When businesses partner up to market their offerings together through campaigns designed to leverage the appeal of both companies’ products and/or services, it can be more effective and have a greater reach than solo marketing initiatives. Of course, developing a truly effective marketing partnership is more complex than simply agreeing to support each other’s efforts along the way.
Reciprocity is key in such a relationship. Building a clear strategy ensures that each partner does their part to complement the other’s tactics, collaborating on certain aspects of outreach and enjoying mutual benefits. To learn how to create a win-win scenario with any marketing partner, check out the tips from members of Forbes Agency Council below.
Forbes Agency Council members share ways to ensure a marketing partnership benefits both parties.
Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. Focus On How The Consumer Benefits
Both partners need to focus on how the consumer benefits from the collaboration, not on what each brand gets out of it. Problems arise when each brand obsesses over how their brand benefits, trying to make sure their brand gets at least as much out of the deal as the other brand. Bonus tip: Skip the obvious, expected collaborations. Remember the Snoop Dogg/Martha Stewart collabs? Magic! – Michael Parise, DENT Agency LLC
2. Align Around Audiences And Objectives
The key to successful partner marketing is alignment on audiences and objectives. If there isn’t audience overlap, or if partners have different goals and key performance indicators, the partnership won’t create the impact you are looking for. Successful partner marketing stems from both sides working in tandem toward a common goal. – Donna Robinson, Collective Measures
3. Beyond Target Audience, Also Look At Size
When looking at brands for potential partnerships, look beyond the target audience overlap and consider size as well. If one brand is significantly larger or more established, it can create unintended perceptions about both brands and their reasons behind forming the partnership. The best matches are natural and authentic in appearance to consumers and to the brands involved. – David Harrison, EVINS
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4. Confirm Cohesion Between Brand Partners First
A partnership must be authentic to ensure mutual benefit. When you lose cohesion between brand partners, you lose customer buy-in. Therefore, before choosing a brand for a partner marketing campaign, confirm that there is sufficient overlap between your customer base, a clear throughline between solutions or services and continuity between your brand values and ethos. – Jonathan Schwartz, Bullseye Strategy
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5. Ensure Moral Alignment And Similar Audience Interests
Be sure both brands align morally and have similar audience interests. Ideally, each brand would want to tap into a new audience to gain further exposure, but keep the alignment clear to each brand’s followers with a valuable incentive. For B2B partners, be sure all deliverables are clearly defined, agreed upon and mutually supportive, unless there is an agreed-upon fee for promotion. – Jessica Kopach, The JKO Agency
6. Agree Upon All Deliverables Up Front
Make sure all deliverables are decided and agreed upon in advance of the partnership. Then, make sure to include these in an agreement signed by both parties. While the partnership should be mutually beneficial, knowing where the “hard lines in the sand” are will help ensure communication is fluid and toes are not being stepped on. Everyone knows and agrees to their defined part of the partnership. – Bernard May, National Positions
7. Understand The Target Audience
Understanding the target audience is the first step toward a successful partner marketing campaign. Partners need to understand whether their products together can benefit their common target market more than their individual products could. The other factors are building relationships with partners and having a clear call to action that can benefit both. Business scale is also a big factor. – Candice Georgiadis, Digital Day
8. Have Market Share With Each Other’s Desired Audience
Each brand should have market share with an audience that the other brand wants to enter into. Each brand should also feel relevant to the audience they want to enter into. This will allow each of the brands to provide an opportunity to expose their partner brand to their audience in a trustworthy and authentic way. – Justin Buckley, ATTN Agency
9. Come Together With Solutions In The Same Category
Collabs are the new, resonant way to bring two brands together in a user-centered approach that is more timeless and stays relevant longer. We have seen this recent trend where two brands come together, each with a product or solution design in the same category. This expands upon what we think of as traditional partner marketing, where one brand’s solution is leveraged, which can easily create user dissonance. – Goran Paun, ArtVersion
10. Set Up A Clear Partner Marketing Agreement
Set up a very clear partner marketing agreement, explaining in detail the mutually beneficial roles, responsibilities, activities and deliverables involved for both parties. Once you have a clear agreement in place, it is much easier to hold both parties accountable and execute the campaign more logistically while enabling the partnership to strengthen and scale over time. – Azadeh Williams, AZK Media
11. Ensure Both Partners Have Distinct But Related Audiences
For both sides to benefit from a partner marketing campaign, make sure that the audiences for both parties are from different clusters. It won’t make any sense to make a partnership and target the same audience all over again. While each side should have a different audience, they should also make sure that they aren’t too distant. Otherwise, the partnership won’t make sense to the audience. – Ajay Prasad, GMR Web Team
12. Make Sure There Is Benefit Parity
Benefit parity is key to the success of a marketing partnership—that is, both partners should receive about the same level of benefit. The Starbucks/Spotify partnership is a good example of benefit parity: Starbucks gets to use Spotify’s music for free, and Spotify gets exposure to Starbucks’ relatively high-income clientele. – Jeff Bradford, Dalton Agency
13. Outline Clear Expectations For Everyone Involved
Affiliate programs, collaborative offers and “guest star” style masterclasses have worked well for us over the past year. Each of these partnerships make sure both parties get some part of the pie. Make sure you are true to your word and that an agreement is decided upon beforehand, with clear expectations for everyone involved outlined. – Victoria Kennedy, Victorious PR
14. Specify Milestones For And Owners Of Each Task
To be successful, a partnership campaign needs to start with setting clear goals for both parties. Identify who will take responsibility for what aspect of the project, specifying the milestones for and owners of each specific task. This will prevent any misunderstandings later down the line, and everyone will get something out of the collaboration. – Solomon Thimothy, OneIMS
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Author: Expert Panel®, Forbes Councils Member
