Newsletter #7 - Partnerships: Leverage your network and gain new customers 🎯

Because they are the most effective and least expensive organic acquisition channels on the market, Networking and Partnerships continue to be successful marketing tools in the UK.

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To help you strengthen or build your referral strategy, I've shared the method that Caroline Mignaux revealed to our CEO, Tim. This method highlights how you can easily gain new customers via partnerships and boost your sales during Q1.

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The 3 benefits of networking

1️. Reduce acquisition costs by sharing your audiences with your partner, rather than spending a fortune to get new customers.

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2️. Gain visibility to an ultra-relevant audience and grow your community.‍

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3️. Leverage your social proof and establish your authority by increasing your partner brand awareness.

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The most effective types of partnerships

• Co-branding
  Co-branding, or collaboration, is not a new method and simply consists of two brands creating a product that merges their two worlds.

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Contrary to popular belief, this marketing practice is popular between the big (Apple x Hermes) and between the small (M.Moustache x Hast). Today, it is becoming more and more common that the small and the big are partnering up with one another! (Nespresso x Zeta, CAVAL x Saint James, Faguo x Aigle, etc.)‍

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Thanks to their partnership, Faguo was able to take advantage of Aigle's Asian clientele which established itself in a new market. On the other hand, Aigle gave itself a facelift by associating itself with a DNVB.

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• The bundle
  This is when two brands offer their products and services together, for example, in a limited edition range or a competition. As with Unbottled x Meuf, this allows you to boost your engagement by taking advantage of cross-communication, generate more leads, and increase your sales.

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<sub>🔀 Are you interested in bundles?

Using Bigblue, Meuf and Unbottled launched a bundle offer and set up their cross-sales campaign.</sub>

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• Affiliate marketing
  E-commerce affiliation consists of selling your products on an affiliate site, often from a dedicated page. The affiliate receives a commission for each sale made and the advertiser’s site increases its sales and traffic.

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• Cross-selling
  Cross-selling is when you offer your customers the opportunity to buy additional and often complementary products. This technique increases your sales by an average of 20% and improves your customer’s overall experience. If your products and your partner's products are complementary, you can definitely use cross-selling to mutually increase your sales, like Campingaz with Decathlon.

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<sub>🛠 Bigblue Tip 

I recently discovered the Capio tool; this makes it easy to find the right partner site to cross-sell to!</sub>

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The check-list to organize and automate your partnerships

✅ Step 1: Define your objective

To do this, all you need to do is determine what impact you are going to prioritise:

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• Gain visibility
• Build your authority
• Generate more leads to increase your database

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By focusing on one objective, you'll have a much better chance of maximising your profits and making your co-marketing operation a success.

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✅ Step 2: Find the right partner

"Like attracts like". Yet, 70% of partnerships fail because of a poor choice of partner.

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To succeed in your partnership, you need to have a culture fit:

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• a common goal,
• similar values,
• similar audiences,
• equivalent processes,
• resources that complement or reinforce each other (for example, if you are looking to launch on Youtube and your partner is already present there).

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<sub>💡Tip for finding the right partners quickly

The Reachmaker tool created by Caroline analyses more than 2000 of your competitors and peers to propose collaborations adapted to your needs.</sub>

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✅ Step 3: Process

To save time and quickly enrich your list of partners, I strongly recommend that you offer them an onboarding kit.

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For example, you can make a dedicated onboarding kit, as if you were welcoming a new employee to your team.

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As you will be working together, it is important to share knowledge e.g. tips, tricks and resources... be generous! Your partner will feel more involved and your partnership will thrive.