Part 1 of 3

What’s better than an expert providing immense value on a particular topic? Two experts coming together to share their knowledge on that topic.

That’s exactly what partnership marketing — also known as “a collaboration between two companies or brands to reach a broader audience base and mutually benefit both parties,” according to WordStream — is for. When considering this marketing tactic, you may have some hesitancy and wonder if it’s actually
beneficial for your company.

As shared by Impact,  partnership marketing can:

• Increase brand awareness.
• Establish credibility and trust.
• Grow audiences.
• Improve customer retention and lifetime value.
• Encourage cross-sell / upsell opportunities.

In this guide, we give the lowdown on partnership marketing: getting started with it, understanding its success, and bringing in support
to facilitate it.

Determine the Topic

The first step in partnership marketing involves determining the topic you’d like to focus on. If you don’t already have a few ideas in mind, ask yourself the following questions:

1. What are our clients / customers struggling
   with lately?
2. What’s a trending topic that falls within our
   area of expertise?
3. Which component of our business do we want to push the most?

You’ll likely end up brainstorming several
options, allowing you to create a list and then narrow it down from there. Hold onto the ideas that you don’t pursue this time around, as you can use them for future collaborations.

Once you know the focus of the offer, you can then start to flesh out the plan.

Set Goals for the Partnership Marketing

As with all things in marketing, don’t dive into partnership marketing by throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping that it sticks with no true plan in mind. Have a clear intention for why you want to pursue this collaboration in the first place and then set goals for it. Your goals might include:

• Increasing website traffic.
• Generating leads.
• Growing your email list.
• Building your social media presence.
• Establishing new connections.

These goals will then guide you towards picking the right format of your offer that will help you to achieve those results.

For example, if you would like to generate leads, hosting a webinar might be best, as it gives you the opportunity to demonstrate your expertise and then encourage attendees to reach out to you afterwards for a consultation. If you would like to grow your email list, you may consider writing a white paper, where both you and your partner will be able to get access to the list of email addresses that downloaded it.

After selecting the topic and outlining your goals, you can start to think about the right
expert — or experts, as there may be more
than one — to partner with.

Find the Right Thought Leaders

1 Partnership marketing is exactly that — a partnership. In order to be successful, it’s crucial to find the right partner(s) who are going to contribute and put in an equal amount of work and resources. You may already have someone in mind, but if you don’t, the following sources can help you seek the right fit:

1. Your network, either someone you know or someone a colleague recommended.
2. Search engines
3. Social media
4. Podcasts
5. Conferences

Although you may want to dive right into things, it’s crucial to “vet” or “qualify” the expert first to ensure they’re truly the right fit.

The qualifications may vary depending on the partnership, but ideally, you’ll want to check for the following:

• Expertise: Does their knowledge align with your offer? If the partnership involves any sort of public speaking, do they have experience in that and know how to engage an audience?
• Time and Resources: Do they have the time and potentially resources (money towards
  expenses that might occur as well as team members who can help out) to commit to this opportunity to guarantee its success?
• Marketing: Do they have a big and active presence online that will help with awareness for the opportunity? If they don’t have a huge audience, are they at least consistent with their marketing? Will they agree to hold up on their end of the promotional plan?

If the thought leader checks all of these boxes, then you’ll feel confident reaching out to them about the opportunity and beginning this partnership.