Before getting into how you can use cross-promotion as a marketing technique, let’s define what exactly it is.
Cross-promotion is when two groups (usually businesses) advertise together. Each group pools their money together to slash advertising budgets or helps promote the other group. Visa does this a lot. They’ll mention a product or store in their commercials and advertisements, and in return, their partner will mention using Visa to pay for purchases in their store. Both groups benefit and are possibly bolstered by their affiliation with each other.
Follow these steps for creating a cross-promotion strategy that will generate more sales than you could have produced on your own.
1. Find a partner.
Obviously, this is a great first step for cross-promotion! Of course you can’t just put your finger on a company in a phone book and partner with them. You have two options for approaching this: do some research to find out what other businesses your customers shop at, or find businesses that have products that complement yours.
Once you find some businesses that you think might be a good fit, do some more research to find which companies share your values and want to reach the same target market. Think about what companies you would be proud to be associated with. You also want to pick a partner whose resources and reputation are equal to yours.
2. Evaluate your shared customers.
Determine what portion of your target market likes to shop at your partner’s business and vice versa. These are the people you want to advertise the most.
What do they like about your product and your partner’s product? How can you enhance what they like about each by working together? Check out their demographics: Where do they live? What kind of car do they drive? You’re constructing a niche market out of already niche markets so you need to get very specific to make sure you reach your shared target market.
3. Decide on a test-run cross-promotion event or sale.
It’s a good idea to start with a simple, small cross-promotion just to test your relationship, make sure that it’ll work. One safe idea is to both hold sales at the same time and include incentives for customers to shop at both places.
For instance, a hardware store holds a sale on wood and a deck builder has a sale on deck-building services. They advertise for their sales together in one flyer, brochure or commercial. They then split the advertising cost, which will either save them money or allow them to afford using techniques, such as color printing, that they wouldn’t have been able to afford on their own.
4. Evaluate the partnership.
How did things go? Did you both bring in more business? If you did, great! It’s time to brainstorm some more ideas to use later. If it didn’t work, try to figure out why it didn’t and if there’s any way to correct the mistake next time.
Or, you can start over again and find a new partner. Seems like a lot of work, but it’ll be worth the time to do it right than to have a partnership that isn’t working.
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