Being an entrepreneur is pretty tough. The day-to-day life of a startup is a juggling act. Logistics, budgets, competitors, research, customer service – and that’s without the actual strain of building an audience. Audience building is time consuming, expensive and often demoralising. You’ll be pleased to learn, there’s a seriously effective way around this. Partnership marketing could make this whole process a lot easier. These essential partnership marketing business tips from Innovate UK will show you how.
Tip #1: Target Established Businesses
Look outside your industry for examples of successful partnerships you can replicate.” – Ryan Leightons (CEO, Leightons Group)
Okay so first thing’s first, what actually is partnership marketing?
It’s a simple premise really. Partnership marketing is seeking out and working with a complementary but not competitive company for mutually beneficial reasons. Usually this is done for marketing purposes. There’s numerous reasons why brands turn to this strategy:
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They can reach more potential customers with ease
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They can help customers with like-minded recommendations
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They can boost their reputation
If you’re still unsure about this, we’d suggest looking at a few real-world examples. Red Bull and GoPro are one of the highest profile examples of this. Uber and Spotify are another recent example of global brands linking for mutually beneficial reasons.
Tip #2: Research the Market
If you are operating on a limited budget, partnerships should be the first thing on your marketing to-do list.” – Xaver Matt (MD of Netleadz and angel investor)
There’s no point working with a brand that’s not appropriate. It’s worth doing your research and asking a few key questions:
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Is the company actually relevant to yours?
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What are the brand’s ethics/values?
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Are you comfortable becoming an advocate for this company?
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What can they offer you?
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What can you offer them?
Take an active approach to your research. It’ll benefit you when it comes to approaching the brand. Social media is great for this. Get your name on their radar. Follow them, like their posts and share their content. This will help you understand what makes the company tick and how they go about marketing too. When you’re ready, send them a DM or alternatively an email introducing yourself formally.
Tip #3: Start With Simple Initiatives
Simple APIs are a great way to hook new partners and gain instant access to their audiences.” – Nick Lyons (CEO, Kaptur Software)
When it comes to actually initiating a collaboration, it’s always best to start simple. There’s no point diving head first into a big-money campaign without first building a strong working relationship. Social media is the best route to take. Consider promoting their posts, a joint competition or even content exchange to start with.
Be up-front and honest about what you look to get out of any partnership. If both brands are clear, they can assist each other as best as possible.
Tip #4: Analyse the Data to Maximise Return
Partnering with Zoopla increased our audiences tenfold overnight gaining us vital user data to refine our proposition.” – Barry Bridger (CEO, Property Detective)
It’s absolutely essential that you analyse the performance of any partnership marketing strategy. The more you know, the better equipped you are for success. First of all, settle on the metric(s) that’s most important to you. This is ultimately, what you want to get out of the campaign. It could be something concrete and easily analysed like social media following, traffic or conversions. Alternatively, it could be a more abstract concept like consumer trust or reputation.
Once you’ve settled on the appropriate metrics, you can look at the data and compare its performance against any previous solo initiatives. This information will not only assist your current partnership but will also benefit future strategies.
If you’re intrigued in startup advice like this, subscribe to Innovate UK’s YouTube channel for more similar videos, or you can follow @InnovateUK on Twitter here.
