Even the best in the business can use a little help, and that’s where collaborative marketing comes in. It’s a very rare enterprise that can thrive with only one person’s input. Far better to get a range of perspectives, techniques, and reach, and use this spectrum to gain a marketing advantage.
We’ll talk about the best ways to put collaborative marketing into action, as well as some examples of brands that did it well. But first, let’s look at what exactly collaborative marketing is, as well as its main advantages.
What is collaborative marketing?
Collaborative marketing is exactly as it sounds. It’s a technique wherein a business teams up with another body, primarily to increase its marketing reach. This collaboration can be between businesses, where two or more enterprises pool their marketing efforts. It could be between a major enterprise and experts in a relevant industry, so that the best knowledge can be tapped and exploited. Or it might be between a small business and a niche influencer, with both looking to build a larger audience.
No matter what type of collaboration, there should be a degree of unity. This means common marketing goals and an alignment in identity and ethos, or clashes will result. Of course, you could think of the collaboration as totally transactional, but you’ll benefit much more if there’s genuine collaboration in place and a recognition of common goals.
Advantages of collaborative marketing
Speaking of benefits, let’s take a look at some of the main advantages collaborative marketing can bring.
1. Extended reach
This is the big one, the one most businesses will enter into collaborative marketing efforts to achieve. By teaming up with another business, agency or individual, you’ll open up a whole new market of potential customers.
This could be a market your new partner already targets – for instance, if you’re a beauty brand trying to appeal to a younger audience, you might work with a Gen Z influencer. Alternatively, it could be an entirely new sector both you and your collaborator want to break into. In both cases, the idea is either to access new areas of existing interest, or to conduct demand generation.
2. Get a buzz going
When there are significant developments with brands that an audience already loves, you can stoke up that all-important phenomenon: a buzz. This can be especially the case where a surprising collaboration is put in place.
Remember though that the collaboration should make sense. A link between a fitness app and a chain of donut shops might be surprising, but it would also be deeply confusing and likely drive away the existing audience. Compare this to a link between an online check-in tool and a popular hotel. Combined with the right social media marketing strategy, this would capture attention and drive discussion, building that buzz any new campaign needs.
3. Boost brand awareness
The right industry experts know exactly what a business needs to do to boost brand awareness. The ideal result is that a customer thinking of a particular product type will think of a particular business first. Just like what happens when you think of a carbonated soft drink, or a bucket of fast-food chicken. The former example in particular seeks to maintain its market dominance via collaborations with other brands like Puma and Mentos.
Another slant on this that’s worth mentioning is where a brand might want to shift its profile slightly. For instance, where a business might want to highlight its success with going green, it might collaborate with a partner known for its environmental credentials.
4. Better problem solving
If you get the right brains around a table, problems get solved quicker and more effectively. Industry experts, whether in the shape of marketing agencies or enterprises who have been engaged in particular kinds of business for long enough to gain their expertise, can bring fresh ideas and new perspectives to problems you might otherwise struggle with.
5. Better content
Finally, by introducing other bodies with other angles, you get a more diverse content production base. In this way, you might freshen up your output, at the same time as beefing up your SEO performance, for instance. Diversifying your content generation can also be thought of as one of your risk mitigation strategies, as more heads involved will more readily point out where the weak points in your output are, thus minimizing the chances of failure.
5 ways to achieve collaborative marketing
So, you like the sound of collaborative marketing. Of course you do: it’s a brilliant way of boosting your marketing performance. But how do you get started?
1. Think about your business
Sounds obvious, but you need to start by being sure of what your business is all about. In other words, what’s your business’ core identity, and do you want to change that? How might your prospect generation and lead management techniques look going forward? What goals do you want to achieve going forward? Only by knowing this can you be in a position to achieve the next step.
2. Identify a partner
So, now you’re clear who you are and what you want, you’ll be better able to work out who are your best potential partners. If you see your fashion business expanding into a younger demographic, then you might want to look at an influencer to collaborate with. If you want to expand into an unfamiliar country, then you should ideally get in touch with an agency with, for example, local regulatory requirements expertise.
3. Get your pitch together
Why should another party collaborate with you? What’s in it for them? Get a killer pitch together clearly illustrating how together you’re both stronger. This can go above and beyond any fee you might be paying them, as is usually the case with expert agencies or influencers. Don’t forget to personalize your pitch email.
On top of this, make it clear in your email that what can be a high-profile collaboration is good for their brand. This is where alignment in your goals, ethics, and overall vision helps – a company known for its sustainability wouldn’t risk that reputation by collaborating with a fast fashion brand, for instance.
With email personalization and messaging that revolves around the benefits of the proposed collaboration, you’re more likely to get your email recipient to take your desired action.
4. Decide on what type of collaboration you want
This is a more detailed step both parties need to decide, as there are several shapes that collaborative marketing strategies can take.
a. Joint campaigns
This variety of collaborative marketing is where two (or more) brands work together to produce a single marketing campaign. This venture should achieve traction which delivers benefits to both parties. While alignment on things like ethics and goals are important, don’t restrict yourself to the obvious links. Sometimes, the best collaborations are between two seemingly unrelated brands that end up with an exciting new product.
A great example is the collaborative campaign between Lucasfilm and Homesick, which resulted in candles with Star Wars themes. This included the unmistakable scent of the Death Star – whatever that might be! It’s clear that campaigns like this can bring previously unlinked parties together for new impact.
b. Product bundling
When two businesses contribute a product into a package, then you have a collaborative marketing variety known as product bundling. This is an area where harmony of purpose really has to reign. If you have a product bundle that consists of, say, an umbrella and printer cartridges, it would be tricky for a marketing agency to come up with a unifying theme!
Think of bundles that make sense: for instance, when a laptop pairs with useful software. In this case, different manufacturers come together with an offer that’s helpful to the customer.
When considering this kind of bundling, the laptop maker might start by considering what their target audience looks like. Then they will go to the software developers who are the industry experts, because they give the kind of solutions that the target customer base will be most in need of.
For instance, if the laptop business is selling primarily to a home admin market, then it will be sensible to team up with a business that delivers a good home office software suite. For the budding entrepreneur, perhaps include links to how to create a digital business card and graphic design tools.
c. Co-hosting an event
In an era of increased competition, businesses need to try all kinds of techniques to get noticed. One route that’s becoming more and more popular is the event. These can include trade shows, limited-time pop-up shops, and workshops. All such forms represent a good, high-profile way to get collaborations embedded in the minds of an audience.
As ever, these forms of collaborative marketing need to make sense. For instance, a collaboration between Go-Pro and Ripcurl that includes an event all about watersports ticks all the symbiotic boxes. Don’t disregard online events either – for instance, a Go-Pro/Ripcurl collab could have online webinars about film editing tips, as well as in-person sporting events at specific locations.
5. Monitor, talk, and tweak
As you’ll find in many entrepreneurship endeavors, not everything works first time. Collaborations that are a match made in heaven on paper can fail to gel in practice. That’s why you should monitor output. Do you now get a higher ecommerce checkout conversion rate? Have consumers started talking more about your brand since your co-hosted event?
Keep communicating with your partner and your respective marketing teams so both sides can air their views on what’s working for them. That way, you get all-round satisfaction and a sustained relationship.
And don’t be afraid of changing tactics. When it’s not working, it can be clear to everybody. So to keep banging on in the same manner can be damaging to your brand. Seeing failure for what it is and changing in order to beat it results in better performance. It makes for better trust, too, as you’re clearly all about the honest solution rather than the cover-up.
Together can be so much better
The notion of using input from an industry expert can be a little off-putting, especially if you and your small business have been doing fine by yourselves up to now. But things can change, and markets can evolve. As a result, it makes sense to introduce the thoughts and approaches of partner businesses, agencies, and other industry experts into your marketing efforts.
This is why collaborative marketing is such a great technique for you to explore today. Successful collaborations can inject vibrant new energy into your marketing strategy. Teamwork is where it’s at – so try it out!
