#177: Harnessing the Power of Partner Marketing
In today's fast-paced and competitive business world, finding innovative and effective ways to reach customers is essential. One powerful strategy that should not be overlooked is partner marketing. Partner marketing is a collaborative approach where two or more organizations work together to promote one another's products or services. By harnessing the power of partner marketing, businesses can leverage each other's resources and customer bases to drive growth and maximize their reach.
Building Strong Partnerships
The first step in harnessing the power of partner marketing is to build strong partnerships. Look for complementary businesses that share a similar target audience but offer different products or services. This ensures that partner marketing efforts are mutually beneficial, offering value to both parties involved.
When identifying potential partners, consider factors such as brand reputation, alignment of values, and compatibility of business goals. Establishing clear communication channels and defining mutually agreed objectives is also crucial for successful collaboration.
Co-creating Engaging Content
Once partnerships are formed, it's essential to co-create engaging content that resonates with the shared target audience. This can include blog posts, social media campaigns, webinars, or even joint product launches.
Collaborative content creation not only helps to share the workload but also brings fresh perspectives and ideas from both parties. By combining the expertise and resources of both businesses, you can create content that is compelling, informative, and valuable to customers.
Leveraging Each Other's Distribution Channels
Partner marketing is all about expanding your reach, and one of the most effective ways to achieve this is by leveraging each other's distribution channels. This can involve cross-promotion through newsletters, social media shoutouts, or even joint advertising campaigns.
By tapping into each other's customer bases, you can expose your brand to a wider audience and potentially attract new customers who may not have come across your business otherwise. The key is to ensure that the messaging is consistent and reflects the shared values of both businesses involved.
Measuring Success and Continuous Improvement
To truly harness the power of partner marketing, it's essential to measure the success of your collaborative efforts. Set clear Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and regularly monitor and analyze the results. This will help you identify what is working well and what can be improved.
Feedback from customers and partners is also invaluable. Take the time to solicit feedback and gather insights on how the partnership and marketing campaigns are being perceived. Use this feedback to refine your strategies and continuously improve your partner marketing efforts.
Conclusion
Partner marketing offers numerous benefits for businesses looking to expand their reach and attract new customers. By building strong partnerships, co-creating engaging content, leveraging distribution channels, and measuring success, businesses can harness the power of partner marketing to drive growth and achieve their business goals. So, start exploring potential partnerships and unlock the immense potential that lies in collaborative marketing.
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Laura 00:00
As I'm recording this, a phenomenon has taken off in the pop culture world. Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift are rumored to be dating and this has taken over the internet. I'm sure you've seen all of the memes and all of the stories. If you haven't, it probably means you're taking a break from social media right now, because it's everywhere. So why am I bringing this up on an AI-driven marketing podcast? Well, the reason is because it has financial, cultural and business implications that might surprise you and that you could use as inspiration in your own business. So today, I'm going to be talking about the power of collaborations, the power of partnerships, and how you can leverage them to grow your business.
Laura 00:50
Welcome to the AI-Driven marketing podcast. This is a place where we deliver quick and insightful weekly tips about 10 minutes or less on what's new and groundbreaking in the world of marketing AI. I'm your host, Laura Meyer, a 20 plus year entrepreneur and marketing expert. If you are excited about staying ahead of the curve and harnessing the potential of AI in your marketing strategies, you're in the right place. Let's go.
Laura 01:16
So, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are everywhere right now. As I'm recording this is the week before Halloween, and I fully expect there to be a plethora of variations of costumes featuring the two of them on Halloween night. I was even tempted to do it myself, but I don't have the right hair or the right height to be Taylor Swift. But all joking aside, some of what is happening behind the scenes might be surprising to you. So, I want to read an article to you about the business growth that has taken place from just them showing up together. As swift makes appearances at Kansas City Chiefs, games and rumors swirl that the popstar is dating the tight end, a marketing goldmine has sprung up this is from Vox magazine. The buzz is inescapable whether you're a Swift fan and NFL fan or both or neither, Chelsea's Jersey sales have spiked as has the number of his Instagram followers and game viewership has jumped as Swift Fans tune in just to catch a glimpse of her don't care about football, and NFL games are already the most watched programs on TV anyway. The social media Chatter is endless, and the media coverage is breathless. Everybody has weighed in even Donald Trump and really trying to just wish them the best and it leaves you wondering is this even real?
Laura 02:48
But Taylor Swift is great. I would even say an expert at translating attention and loyalty into money. The NFL is great at turning attention and loyalty into money and their combined forces while you get the point. It is a cultural phenomenon. As we are seeing so many more people watching the games of football games, Taylor has also swooped into cash in the NSNBCs audience for the game peaked at 20,000,020 9 million viewers, including an increase of about
2 million female viewers. And the interest is tremendous. So, across the across the board, we're seeing attention to Kelsey more attention to Taylor Swift, she's already a huge phenomenon taking off. And it's really incredible to see how just two brands that already attention is gathering on their own, come together and there's this full force multiplier effect that takes place. So how do we take this large-scale example and translate it into the world of business? As AI frees up so many of our clients and their teams to do other things, one of the most important and most common questions that I get is, what am I doing with my team? My team spends hours a day following up with clients and booking them into point appointments. And if they're not going to do that anymore, what do I have them do? And that is something that I hear often, and my response is always have them work on the things that AI can't have them focus on the activities that AI can't do, such as the human connection, such as the collaborations, and such as the partnership building. Similar to what we're seeing with Swift and Kelsey. And you might be saying Laura, I have a local business, or I have a small business. I'm not going to have that kind of access to star power. Yes, but you can do it in your own little ecosystem. You can do it in your micro economy that is local to your business. And this is one of the best ways that you and your team can spend your time.
Laura 05:03
Because when you choose the right partner and when you collaborate with that right business, or if you are growing brand and you hook on to another growing band brand and together, you grow amazing things will happen. I saw this myself firsthand when I was a brick-and-mortar business owner, I was a photography studio owner. And I ended up developing a really nice relationship with another invitation specialist. And she made handmade invitations, brilliant artist, and businesswoman. And at the time, we both had relatively small businesses. But as we continued to refer each other, and we just got along really well. We clicked, she ended up bringing her son to me for photography, I photographed him as a toddler, he's now in college. And we just got along really well liked each other stayed in touch, collaborated and referred. And I referred her, and she referred me and over time, we both had multimillion dollar businesses. So sometimes you can get a sense of somebody's quality early on, and you're like this, this is amazing. And this person, I can just tell it's going to grow into being a superstar. And what I want you to do is look in, keep an eye out, look at the relationships and the connections that you're making from that vantage point. Because again, that friend now is still an invitation specialist. She has an amazing business in the Philadelphia area called Two Paper Dolls. And I've watched her success skyrocket to where she's she was the invitation specialist for the White House. She did invitations for major celebrities, like she has grown into being an international phenomenon here in the Philadelphia area. And we made that connection very early on. And sometimes again, you just get the sense, this is going to be somebody who has incredible talent. They're a great business owner, they're great entrepreneur, they own a like-minded business. And I really want to make a connection with them, so that we can grow our businesses together.
Laura 07:11
So one of the things that I often say when people are asking me, Laura, how do you how do you know how to do this is I often say, you know, when I was building my multimillion dollar brick and mortar, I didn't have Facebook ads, you know, Zuckerberg was still probably hanging out in Harvard trying to figure out what he was going to do with his life. So, when I'm thinking about, okay, how do I approach this, from a standpoint of quickly growing a business, it comes from that experience. And when we think about, okay, Facebook ads, and paid advertising, and even organic social media has become an increasingly noisy way to advertise. I am such a big believer in establishing these partnerships. So, you might be thinking now that I'm giving you some examples from my own life, and from the internet sensation of Kelsey and swift, you might be thinking, okay, I've got my wheels turning, I'm getting some ideas here. But where do I start, or there might even be some businesses or business owners that are coming into your mind right now, as I'm providing these examples. So, the first step is just to make that initial contact. And what you don't want to do is make it very cold or impersonal. What you want to do is make it very personal. And if you can use a mutual connection. So, I remember way back when 20 years ago, when I was first reaching out to that invitation specialist, it's because we had a shared customer. And that made it really easy for me to reach out to her where I said, hey, I saw the invitations that you did for the Smith wedding, it was amazing. I would love to get to know you a little bit better, how's coffee sound to you. And listen, we're all busy business owners. And you might need to follow up a few times. But looking for that common ground looking for that common connection, even if you own a similar business, or you have a similar clientele. But the best connections from my perspective have come from having shared clients, oh, I heard that my client goes to you for fitness. And then they come to me for stretching or wellness or sauna, or any other type of body care, right.
Laura 09:24
And so that's a great compliment. And it's a really nice way again, to make that two-way connection. And what you're often looking for is alignment in culture and values. And from my perspective, and I talk about this pretty extensively in my book Win-Win, culture and values are the most important characteristics to look for in a partner, because other things can be worked out. And what I found is that culture and values were always the most important characteristic in a partnership alignment. Oftentimes, I might have found a part partner or as I've been consulting for some of the bigger national brands in the health, wellness and beauty space, a lot of times a very obvious partner isn't always the best refer because there isn't that connection, that personal connection, and culture and values alignment. So, for example, I've worked with lash extension companies, franchises that are national brands. And you would think automatically that bridal providers would be a perfect complement to lash extensions, and vice versa, somebody might be going for lash extensions, get engaged, and then need wedding services. So, it's a fantastic exchange and a great way of thinking about when
partnerships really align with one another. But at the same time, sometimes they didn't go well, because there wasn't that culture and values alignment. And it's much more important for you to be aligned with other business owners that have a good reputation, that care about your clients in the same way that you do, that you both have a passion for relationships are serving local business, serving local community or community building. Those types of values are critical, because you don't want to get entangled with maybe somebody else that doesn't have great values around how they treat their clients. And at the same time, you want to be aligned with businesses that have those similar values. So, I always look for that values match in as much as I look for those obvious partnerships. And then complementary services or products. I gave you a couple of examples here. But think about who else provide services when your services begin or end? This is a great way of thinking about it, when my services end, where does somebody else pick up? Or when their services and where do I pick up so again, thinking about fitness, and then body wellness, when somebody is really committed to working out and taking care of their body and getting uncomfortable and, you know, really stretching themselves in terms of their fitness and maybe lifting those extra weights or running that extra mile. Often, they need Wellness Recovery.
Laura 12:12
Well, Wellness Recovery is a great compliment. And then when people are in Wellness Recovery, they might be looking for a new workout or they their workouts maybe have plateaued or maybe they need to try a different kind of workout, maybe they've been doing high impact. And now they need to go to low impact. So really thinking about the lifespan of how people use the services that you offer, and who else has services where yours and or begin, that is a fantastic way to think about who a complement to your offer could be. And a lot of businesses struggle with being creative in this way. And so, I would just really talk to as many customers as you can, again, when AI is taking over the booking and a lot of the behind- the-scenes work. What we recommend, as that the teams that are part of the businesses that we serve, is that they get freed up now to talk to customers get to know them, where else are they shopping, where else are they are going for services, and then use that mutual connection to establish that introduction.
Laura 13:19
And the big thing here is that you're not driving straight to a pitch, you're just getting to know the business, getting to know the business owner, and seeing what their goals are so that you can provide a proposal for a potential collaboration. And then the second step is building a relationship and brainstorming. And this is really important to start out from a place of the goal of establishing rapport. Your goal in step two should not be set up a partnership, your goal in step two, should be establishing a rapport. So, once you've figured out who would be a compliment, both from a value standpoint, as well as a complimentary service, and you figured
out that contact point and made that introduction, your next goal is always to establish credibility and trust, and really getting to know what some of their past partnerships were.
Laura 14:14
What do they like to see in a partner? What would they consider to be successful, maybe they've already established a partnership that they consider to be wildly successful. And you can just copy what they've done with that other company, because that's the way that they like to do business, or that's the way that they found that it was most successful and driving customers to one another and replicate that. But more than anything, you're coming in from a place of curiosity, and you're looking to establish the relationship. And a lot of times when people go right to the partnership, or they go right to the pitch. First of all, you might pitch something that they're like, we would never do that. And this is why, or we've tried that, and it doesn't work and this is why and now you're kind of in this defensive place when really you've completely missed the opportunity to build a relationship and build a connection. And then what you want to do is move into collaborative ideation, where you're collaborating together, and you're creating ideas together without really having any expectation on what it looks like. And what happens is you can start getting really creative that way. A lot of times, when I've helped the brands that we I've worked with in the past, I've consulted to in the past, some very obscure ideas that sort of started out just ambiguous like not really knowing where they were going to, to become monetized, where it was very vague. And the initial stages ended up being this fabulous idea, because you could collaborate together and they could say, you know, what could really work for my clients, because they know their business better than anyone. And you're still getting to know their client base, you know, your own. So, it has to be a two-way exchange, it can't be just like, Hey, can I put cards out? You're at your location. And I can tell you that that almost never works. You come in with a fishbowl, here's some cards, can I put them out? Because? And they'll say yes, because they're like, sure, I guess, you know, because it was never that collaborative energy that brought together that partnership, the person that was bringing in the fishbowl was probably like, Alright, I'm just here to check a box, and the person on the receiving end of that initial contact felt that way. And it never turns out, well, usually what happens is you might get to a couple people in the fishbowl, when you go to pick it up in a few weeks, and it's 10 new leads, and they don't convert very well. Whereas when you have somebody at the front desk, who's like, hey, so I heard you saying blah, blah, blah, we just started a partnership with that particular brand. And I think that you would really like them, I try that I go there, I get my lashes done there, or I go there for stretching, or I go there for fitness and I love it, I highly recommend that you try it out, would you like a voucher for a complimentary first class, when that's the conversation, your business will explode. Trust me on this, because I've seen it go both ways. And what you need is you need an advocate in the business, whether it's front desk or the owner, that's letting the customer know how great your business is. And when that's missing, what happens is, is that partnerships often fall flat.
Laura 17:34
And then finally, what you want to do is have check ins every month. And this is where I see a lot of business owners making some of the biggest mistakes and collaborations is they assume okay, the collaborations done, we had one conversation, I decided to refer you this way you decided to refer me that way. And now I get to move on and establish a new relationship. And as you know, relationships don't work that way. Relationships are ongoing. They require touches, they require updates and connections. Again, I talk a lot about this in my book, Win- Win. And I even provide a relationship marketing tracker that if you get the book, there's a link in there for you to be able to get your own tracking system. But if you're listening here, and you're just like, alright, Laura, just give me the idea. The idea is to have some kind of pipeline set up, whether it's in your CRM, whether it's in a spreadsheet, whether it's an Asana, or Trello, or any type of project management system that you use, where you're continually being reminded, hey to week, touch base, 30 day touch base, with that partner, who you message them on the platform where they seem to be the most hanging out the most often. Whether it's social media, Facebook, Instagram, texting, whatever it is, email and say, hey, I'm just wondering, reach out, I hope you're doing really well. And often I find that social media is a great place to do this, like their personal Instagram or LinkedIn, where you're like, hey, I saw on Instagram that, you know, your kid won first place the local art show, that's so cool. I hope you're doing well.
Laura 19:05
Those types of connections and those types of comments and, and outreaches from my perspective, always get the best response versus an email that says how was our partnership going? That often gets responded to so keeping up with people and an Instagram you can tag somebody or identify somebody as one of your close friends. So, you can just go down a list of people on that on that channel. And you know, and pop in and just say hello every now and then. And as an owner or as a general manager, that's one of the best things that you can do. Because staying on top of mind for the people that you're doing business with is so critical. Once a relationship is established, we think oh my gosh, they're going to remember us forever, but they don't they don't remember you forever. And a really funny example of this is two or three weeks ago, I was pretty sick. You can almost hear it my voice I couldn't record a podcast for a couple weeks. And if you're watching it on video, you're going to see me kind of clearing my throat and recovering a little bit from that. And listen, it's the time of year, right? But I was not feeling well at all. And my husband was like, why don't you go to the IV clinic that you went to last time that you were sick? Listen, my friend owns this clinic, I love this place. And I completely forgot that that was something that I like to do when I'm sick. Thank God, my husband reminded me and I, you know, made an appointment right away and went into the IV clinic. And I felt so much better in 48 hours.
Laura 20:34
But again, you know, when you're busy, and you're stressed, and you're trying to make things work, because you're sick, and you're, you need to get your kids to school, and you still need to make client appointments, or you need to reschedule things that you forgot that you had, you know, it's really easy to forget about services that you like, and this happens all the time in business partnerships and collaborations as well. They're worried about their own day to day of their business, you know, employees calling out sick employees going on vacation, you know, client, many clients emergencies studio or salon emergencies, just like you are, and you have to stay top of mind for them to continue to refer you. And then also asking them to track like if there's a way in which they can input into their system, the referral source, and so when you refer them, and when they refer you, maybe you have coffee once a quarter, and you're like, hey, so these are the referrals that came in from you, thank you so much. I really appreciate it; I want to make sure this is working for you as well. Do you have the ability to pull that report, I know we've sent some people your way. And I just want to make sure that they're getting to you in the way that I intended or the way that I hoped. Having that conversation with them is so important to keeping the relationship going. Because if you've made all the effort of doing step one, which is establishing contact and getting that introduction, and then you've moved into step two, which is the relationship building component, and then you've moved into step three, which is the review and the analysis, and you know, an ongoing, and you drop the ball and step three, it makes steps one and two, totally a waste of time, right. And I don't want that for you. So that's why it's really important to continue to maintain the relationships and then also check in on results. This is the number one way that I grew my own local business, and that I've helped other businesses explode growth as well. Ai driven marketing does help alleviate so much team time to free you up for these types of activities. And it's important that you, you leverage it in that way that you move from having all of this backend work overwhelming your team to freeing them up for partnership and relationship building. And what happens is, is that when you prioritize this, your paid traffic works better, because it becomes part of an ecosystem of marketing that people here of you from you know, their local salon when they're getting their hair done.
Laura 23:06
And then they go to a Facebook ad and see you and then they go to Instagram and see you and it creates this explosive growth, that is hard to pinpoint to one thing. But ultimately, it often comes back to the word of mouth in your community. And the word of mouth comes from these types of relationships. So, it's kind of like this Invisible Hand in the background that starts growing your business, again, making your pay traffic work better, making all of your marketing work better, because when they see those ads, or they see that marketing, it's not the first time they've heard of you. And so, I really want to encourage you to explore the partnerships and opportunities that I talked about in this podcast, really think about how you can implement it in your own business, and then come back and let me know how it goes. And if you're wondering, okay, Laura, how do I free up my team time so that I can have more capacity for building
relationships, you're going to want to check out my short free training, which is how to get more sales with AI. And it's specifically for local wellness, beauty business owners, who are really forward thinking and want to consider how AI can help their business run more efficiently and profitably. So, you can go to getmoresaleswithai.com. That's getmoresales withai.com. And if you're listening to this podcast and you know somebody who would really enjoy hearing this message, go ahead and send it their way, leave a review or find me on social media and say hello, I'd love to hear from you.
Laura 24:45
Thank you for tuning in to the AI-Driven marketing podcast. Before we wrap up, I just want to remind you that you can learn more about how to make more sales with AI by going to makemoresaleswithai.com. This is where I die deeper into the AI revolution in marketing with our free training. And if you've enjoyed today's episode, please share it with others who might find it valuable. And if you can also just take a moment to leave us a review, I would greatly appreciate it. Your support helps us continue to bring you the top insights in the field of AI driven marketing. Until next time, remember AI is here and it's transforming the marketing landscape. Stay Ahead, stay informed, and most importantly, stay excited. I'll see you soon.
Welcome to the AI-Driven Marketing Podcast! Join host Laura Meyer, a 20+ year veteran entrepreneur and marketing expert, as she unveils the future of marketing that's already at your fingertips. Each episode offers quick, valuable insights, news, and practical tips about how AI is revolutionizing the marketing landscape, shaping how businesses engage with customers, and enhancing marketing strategies. Tune in to stay ahead, informed, and excited about the remarkable opportunities that AI brings to the world of marketing.