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  Proactive businesses are always seeking new, effective ways to grow their customer base. This is understandable; the more paying customers they have, the higher their sales will be, other factors held constant. And if they’re able to find an approach to marketing that works and costs little or no money, they’ll jump on it with great enthusiasm.
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One of such marketing strategies is cross-promotion. It typically involves two or more businesses promoting the other business’s products to their own audiences. Here’s an example. If you produce suits, you could collaborate with a company that makes shoes. You’ll promote the shoe company’s products to your customers, and they’ll promote your suits to their customers. This allows both businesses to reach new audiences and potentially grow their customer bases. You could establish a cross-promotional partnership with another brand (or brands), as long as they aren’t your competitors.

Why You Should Consider Cross Promotion

Here are some reasons why you should consider cross-promoting your brand with another company.
  • It’s one of the easiest ways to market your products.
  • It usually costs little or no money to partner with other brands this way.
  • You get to connect with new audiences.
  • You may ultimately gain a substantial number of customers through this approach to marketing.
  • Both parties benefit.

Steps To Succeeding With Cross Promotion

If you intend to successfully execute a cross-promotion strategy for your business, you should take these three steps.

Research Possible Partners

Ideally, you’ll want to work with a business that provides products or services that are complementary to yours. That is, their offerings can be used alongside yours. A good example is a suit-shoe combination we mentioned earlier. Both companies target similar audiences, so it makes sense that they’re trying to reach each other’s customers. However, they need not sell complementary products. The only real restriction worth considering is whether they are your competitors (i.e. they’re selling the same sort of product as yours). Another factor you should think about is the partner business’s reach. Do they serve a customer base that’s big enough to be worth working with them? You’ll aim to reach an audience that’s sizeable, one from which you can win a significant number of new customers.
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Connect With Other Brands

After identifying a business (or businesses) you can cross-promote with, your next step would be to connect with them. You could send them a proposal detailing your plans, including what’s in it for them. It could take a series of exchanges between both parties to seal the deal—if it does get to that. It’s important to build a relationship with the business you want to work with. This is about enabling trust in each other, something that’s indispensable for the sort of collaboration you’re both planning on. Be sure that the business you’re partnering with is one whose mission and ethos align with yours—or at least they aren’t conflicting. Your engagement with them is as much a public affair as it is a private interaction. If the public’s perception of their brand is positive, they’ll regard you in the same light. And if it’s negative, they’ll probably view yours in a similar way.

Agree on and Implement Cross Promotion Ideas

There are many ways to cross-promote your business with a partner (or partners). It’s up to the parties involved to agree on what works best for all of them. Some of the better options open to you are:
  • Advertise Discounts from Partners: Both parties can promote promos and discounts from their partner businesses to their own audiences. Lower prices are a way to make potential customers warm up to both your brands.
  • Cross-Promote On Social Media: the brands involved can also promote the other brand’s offerings on their social media channel, along with their own products. Audiences will pick up on these sorts of promotions if the products involved are complementary.
  • Offer Bundles: Again, this is great for products that are complementary. For example, if you can sell your suits and your partner business’s shoes to your customers as a bundle. The partner business could also do the same with their customers.
  • Send out Promotional Emails: Both businesses may send out newsletters to their email subscribers letting them know about the other business’s services, and why they (the readers) should consider using them.
  • Jointly Host Webinars: Partners may jointly host a webinar in which customers and others participating can learn valuable things, and get the chance to ask and receive answers to questions about the organizers and their products.
  • Jointly Release Value-Packed Information Products: Cross promoters may work together to create and release value-packed information products. For example, they could produce an ebook that answers questions frequently asked by people in both their target audiences. This provides value for readers and exposes them to brands that they could eventually patronize.
Final Words Businesses can gain a lot from cross-promoting their products and services. It’s one of the most effective ways to garner new customers. And it’s often inexpensive. Follow the steps and tips we’ve shared here to implement a cross-promotion strategy that delivers results for your business. Featured Image Source: Member Press
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This article was first published on 18th October 2021

ikenna-nwachukwu

Ikenna Nwachukwu holds a bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He loves to look at the world through multiple lenses- economic, political, religious and philosophical- and to write about what he observes in a witty, yet reflective style.

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