Why is forming strategic partnerships the best way to market your business?

Marketing can be an extremely painful process – especially if you find yourself spending money on advertising and not seeing any results from your efforts. I can relate to this. I spent a lot of money on marketing and advertising, and time and time again, I haven’t seen any results. If you’re struggling with marketing, I know how you feel.

One of the most effective ways to promote your business, whether you have venture capital, is through joint ventures. A strategic partnership is a form of marketing where you partner up with a non-rival business and you two work together to increase each other’s profits. This can be a win-win situation for both parties if you structure the deal in the right way.

Many books describe the power of joint ventures. They explain how partnerships can improve your sales and profits. It would help you to read up on the value of partnerships.

And speaking of launching your first deal, many new business owners have used joint venture marketing to start their entire business. This is especially true on the internet, but the same can be accomplished via offline means also. You see, if you’re just starting with a product but don’t have a list to promote it to, you have two options:

  • Build a list from hard work and sweat
  • Borrow someone else’s list

In the case of joint ventures, you will be sharing marketing lists. Building up a customer database is tough to do. Selling is hard, but when it comes to endorsing your product to your partner’s list, you can expect to receive a higher conversion rate than what you would have normally achieved without the joint venture.

One of the most attractive features of joint venture marketing is gaining instant credibility almost overnight. By “piggybacking” on your partner’s voice and recommendation, it will give you immense credit because your partner is talking about you from a 3rd person’s point of view. You can also use your partner’s voice as the basis of a full-page ad in a magazine or newspaper.

I’ve seen a marketing consultant market their professional services practice via the use of client testimonials. The entire full-page ad was set up like a direct mail piece, and the basis of the letter was to pitch the consultant’s services, all while making it seem like his services were a step above the rest. Your joint venture letter has to do the same thing.

If you want to increase your business profits, I think the best thing you can do is launch a joint venture. It’s fun, fast, easy, and incredibly profitable. I think you should start using this technique today if you want to increase your sales and profits in a hurry.

Joint venture marketing tips

Have you ever tried the marketing technique of joint ventures or strategic partnerships? It’s an excellent way to get new customers for free, along with having the opportunity to form a lucrative partnership. In the online world, it’s easy to start joint ventures. However, with the advent of affiliate marketing, setting up joint venture deals is a walk in the park.

But what about partnerships with offline businesses. Is it hard to establish a joint venture deal with a similar business in your neighborhood? More than likely, the answer to this question is no. Setting up JV’s in the offline world can be easy also. You just have to know how to approach a potential partner.

The first thing that you will want to focus on is your proposal letter. Your partners are busy people, so your letter must do the job of getting them interested in your proposition. Have a short headline at the top of the letter and write a very compelling direct mail letter that goes over the benefits of why they should do business with you.

Now you mustn’t select the wrong group of people to offer a joint venture to. For example, if you’re a chiropractor, you don’t want to ask another rival chiropractor if they want to team up and do a joint venture. This just doesn’t make sense. The goal is to run another rival competitor out of business, not to help them stay afloat. Plus, you’re putting yourself at risk by potentially giving them access to your customer database.

Instead, brainstorm on local businesses that could be good candidates for your proposition. So if you’re a chiropractor, consider starting up a deal with a local fitness gym in your area. You could offer some of your services to the gym members, which will prevent them from acquiring any injuries from working out. This is just one idea, but hopefully, you get the picture.

Once you have found a good partner to do business with, it’s time to structure the deal’s details. Preferably you want to offer your partner at least 50% of the sales that come through. One of you guys will have to have the product or service, and the other person will have to have the list. If the first attempt to mail out to customers is successful, run the campaign again for additional profits.

The good news is that you don’t have to stop running these joint venture deals. I know of some business owners who run JV after JV, and it’s the only thing that they do in their business. So you can do the same also.

Joint ventures can be a pivotal part of your business if you allow them to be. You probably won’t make a million dollars per year from this technique alone, but you can certainly earn 5-6 figures on autopilot each month. Keep these tips in mind when laying out the details of your JV plan. It will be more than worth it.

What does it take to grow your business through strategic partnerships?

Many businesses can greatly benefit from strategic alliances, otherwise known as strategic partnerships. A common example of such alliances is when a company sells their product through distribution channels instead of using an in-house sales team.

These partnerships give companies the opportunity to increase revenue by expanding into new markets and reaching new customers. Companies can even use many different types of channels to maximize their profit.

The importance of fostering partnerships

If your business commits to investing time and resources when first forming partnerships, you will increase your chances of creating a successful, long-lasting relationship. Many companies make the mistake of just passively creating partnerships. This attitude and lack of commitment has the potential to harm everyone involved.

A guideline to establishing successful partnerships

It is important to understand that the most successful strategic partnerships are structured, have accountability, and encourage collaboration. Below you will find eight steps that you can use as a guideline to help you establish new relationships, and keep your existing ones functioning effectively.

1. Talk it out.

Hold a strategic planning meeting while in the process of forming the alliance. The prime stakeholders of both companies should be present. You should also invite people from all relevant teams, such as sales, marketing, finance, and product management. This type of meeting starts the relationship off on positive footing and encourages everyone to share their ideas, concerns, and expectations.

2. Do the math.

Both parties need to agree on both the target revenue and the benefits each will receive.

3. Lay out a marketing strategy.

You should develop a partner marketing plan that clearly identifies the needs of both companies. It should outline all the costs, roles, and responsibilities. Each company can then create a team to refine and implement the plan.

4. Investigate.

It is important to take the time to determine what kind of training is needed for all of your various functional teams, such as sales, marketing, and customer service. Some teams may even require ongoing training, not just a one-time education.

5. Lean on me.

Both partners should agree on the manner and amount each company will support the sales team with their sales calls. For example, if your product or service is complex, you should establish a joint sales team comprised of both a sales expert and a technical expert to meet with customers.

6. Ask an expert.

Find someone who is successfully selling your product or service. Learn his or her techniques and pass them along to your own sales team.

7. Pick your tools.

You and your partner should agree on the metrics you will use to track, measure, and report your success.

8. Start small.

Keep your goals small and attainable in the beginning. This will allow you to have some early wins and focus your energy more effectively. If you start small you can build momentum at a better pace.

Make the time and put forth some effort and you should be able to create long-lasting and effective strategic alliances.

How to grow your sales with joint venture marketing?

What’s your goal for earning more money in your business? Do you plan to take another year lightly and sit and watch your competitors eat you alive, or are you going to be proactive and take charge of your business? You have to decide which option is the best for you when it comes down to marketing your products and services.

Personally, one of my favorite ways to market my business is with joint ventures or strategic partnerships. Joint ventures are lucrative profit zones in your business that cost little to nothing to implement. If you have a product or a customer list, you can do a joint venture and have lots of success with it.

If you’re not using the power of the internet to do your joint venture deals, then now is the time to start doing so. You see, even though you may have a small business in a small neighborhood of your city, you can still launch profitable joint venture campaigns with business owners all around the country. How do you say? Via the power of information marketing.

Make it a point to learn about making informational products that are easy to create and low-cost to make. Information marketing is all about creating value and packaging that value in a tangible way to the end-user. If you can incorporate information products into your marketing plan, you could seek out joint venture partners all across the world for a potential partnership.

There are so many ways that you can have JV success. One thing that you can do to see who would be a great partner for you is to look online and search for non-rival companies who offer different products to the same niche that you do. So, for example, if I was a chiropractor, I would seek out and contact fitness gyms about a potential alliance.

Fitness gyms have a lot of members who have a chance of injury every time they work out. So if I was a chiropractor, I would send a letter to the fitness gym owner and offer a free consultation for members who need a routine body check-up. In addition, I would give the owner free coupons that their members can use to redeem into my practice.

There are many ways that you can get creative with your marketing approach. First, seek out businesses in your area and see if they would be interested in a joint venture with you. Don’t do cold calling because this is ineffective, and you have to put on a crafty show if you want to get past the gatekeeper.

If you can successfully get past the gatekeeper, you will want to memorize your pitch so that when the intended person gets on the phone, your pitch will sound clear and coherent. Take about 1 hour to rehearse what you’re going to say, and then perform when you get the targeted person on the phone.

All in all, you should be using joint ventures to your advantage. Take the time to learn how to make it work for you, and then go for it.

Want more help with your business?

If you like the above tips, you are going to love working with Success Harbor.

See the many ways we can help your business on our “Hire us” page.

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