Partner marketing includes establishing mutually beneficial relationships between your business and other businesses – brands, communities, or publishers. But who’s who in that relationship? It’s simple – you are the one who pays for sales and traffic driven by your partners. And thanks to both, first-time marketers creating their first partnerships, and experienced partner marketing teams, this has become a fast-growing sector of marketing.
However, what if your marketing partnership doesn’t produce the results you need? Every digital marketing strategy and marketing partnership is different, but there are certain things that a partnership must bring to the table. Otherwise, you should start exploring a new digital marketing partner. Think about it if your partners don’t deliver:
1. Shared Values
You need a digital marketing partner that values the same or at least similar things as you do. Brands that cooperate for more than profit is what today’s consumers like and are drawn to. When marketing partners align their values; such as attitudes toward innovation and technology, international business practices, or company reputation, they can double down their support.
2. Scale and Incrementality
To what extent can your partner deliver scale? Can they drive enough sales and traffic? If they can’t offer to warrant your investments (attention, time, and money,), then it’s time for a change. Evaluate to what extent your marketing partner can reach new customers and customer segments. If not acceptable, aim to explore a marketing partner that appeals to Millennials (the biggest growing audience) if you want to drive incremental sales.
3. Audience Alignment
Do you and your partner target the same audience? If yes, then great. But if not, why haven’t you aligned by now? Audience alignment can be beneficial when one brand can drive its consumers to the other.
What to Look for In a Digital Marketing Partner?
Take a look at these six criteria to assess what type of marketing partner you should engage:
1. Stability. If the partner is volatile, it can impact your relationship quite radically. Develop an understanding of the partner’s approach to staff changes, track record, and their financial health.
2. Flexibility. The market changes so a business must be adaptable to them or be able to scale quickly. That’s why flexibility is among the most valuable aspects of working with a marketing partner that can provide responsiveness and “elasticity.” What level of responsiveness does your business need? Consider that when assessing a potential partner.
3. Difficulty and cost. If you’re looking for a partner that has some specialized, rare, or complex skills, this can make the partnership a natural choice. Also, compare the cost of developing the required capabilities in-house, and the value of an external partner. It will help you focus on a decision.
4. Range and duration. Are your needs tactical and narrow or are more extensive? You need to determine how broad is the set of capabilities that you require from a marketing partner. Another vital factor to consider is the timeline for engagement. Are you looking for a full-scale partner relationship or just temporary support?
When you identify the best potential partner, you need to put a mutually beneficial program in place. Pay off the relationship in brand value and commitment, and it will grow. BP Digital offers a complimentary diagnostic evaluation for your Digital Marketing. Our seasoned New Home Builder Digital Marketing experts, help you find out whether you’re getting the results your brand deserves.
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