Joint Venture Marketing

Joint Venture Marketing - A Key to Increased Business and Expansion:

"Two heads are better than one."  It's a popular phrase for a reason, because it's true.  And for small businesses, joint ventures can be a crucial marketing strategy to pool resources and save money when both are limited. 

Joint ventures, where you partner with other businesses (small or large) can be a very lucrative marketing strategy for your company. Here is some advice to consider when looking into possible joint venture opportunities.

Don't Pay For Venture Opportunities:

You can make hundreds of connections with major websites and e-zines for nothing. Forget the idea of "joint venture finder" software. It doesn't really work.

Using an affiliate program, you can increase your sales with a few new twists on joint ventures. All you need to know is how to do an Internet search and write an email or pick up the phone, and you're way ahead of other small business owners.

Who and What to Search For.

It's important to understand that just because a website or other business wants to partner with you, it does not mean they would be a good fit for a joint venture. Make sure to stay proactive in finding sites and companies who would be advantageous partners for joint venture opportunities.

1. Find websites in your target area using Google. These businesses have the same type of customers.
2. Make a list of the sites that have better web traffic. Use http://www.alexa.com to determine quickly which sites are better than others to contact.
3. Don't contact direct competition. Rather, seek out complementary sites with the same demographic of primary customers, but that your products don't have much exact overlap. For example, if you publish a travel blog, partner with hotels. If you sell baby blankets, venture with a baby names site.

Contacting Venture Partners:

Most importantly, prepare yourself before contacting a venture partner so you don't "blow your chance" at working together. Try these tips and strategies when contacting another company or website to see if a joint venture is possible.

1. Familiarize yourself with information about the site before contacting a possible partner.
2. To stick out from the rest, pick up a telephone rather than e-mail.
3. Do a little digging to find a specific name of someone at the company who might be interested in partnering. 
4. Offer them a free copy of your literature or sample product for review.
5. Personalize your contact. Don't read from a script (or at least let them know you're reading off a piece of paper).

Types of Joint Ventures:

The sky is the limit. If you think that a company can benefit from a partnership in any way, don't feel limited by existing types of joint ventures. If you're unfamiliar with some popular types of joint ventures that small businesses engage in, though, here are a few to help get you thinking of marketing strategies:

1. Link exchange.
2. Literature swapping.
3. Co-hosting events.
4. Selling each other's products.
5. Sharing customer lists. (Make sure your privacy policy allows this.)
6. Placing advertising.
7. Publishing articles/resource boxes.
8. Affiliate programs.

Ultimately, a joint venture has to be mutually beneficial to work effectively. Show a potential partner or joint venture opportunity the benefit they will have from featuring your product or business.

 

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What's Next

Next In This Guide
Part 23:
Enlisting Help from Other Business Owners - Rather than spending too much of your budget seeking advice, it may prove worthwhile to enlist the help of other business owners.

Previous In This guide
Part 21:
Getting Endorsements - Endorsements for your small business are easy to obtain, and provide a company with credibility to bolster your marketing campaign.

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