The Power Of Co-Marketing

This week I spoke on the power of Co-marketing as part of an all star panel to a group of local business owners.  Co-marketing is so incredibly powerful that it can virtually double the size of your business over a very short period of time for just pennies on the dollar. So I wanted to share with you what I shared with them.

First, what is Co-marketing?  It's just a fancy term to describe partnering up with another business who sells complimentary products and services to customers in your target market.

An example of Co-marketing is a local chiropractor and dentist who decide they're going to cross-promote each other's services (ie co-market).

Here are 2 basic, easy and inexpensive examples of things they can do to Co-Market:

1.    Each create a sign to hang in each other's offices that says "Smith Chiropractic offers all our dental patients an exclusive 20% discount on all their services - just tell them we referred you!".  Vice versa for the dentist to hang in the chiropractor's office with his irresistible offer.

2.    Create an endorsed mailing - that's a letter that's written by the owner of the business and mailed to their own customer list, that recommends the services of the other business.  This is an extremely effective form of direct mail for the business being endorsed because it's not being mailed cold.  The letter of endorsement is written by a trusted advisor to his existing client base with whom they already have a relationship with.

So if you're not leveraging the power of co-marketing in business - you oughta!  Here's how you can get started:

1.    Make a list of all the possible businesses who already sell to your target market and offer complimentary services.  It doesn't have to even be in the same industry e.g. real estate agent, hair salon.

2.    Eliminate any that don't have consistent messaging and positioning to your own company (e.g. if they offer budget services, and you offer premium services that isn't a good fit - find another business that also offers premium services).

3.    Figure out how you'd like to co-market with them - e.g. sign, endorsed mailing, newsletter.  And then whether it's a reciprocal arrangement or whether they'll be compensated.

4.    Create an irresistible offer to promote

5.    Get it out there!  Repeat.

Happy co-marketing!

Julie