{"id":175554,"date":"2024-03-31T13:22:48","date_gmt":"2024-03-31T13:22:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businessyield.com\/?p=175554"},"modified":"2024-03-31T13:22:51","modified_gmt":"2024-03-31T13:22:51","slug":"brand-partnerships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businessyield.com\/marketing\/brand-partnerships\/","title":{"rendered":"How Brand Partnerships Can Improve Consumer Engagement and Business Growth","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Everyone knows how Coca-Cola and Pepsi are always at each other’s necks, right? Now, imagine both companies burying the hatchet, just long enough to launch a drink together. Now, that’s the kind of brand partnership that would rock the world. And such a drink would probably bestow godhood to boot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, we don’t have to go too far to imagine what brand partnerships are all about, as they are constantly happening in every industry. In 2016, GoPro entered a brand partnership with Red Bull<\/a> that helped them sell an average of 4.4 million units over the next four years. This helped solidify GoPro\u2019s status as the world\u2019s go-to action camera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, is this all there is to brand partnerships? Read on to find out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Key takeaways<\/p>\n\n\n\n A brand partnership is a collaboration between two or more companies to create or promote products or services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re an individual with a lot of social influence, the chances are you could secure a brand partnership. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Brand partnership multiplies your brand’s audience with the audience of another respected brand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Partnerships can also offer extra revenue from new products and services that your brand might have a hard time tapping into alone.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n A brand partnership is a collaboration between two or more companies to create or promote products or services. It’s a type of marketing technique referred to as co-branding, which involves businesses offering their branded inventory as a single unit or package. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When developing a marketing strategy, companies might consider participating in brand partnerships. This type of collaboration allows them to raise brand awareness, generate leads, and improve revenue. The primary objective is to increase revenue and generate leads. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Through this collaboration, the companies involved can use their existing products or design a new item featuring their brands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brand partnerships are a great way to grow, but they aren\u2019t a one-size-fits-all strategy. You need to figure out what type of partnership is best for your current growth needs. So, let\u2019s dig into the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re an individual with a lot of social influence, the chances are you could secure a brand partnership. Typically, we\u2019re talking about creators and influencers online and on social media, such as bloggers, YouTubers, podcasters,\u00a0Instagram influencers,\u00a0and TikTok stars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, there are no hard and fast rules. Ultimately, anyone who\u2019s in a position to be able to influence others could add value to a partner brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For instance, securing brand partnerships can be a valuable stream of income for coaches, entrepreneurs, course creators, and experts of all kinds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, you don\u2019t necessarily need to have a huge following to secure a brand partnership (although of course, it could help). Micro-influencers who have as few as 1,000 followers in a highly targeted niche can be just as valuable to a partner brand. This is because they\u2019ll often have a high level of influence over a smaller pool of engaged followers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This can be ideal when encouraging people to buy a partner brand\u2019s products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Selecting the right type of partnership is essential to receiving positive results. Consider researching a brand’s audience and market status to gain insight into how two brands can complement each other. This preparedness exercise can help you create a market strategy that fulfills your objectives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n These are the types of brand collaborations you can consider:<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a co-marketing partnership, two or more brands agree to promote each other through joint marketing activities like social media contests, co-hosted webinars, and more. This relationship typically is more casual, with no formal contract (although companies may institute agreements for each joint project).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Going back to our initial example, GoPro and Red Bull went the extra mile and built a whole marketing campaign together. Both companies promoted each other on a global scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another example of a co-marketing partnership comes from Clearscope: They regularly partner with other brands to co-host webinars. In December 2022, for instance, Clearscope partnered with Jeff Baker of Baker SEO to co-host a webinar on evaluating search engine results pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Co-marketing activities are advantageous to companies that want to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n If your current marketing goals align with these, start looking into brands that offer a different product but target an audience similar to yours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An affiliation partnership or affiliate marketing refers to a company collaborating with a website or magazine publisher to promote its products online. The publisher receives a commission depending on the number of clicks, leads, and revenue for the branded company they generate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, suppose you work for an automotive company that partners with an automotive magazine publisher. The publisher can feature banner ads of the automotive brand throughout their website and gain a percentage of the sales generated by each visitor’s click. They may also include the automotive brand in their newsletters or social media posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Co-branding partnerships, also known as integration partnerships, occur when two or more brands work together to create a new product<\/strong>, whether it\u2019s a physical item, an online service, or software.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Think of all the sports brands that partner with famous athletes to create new shoes (e.g., Nike x Michael Jordan<\/a>). Other successful co-branding partnerships include Taco Bell partnering with Doritos to create the Doritos Locos Tacos Supreme and Google Maps partnering with Spotify<\/a> to produce an in-navigation music streaming feature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brands enter into co-branding partnerships to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Take note, however, that co-branding partnerships only work between brands that share similar values and target audiences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Many companies implement loyalty programs into their business models to maintain customers and generate leads. These programs typically function on a points system, where customers receive rewards, such as discounts or special events, for a subscription fee or continual purchase of that company’s products. Loyalty programs offer an opportunity for brand collaboration with loyalty members receiving exclusive access to a different company’s branded products. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This partnership aims to incentivize customers to remain or join a loyalty program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, a store that sells music and vinyl records may partner with a service that sells tickets for concerts. By joining that store’s loyalty program, you may gain access to a concert’s pre-sale event or a band’s mystery show. This partnership enhances the features of the loyalty program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When two companies collaborate to create a new product, they form a joint product partnership. You can employ this type of partnership in various ways, such as “powered by” or product mergers. “Powered by” occurs when a software provider collaborates with another company to market their mobile phone, computers, or automotive as being powered by its proprietary technology. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Product mergers occur when two companies that sell the same items unite their brands and potentially increase their influence and presence in a market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sponsorships involve one brand investing in another\u2019s endeavors (e.g., online or live conferences, and events). The sponsoring brand receives perks like the opportunity to set up a booth and market to attendees while the sponsored brand is compensated with money or free products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, Salesforce\u2019s Dreamforce<\/a> event obtained sponsorships from large companies like Accenture, Deloitte Digital, and IBM. These brands backed Dreamforce to reach the event\u2019s attendees who, according to Salesforce\u2019s sponsorship package, included CEOs, sales leaders, customer service executives, developers, marketing managers, and Salesforce admins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In exchange, Salesforce offered different services that provided pre-, during, and post-event marketing plans. This enabled the sponsors to extend their audience reach and generate even more leads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sponsorships allow brands to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brands can patronize more than private entities though; they\u2019ll also fund charity events, podcasts, and professional development courses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, you\u2019ve decided you want to reach out to brands for partnerships rather than sitting around and waiting for them to contact you. Good for you! Here are some steps you should take: <\/p>\n\n\n First things first, it\u2019s really important to understand who you are \u2013 and we don\u2019t mean that you need to have worked through an identity crisis. Rather, you should have a strong understanding of your\u00a0niche, your followers, and your platform.\u00a0Ask yourself the following questions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Remember, you don\u2019t want to be pushing products to your followers that they have no interest in. Instead, you want to market highly relevant products that you know they\u2019ll love \u2013 and that you equally believe in and can stand behind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This will allow you to stay true to yourself and maintain an authentic relationship with your followers despite monetizing your content through partnerships. It will also help you to sell yourself to brands when you get to that point. Being able to identify your USP (unique selling point) \u2013 or what differentiates you from other creators \u2013 will be a big part of what could encourage them to work with you over your competitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Next, it\u2019s time to start your search for potential partners. Remember, you\u2019re looking for brands that would be the perfect fit for your platform and followers \u2013 but you also need to be the right fit for them. So, consider brands that you think you could add value to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the biggest reasons\u00a0why partnerships fail\u00a0is because one partner is gaining more than another. Ultimately, you both need to be benefiting an equal (or at least fair) amount for your partnership to work. With that in mind, look for brands that match your:<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s also worth noting that brands come in lots of different shapes and sizes. Brand partners could be anything from the small business next door to a large multi-national label.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Be conscious of the \u2018Goldilocks zone\u2019 of partnerships, by which we mean a size that\u2019s not too big and not too small but just right. This is going to be different for everyone and will depend on how many followers you have as well as how experienced you are at working in partnership with brands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, if a brand is too big, you may not have enough followers or influencers to truly make an impact for them, which might rule them out. Meanwhile, if a brand is too small, it might not have the financial means to adequately reward you for your efforts. Whereas there will be a brand somewhere in the middle for which you can make a real impact with what you have (and who can similarly make a real difference to your bottom line!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now that you\u2019ve pulled together a list of potential partners, it\u2019s time to conduct some outreach and suggest a partnership. The brands you\u2019re approaching may well receive several emails from creators and influencers every day. So, it\u2019s important to brush up on successful outreach ideas to make yours stand out in all the right ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You might be thinking of sending out a generic email to your whole list. Don’t! Instead, you\u2019ll want to make your email as personal as possible. Do your research about the brand and get familiar with their audience, top-rated content, traffic, current partners and more, so that you can show them you\u2019ve done your homework and your proposal is worth reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Similarly, try not to send your pitch to a generic company email address. Instead, send it to a relevant job role at the company, such as a head of partnerships (oh, and make sure to get their name right!). If you have any mutual contacts, make sure to say so \u2013 or, if possible, get a warm introduction. This can make all the difference between your email being binned and jumping straight to the negotiation phase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The articles below can come in handy:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also attached below is a checklist of the steps you should follow when suggesting a brand partnership:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
What are brand partnerships?<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Who can secure brand partnerships?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Types of brand partnerships<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Co-marketing partnerships<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Affiliation partnerships<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Co-branding or integration partnerships<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Loyalty partnerships<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Joint product partnerships<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Sponsorship<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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How to reach out to brands for partnerships<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Know who you are<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Pinpoint potential partners<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Reach out to brands for partnerships<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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