Strategy
Why Aren’t You Co-Marketing?

Why Aren’t You Co-Marketing?

March 15, 2016
4 min read

It’s time to team up to produce greater results.

Co-marketing is a highly underutilized marketing technique for most companies.

Why? Because teams don’t truly understand the value of working with one another.

“Co-marketing helps brands build a new audience, and get a new type of content in front of their audience,” says Amanda Sibley, Campaigns Manager at HubSpot.

Collaboration brings new ideas, different resources, and additional expertise. It benefits your brand to leverage relationships to expand your product’s reach.

Let’s explore why your team needs to initiate a co-marketing campaign.

What It Looks Like

If your team hasn’t participated in a venture with other companies, it may be hard to convince everyone it’s worth their time and energy.

However, co-marketing can actually support your team and advance your long-term marketing goals. Here are a few benefits of collaboration:

  • More Exposure: Bring brand awareness to a different audience.
  • Access to Resources: Take advantage of other companies’ core competencies.
  • Established Credibility: Elevate your brand’s visibility as a leader in the industry.

Now, what does that look like in real life?

Zulily and Visa Checkout paired up to offer consumers a new payment method. In this holiday ad, subscribers received a discount just for trying it.

 

Moz teamed up with CRO influencer Talia Wolf to offer their audience a webinar discussing strategies to convert more mobile consumers.

 

Social Media Examiner invites experts to their Blab show to highlight the latest social media trends.

Moreover, your team can experiment with Twitter chats, eBooks, or even conferences. Find creative ways to benefit from each other’s strengths.

What The Experts Are Saying

Like all aspects of business, co-marketing is a skill that must be learned through experience. So, don’t get discouraged if your first partnership doesn’t perform with flying colors.

Instead, grow from your mistakes and listen to expert advice. Learn more about co-marketing from these six experts below.

Ross Simmonds (@TheCoolestCool), Founder of Crate.

“One advantage surrounding co-marketing partnerships is the ability to capitalize on shared distribution channels. Partnering with someone who has a likeminded audience gives you an opportunity to reach new people through channels that were once not available. You can leverage their ability to connect with their audience and they can leverage your ability to connect with yours.

Co-Marketing partnerships also offers the ability to establish a stronger sense of authority if you’re partnering with a brand that is well known and respected. Co-marketing with a quality brand or industry leader allows you to elevate your own brand by association.”

Nichole Elizabeth (@NikkiElizDemere), SaaS Consultant and Chief Strategy Officer at Inturact.

“To understand the benefits of a co-marketing campaign, we have to first define the goals of the campaign, which, in any scenario, are most likely to generate leads and prospects, create awareness, and build relationships.

We also have to ensure that both parties participating in co-marketing have similar audiences, so that getting in front of the other’s audience actually makes sense. From there, it’s a matter of reaching those goals.

It’s important to note, however, that co-marketing campaigns often lean heavily on Influencer Marketing, which I criticize in my article, The Problem With Influencer Marketing. While it may be beneficial to participate in a co-marketing campaign, make sure that your co-marketing partner’s values are aligned with yours, i.e. don’t choose to work with them just because they’ve got a large audience.

Use co-marketing campaigns to build authentic relationships and the benefits that you’ll experience will be much more rewarding than just meeting quotas for the goals that I mentioned above.”

Tony Paille (@Tony_Paille), Director of Marketing at AIIM.

“Remember when your mom used to worry about you falling into the wrong crowd? Keep that lesson in mind when choosing your co-marketing partnerships.

If you choose carefully, the leads you generate have the potential to be warmer than the leads you get from pay-per-click or your other advertising efforts. You become trustworthy by your association with a brand they already know and love.”

Aaron Fitzgerald (@FitzAaron), Founder of Ncrease.io

“Any successful marketing strategy needs to be centered around one clear metric: our marketing focus at Ncrease is all about lead generation. Like most businesses, content marketing is central to our strategy; however, it’s tough to break through the noise.

Several months ago, we began exploring new ways to ensure our content reached our intended audience of retail marketers and community professionals. That’s when we discovered co-marketing‑it’s a simple yet brilliant addition to any marketing strategy. It allows complementary brands to build and promote marketing materials together.

For us, our customer-centric social media focus pairs well with businesses that advocate centralizing customer data or maximizing social across all business functions. The key here is ensuring your skills complement rather than overlap. At its best, co-marketing is a strategy that allows a lead to learn how your business fit with, what may be, their broader needs.”

Elena Terenteva (@LenaTerentyeva), Ex Content Strategist at SEMrush

“Co-marketing is a win-win strategy, as it provides ample opportunities both for your company and your partners’. It’s a great way to exchange expertise on specific topics. One example of co-marketing that we apply at SEMrush is content co-creation, including blog posts, webinars, etc. It’s a low-effort technique, but the outcome can be incredible!

Here’s an example. We hosted a webinar with Andy Crestodina, co-founder of Orbit Media, who shared his knowledge and experience in web marketing. After the webinar, Andy gave answers to several questions from our audience that he couldn’t reply to during the webinar, because there were plenty of questions!

Our next step was to create a recap post based on the webinar and Andy’s answers. As a result, our webinar listeners transformed into new blog readers and vice versa, and our regular readers decided to watch the webinar after reading our recap.

And here is another example. This year we cooperated with Martin Shervington, speaker, blogger, and the community builder of Plus Your Business. Each week we prepare an infographic with SEMrush data that Martin publishes on a PYB community page. Then Martin wrote a whole blog post in which he included one of our infographics that sparked his audience’s interest.

Actually, these are just a few of examples of co-marketing campaigns! There are many options for building co-marketing partnerships. Just make sure that your cooperation is mutually beneficial.”

Sherman Lee (@SHERM8N), Co-founder & CEO of GoodAudience

“Co-marketing partnerships allow you to get in front of another qualified audience efficiently. Since this is relationship driven, your partner making a recommendation about your business gives you an advantage.

You get in front of your target audience and they already trust ya. It’s not just a one time marketing blast either. In one of our recent partnerships, I ended up telling people all the time about Hubstaff and look I’m doing it again!”

Partner Up

Co-marketing offers the opportunity to build quality relationships with other brands and engage a new customer base. From webinars to blab shows, find innovative ways to achieve your marketing goals.

Grow your brand. Partner up.

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Michael Brenner

Michael Brenner is an international keynote speaker, author of "Mean People Suck" and "The Content Formula", and Founder of Marketing Insider Group. Recognized as a Top Content Marketing expert and Digital Marketing Leader, Michael leverages his experience from roles in sales and marketing for global brands like SAP and Nielsen, as well as his leadership in leading teams and driving growth for thriving startups. Today, Michael delivers empowering keynotes on marketing and leadership, and facilitates actionable workshops on content marketing strategy. Connect with Michael today.

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