategies
  • Benefits
  • Responsibilities of each party

Create a contract that leaves no room for ambiguity concerning the consequences of a breach of terms. This will help you have a long, sustainable, and mutually beneficial relationship. 

3. Start small 

If you are new to partnership marketing, the best recommendation is this: start small and build upon projects gradually. Of course, you should never pack your eggs in one basket, so don’t pause any of your ongoing campaigns.

Start with a less complex agreement and fewer channels and objectives.  This allows you to test the waters with a smaller budget to validate feasibility before going big. 

Examples of “starting small” include co-hosting webinars, collaborating on white papers, doing combined live streams, etc.

As the relationship matures, you can begin recommending each other's products. At this juncture, you can now collaborate on product launches and offer discounts to the other's customers.  

4.  Track impact

Upon maturity of your business development relationship, don't forget to measure results. You must be a numbers guy. The alternative is dangerous.

You can employ select analytics and systems that help track the lead generation efficiency of your deal. For example, you can focus on tools that help you see which leads came from which partner.

UTM parameters help you to see which URLs generate the most leads. These parameters can help you predict the most profitable partnerships in the short term.

Partner relationship management (PRM) software is great at simplifying the process of onboarding, monitoring, and managing relationships with your partnerships. 

5. Anticipate

When working on any given collaboration project, challenges are typical but surmountable. To help you better prepare, here are some common issues you might face:

  • If you're dealing with European customers, consider GDPR laws. If and when receiving data from your partner, ensure they have legal permission. Also, ensure that there's a transparent data processing agreement in place.
  • The content shared across partner platforms should interest your audience; otherwise, your subscribers might leave.
  • Are each of your partners making the same effort and achieving equal outcomes? Even if your KPIs are slightly different, you need to work together.
  • Watch out for any conflicts of interest that may arise.  An example is if a brand ambassador writes for a newspaper, then a partnership between that newspaper and another may not be possible.

Conclusion

Partner marketing is a very affordable way to speed up your growth. You won’t see overnight success, but your business will experience better visibility in the long run. One way to improve efficiency is by choosing a partner who shares your values. Start small and grow as you gain expertise. 

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