If everyone is telling you that you've got a great product or service, but you are not seeing that enthusiasm mirrored in sales, then expanding your audience might be the answer. Generally speaking, audience growth is a tough, painful, expensive and time consuming. Often delivering little in return for your efforts.
Innovate UK has put together a great video and shared some tips that we've shared below. Innovate UK works with people and companies, to find and drive science and technology innovations, that will grow the UK economy. Since 2007 they've invested over £2billion in innovation, funding more than 11,000 projects and we have worked with them closely on a number of occasions.
We've found partnership marketing to be a very cost effective tool for our business growth.
Innovate UK has put together a great video and shared some tips that we've shared below. Innovate UK works with people and companies, to find and drive science and technology innovations, that will grow the UK economy. Since 2007 they've invested over £2billion in innovation, funding more than 11,000 projects and we have worked with them closely on a number of occasions.
We've found partnership marketing to be a very cost effective tool for our business growth.
Tip #1: Choose partners with access to potential customers
"Look outside your industry for examples of successful partnerships you can replicate" – Ryan Leighton, CEO at Leightons Group.
Partnership marketing is the act of teaming up with another business to boost promotional activities. Ideally, the brand you work with will have direct access to a pool of potential customers. This should never be done with competitive companies but instead with brands that offer a complimentary product/service.
What are the benefits of partnership marketing?
Partnership marketing is the act of teaming up with another business to boost promotional activities. Ideally, the brand you work with will have direct access to a pool of potential customers. This should never be done with competitive companies but instead with brands that offer a complimentary product/service.
What are the benefits of partnership marketing?
- It allows both brands to reach a larger audience
- It adds value to existing customers
- It boosts you brand's reputation
Tip #2: Research your target market
"If you are operating on a limited budget, partnerships should be the first thing on your marketing to-do list" – Xaver Matt, Managing Director at Netleadz and Angel Investor.
You need to partner with the right brand. To do this, look towards the buying habits of your customers. Don't pre-judge this, buying habits could surprise you. When you think you've found an appropriate company, ask yourself a few questions:
You need to partner with the right brand. To do this, look towards the buying habits of your customers. Don't pre-judge this, buying habits could surprise you. When you think you've found an appropriate company, ask yourself a few questions:
- Is the company's product/service relevant to your customers?
- Does your brand share the same ethics/values?
- What can you offer them?
- What can they offer you?
Tip #3: Start with simple ideas
"Simple APIs are a great way to hook new partners and gain instant access to their audiences" – Nick Lyons, CEO at Kaptur Software.
When hooking up with another brand, it can be easy to get too excited and commit to big money campaigns straight away. Don't fall into this trap. Before you do anything, you need to first establish what return on investment you'll get from any joint strategy. There are plenty of great ideas to get the ball rolling without a huge investment:
When hooking up with another brand, it can be easy to get too excited and commit to big money campaigns straight away. Don't fall into this trap. Before you do anything, you need to first establish what return on investment you'll get from any joint strategy. There are plenty of great ideas to get the ball rolling without a huge investment:
- Twitter competition
- Content collaboration
- Customer referral discounts
- Facebook campaign
Tip #4: Use Data to Analyse Insights
"Partnering with Zoopla increased our audiences tenfold overnight, gaining us vital user data to refine our proposition" – Barry Bridges, CEO at Property Detective.
The importance of data should never be overlooked. The more you understand and analyse how a campaign is performing, the more chance you have of ensuring it's successful. To do this, you first need to grasp which metrics are most important to you. What do you care about? It could be traffic, engagement or even conversions. Alternatively, you could be seeking a more abstract metric like trust and reputation.
Once you understand which metrics are important to you, you can begin to scrutinise the data. If your collaboration isn't performing how it should be, you can use the analysis to question why. This will help to ensure the success of future marketing ventures.
If you're interested in finding more tips like this, you can subscribe to Innovate UK's YouTube channel here.
Additionally, you can follow @InnovateUK on Twitter here.
The importance of data should never be overlooked. The more you understand and analyse how a campaign is performing, the more chance you have of ensuring it's successful. To do this, you first need to grasp which metrics are most important to you. What do you care about? It could be traffic, engagement or even conversions. Alternatively, you could be seeking a more abstract metric like trust and reputation.
Once you understand which metrics are important to you, you can begin to scrutinise the data. If your collaboration isn't performing how it should be, you can use the analysis to question why. This will help to ensure the success of future marketing ventures.
If you're interested in finding more tips like this, you can subscribe to Innovate UK's YouTube channel here.
Additionally, you can follow @InnovateUK on Twitter here.