Who can you partner with to reach your marketing target?
I went to a book signing by Eric Assimov, the New York Times Wine Writer whose column has appeared in print and online for many years. I never met Eric but frequently read his column. He was gracious, soft-spoken and quite grounded in his comments to those of us who stopped by Wine Authorities in Durham, North Carolina this past Saturday. Eric’s new book is called How To Love Wine and I am looking forward to reading it over the holidays.
I was struck by the wonderful blend of marketing activity going on between a book seller (The Regulator) and the subject matter expert retailer (Wine Authority). Instead of having an author come to a book shop to sign copies of a new book (How to Love Wine), they took the smart approach to bring the experience in the middle of a wine store where the target audience lives. The people in the shop were folks who love wine and enjoy learning about new varietals, blends and regions for wine.
I was struck by the wonderful blend of marketing activity going on between a book seller (The Regulator) and the subject matter expert retailer (Wine Authority). Instead of having an author come to a book shop to sign copies of a new book (How to Love Wine), they took the smart approach to bring the experience in the middle of a wine store where the target audience lives. The people in the shop were folks who love wine and enjoy learning about new varietals, blends and regions for wine.
Marketing Moment
This inspired me to think about how other businesses could be using this same approach to bring together common interests with partners or other businesses who don’t compete but share a target audience.
How could the accountant looking for new clients work together with the office supply wholesaler who sell share a common target or prospect?
How can the crafts woman who makes an organic goat cheese partner together with a bakery specializing in special cracker products made with sustainable farmed wheat and fruits?
How can an industrial pipe insulation firm find a way to partner with water companies to help each other reach a shared audience?
The idea is simple but requires a like-minded approach to a market. Below are four questions to ask to help you identify how you can partner with the right business and to scaffold your growth together with someone who shares a common need.
DEFINE YOUR TARGET: Who exactly do you want to reach? The better you can define who you want to get in front of, the better job you can do in understand who shares this audience as their target. Be very, very specific. Look at who buys from you know and crisply defined that segment of the population.
SHARED TARGETS: When you have identified your target, think about what other product and services your target also buys. And remember, the narrower the focus on your target the better. In fact, try to visualize and describing this person or company with as much detail as you possibly can. Who else wants to communicate and sell something to the same target as you?
WORK THE NETWORK:Once you have a definition of who you want to partner with, try using your network (Linkedin, Facebook, Local Business Chambers, etc) and see if someone can introduce you to a like-minded business owner who shares a common connection to your audience. The better you can describe who you want to meet, the better a colleague or connection might be able to help.
MAKE THE CALL: You will find a few leads from your community and then you need to pick up the phone and call. Once you reach out and explain that you don’t compete with them but you share a common interest in reaching more possible customers, a door will open. The key is a willingness to share and try something together.
WIN/WIN
Both parties need a chance to win. In the case of Wine Authorities, I am sure they had more traffic that day than a typical Saturday by bringing in new visitors. The publicity that made me aware of the event also made me aware of a wine store I don’t normally shop at and wasn’t on my radar.
Whether the wine shop and bookstore shared in the sale of the books is not the point. The wine shop wanted more traffic, the book shop wanted to sell books to consumers interested in wine. The wine shop wanted to build credibility with their existing clients that they could attract the New York Times Critic on wine to come to their store.
Together they combined their assets to bring more attention to their businesses at virtually no cost. It was the common target audience that they both wanted to reach and this simple partnership in the form of a promotional event popped the cork on a successful day.
MIND SHARE
Find a partner who shares a common marketing target with you and see how you can leverage that connection. Open up your mind to the possibilities of growing your business by leveraging a common audience.
I am a marketing professional with over 30 years of experience creating success. If you enjoy these blog posts, please sign up to receive them in your email or share them with other marketing friends who might be interested in these topics. You can comment on this blog, send an email to me at JeffreyLynnSlater@gmail.com or as the Car Talk guys on NPR like to say, write your question on the back of a $20 bill and mail it to me. Thanks for traveling along with me on this journey.
Hi, I was simply checking out this blog and I really admire the premise of Services | Event Marketingand this is really informative. I will for sure refer my friends the same. Thanks
A great idea placed within an ACTUAL, REAL LIVE story!
Plus, you provided several “How To” style steps, in case we want to take advantage of this wisdom.
THIS is a winning post, Jeffrey! Thanks for sharing.
Edward, thanks for the kind comment. I think this strategy of partnership is very undervalued by marketing professionals. Who can you partner with, who wants to work with you and who brings something new and special to the conversation? Thanks for sharing this with colleagues.
Jeff
I needed to introduce a new product which on the surface was difficult to measure against the existing ones out there. The determination was made early on that we had to get the material, in this instance a turf paint, out of the container and onto the ground where its relative value could be gauged by the prospect. The issue was that doing so was risky since a poor application would unfairly diminish the possibility of a favorable impression of the actual formulation. This led me to investigating doing exactly as this post describes: cross-promotional partnering.
Flash forward a year, and we had a fantastic relationship with a small business that builds electric turf sprayers which we use to put the colorant out for on-site test plots. The paint shows off the evenness of the application of Mr. Johnson’s ProEdge Sprayers, and his machines insure our product looks as good as it possibly can. Numerous times the sales reps have been told that this way of showing versus telling has been central to their winning the sale, and it is often said that it was a smart approach because it set us apart in a customer service regard as well since it took much of the guesswork out of the transaction.
As word has spread about each of these complimentary components, brand awareness for each company has skyrocketed. I say this just to reinforce your recommendation; this approach has been invaluable and comparable results could simply never have been achieved had we kept everything internal, as many companies are wont to do. As someone who has seen the benefits firsthand and in spades, I can say without hesitation that this is advice worth heeding. Thanks for the post and for the opportunity to share my case study.
Ken, Thanks for your case study confirming my premise about the value of partnering. Your example illustrates how important it is to finding leveraging points in marketing your product or business. Cheers. Jeff
Don’t forget about relevancy! There needs to be a reason for your two companies to enter a marketing partnership in order for it to really work. The pipe insulation firm and accountant might cater to the same audience but what do they have to do with each other? The more relevant your company is to your partner’s the better success you will have.
Joe, you make a good point. The partnership needs to be relevant to both targets. Thanks for the input. Jeff