Complementary brands with a similar audience or marketing goals often engage in collaborative marketing, in other words combining resources and efforts, to amplify outreach and boost sales. Benefits of collaborative marketing include reaching out to new audiences, cutting costs, combining expertise, and benefiting from brand association. Successful collaborations enhance customer experience and sometimes even offer products and services that are exclusive to the said collaboration.
As the holidays approach, companies think creatively about marketing their products and services.
Collaboration with complementary brands may include:
- Pop-up stores
- Joint events
- Joint advertising
- Exclusive deals and discounts
- E-books
- Newsletters
- Partnership emails
- Blog guest posting
- Social media shout-outs
- Instagram takeovers
- Podcasts
- Affiliate programs
Frequently bought together items on Amazon for instance may give small businesses some workable ideas.
Here are some examples of collaborations that we love:
- deals and discounts partnerships between hotels and ski resorts;
- joint advertising between apparel and outdoor activities;
- partnerships between gyms and personal trainers;
- joint events between bookstores and coffee shops;
- cooking classes hosted by farms and restaurants.
Finding the right partnership is key to a successful marketing campaign. Collaborative alliances ought to be designed as a win-win situation for both parties. The terms of participation must be clarified since the get-go. Often times these efforts lead to ongoing cooperation.
Simona David Consulting 