There are several stories of strategic alliances launching highly successful marketing campaigns. Consider IBM, Apple, Adidas and the World Cup or Accor Hotels! The modern consumer market is more obsessed with social media platforms. Hence, brand marketers seek online influencers to form alliances. The objective is to create a buzz for their services/products. Strategic partnership is termed to be an affordable and time saving way to improve a brand. It also helps generate new leads, expand your market, grow your business and increase revenue.
10 Steps to form strategic B2B Partnerships
1. Identify partnership types that complement perfectly your core offering:
Being creative allows you to form healthy relationships. Some suggestions include creating affiliates, blog contributors and content partners, joint webinars, two-way referrals and speaking opportunities.
2. Things to do before starting partnership:
Ensure having great Taster / Opt-in / Freebie / Lead Magnet, etc. Develop nurture sequence with small email series to generate trust. It also directs them to your published blogs. Automation can help. Retarget those not having taken any appropriate action on your lead page. For this, establish Facebook Pixel. Post videos n your LinkedIn profile and About Page.
3. Research Providers:
Prepare a list of providers of your chosen services/products. Rate them top-to-bottom. Travel the route that your customer is likely to take. Then shortlist highly rated prospect partners, who offer value and have amazing lead magnets. Once you complete the entire process and identify Unique value proposition, outsource research of shortlist candidates, list creation and prospects.
4. Find out perfect services and product partners:
Create a profile of what your ideal partner should be. Identify what people seek prior to shopping your services and products. Also get to know their requirements after they had purchased your services/products.
5. Connect with prospective partners:
Be active on different social media platforms like Facebook groups, LinkedIn. Comment, Like and Share wherever appropriate. Identify influencers and promote Affiliate Marketing.
6. Prepare pitch outlining benefits derived by your partners in this strategic partnership:
Identify who are you, what are your benefits as well as that of your partners and clients. Get to know your values, whom do you plan to provide solutions, what can you provide, and your Unique value proposition.
7. Post-call email template:
Prepare canned response. Specify clearly the benefits derived from this partnership. Identify the next steps, what to do next. Avoid lengthy emails. Rather keep it simple and to the point to make it effective as well as seek CTA.
8. Call up the Affiliate Marketing company/firm that you plan to pitch to:
Check out their YouTube channel / LinkedIn / Website. Search for their offered services/products, testimonials, values, team, about page. Also know what the company deals in, their raving fans, lead magnet quality, etc. A win-win partnership can be developed by getting to know about each one’s business!
9. Communicate:
You should communicate every now and then to ensure everyone involved are in the same page. This helps avoid unwanted confusion and fosters healthy discussions and better relationship
10. Explore further:
Try to explore available opportunities. Send across follow-up emails. Both should be aware of the following steps to avoid confusions. Also find out who is responsible for what, measure, tweak and repeat. The objective should be find better and effective strategic alliances.
Be aware of pitfalls
B2B Partnerships can help scale your business. It also saves precious money and time. However, before enter into any partnership, do have knowledge of the common pitfalls. Remember, not all joint ventures are successful. Hence, you should take a cautious approach and ensure following the steps. You may consult an industry expert for guidance.
