What is collaborative marketing?
It is a simple concept of sharing your marketing resources with other business to a similar target market to maximize coverage of your money. However collaboration is more than just sharing content and information. It is about bringing ideas together, pooling resources and helping each other share customers.
Collaborative marketing helps local businesses which are targeting similar customers in a geographical location. If you run a pizza shop and the next door is a coffee shop, you can run combined ads in radio, television and print media for the same price, doubling your chances of reaching customers. You can offer coupons to each other’s stores at the same time.
Without realizing it, we have all been partners in collaborative marketing. Most of the credit card companies collaborate with retailers, airlines, hotels and boutiques to give you a one-stop shop. In the same way you can offer a similar experience to your customers based on their needs. As a small business owner you need to be inventive while you involve your partners in this process. Use social media, print media and good old ground work to engage your partners and customers to experience your brand and make your bottom line stronger. But keep in mind; you cannot spend too much time prepping for this type of marketing campaign. You need to be swift and smart to implement your ideas. Since your budget is limited for these promotions, understand how well you can team up with your local organizations.
The first step in marketing is identifying your partners. Keep in mind that your target market should be the same or at least have some common features between your partners. Get to know your partners and try to contact a consultant who can help you in choosing a better platform for advertisements. Best would be to team up with a local consultant. It is a win-win situation for everyone.
Secondly identify the preferences of your target market. Are you targeting the younger crowd which uses social media extensively, or a crowd that prefers print media? Since your budget is limited, choose wisely to get more bang for your buck.
Occasionally these types of collaborations can be overwhelming. Keep your options open and be positive. Just think through the whole process to understand if and where you went wrong and make amends to run successful collaborations.
