Co-marketing

Co-marketing is a marketing strategy where brands or organizations partner together to expand their reach. Typically, the companies working with each other have some similarities, such as being in the same industry or having similar audiences.

How to Approach Co-Marketing

Approaching co-marketing doesn’t have to be overly complex. There’s plenty to learn from examples like Ashley’s Furniture and the Green Egg. Follow these five steps:

1. Decide on Business Goals

Before reaching out to other brands to see if they want to work with you, select a goal you want to achieve after this partnership. Do you want to increase your social media following, add new email subscribers or grow your leads in a new market? Your objectives influence which brands you would collaborate with and the likelihood of meeting your targets.

2. Search Out Potential Partners

While brands would likely not want to work with a direct competitor, they should seek out a company with a market or audience owning similar geographic locations, interests or other characteristics. It is also good practice with any partnership to check their past work, reputation and current marketing campaigns to see if their approach to marketing aligns with yours.

3. Contact Brands You Want to Work With

When reaching out, pitch to them a co-marketing partnership, brainstorm potential promotional ideas, what you hope to achieve and why it could benefit both of your brands.

4. Strategize Your Promotional Campaign

Determine which strengths you and your partners have and how to best utilize them to optimize your promotions, product launches or other marketing efforts. For example, your brand might have a bigger social media marketing team and follower base than your partner. You could then leverage these resources to increase engagement for both of your businesses.

On the other hand, your partner may have a large email subscriber list so they could send out links to your website for higher traffic numbers.

5. Analyze & Report Results

After your promotion has concluded, gather data related to the campaign and report them back to your partner, such as gains in social media followers or referral traffic. Sharing data is valuable to decide whether to continue your partnership or pursue other collaborations in the future.

Pros of Co-Marketing

Some of the pros of co-marketing include:

• Grow your audiences and reach
• Engage new markets and demographics
• Share resources, staff and expertise
• Report on outcomes with each other