joint venture marketing
Find New Clients With Strategic Marketing Plan
At the start of the year a priority for every business team that has a significant amount of joint venture marketing business should be to review all existing partners and develop strategic marketing plans to find and acquire new clients with there existing partners or identify new partners to replace dead weight. It’s important for business owners to keep track of specific metrics year over year in order to evaluate the business thoroughly to factor any new strengths or weaknesses into annual planning.
Set time aside to meet with all valuable channels in-person and explore new potential opportunities that exist now or will be available soon. Evaluate details about successful business transactions and review the finer details with your business partners in order to identify strategies that can attract similar new clients. Annual strategic planning can be a fun and exciting time as a business owner that is exploring new opportunities for growth as there is little more satisfying than identifying a new opportunity, building the marketing plans, and capturing the market.
Year End Review
As the year wraps up, it’s always a good idea to compile all of the relevant information about the activities of the business so that you’re prepared to analyze the company’s success and plan strategies for finding new clients. The following are a few questions that should always be at the top of the list for all business owners during their review. How is the financial situation of the business? Have employees achieved goals that were set? Were there any major partner successes or failures of the past year? What was the worst and best marketing campaign of the past year? Are there any visible opportunities with existing partners that can close business quickly if pursued?
Larger companies will have more formal quarterly and annual review meetings corresponding to financial reporting activities, however for most small business year end reviews and annual planning activities often are best around December / January time frame.
Partner Strategies
Based on the successes and failures of marketing activities with partners in the previous year, it is important to always focus on areas of strength to increase the number of new clients that can be reached going forward. Working closer with your business channels to identify the right marketing angles that work best to close business fast is necessary for solidifying strategies that work.
Many small businesses get in the habit of sitting back and not getting too involved with a partner. If it’s obvious that one partner is getting more deals closed in a specific region than another partner, identify what is being done and inform the less performing partner and make it mandatory that they adjust the marketing strategy. Otherwise find a new partner that will implement the plan.
Incorporate social media into your strategic marketing planning for the business as an additional way to approach new clients. Many small business owners have avoided using social media sites. If your company is in an industry that’s not a perfect fit for social media like a consumer facing brand or a business like a restaurant, then there’s a good chance that there is a less competition to be found by people interested in your industry.
Take the time to learn about Twitter and making Youtube videos. Start leveraging social media marketing as a cost effective part of your joint venture marketing activities. Working with a partner that is open to doing co-branded social media campaigns is a great way to reach a partners established online community.
New Market Trends
While preparing a strategic marketing plan for your business it is important to include any specific trends in the industry or market in general that impact the success or failure of your business. Continue to evaluate the market and competition to be able to really provide a product or service that meets the customer’s expectations at a competitive price.
Acquiring new clients is never an easy task, so make sure and review successes and failures with all of your joint venture marketing activities and be willing to change when needed. Work with your business partners and continue to evaluate the opportunities that are available to your business. Implementing a fully prepared strategic marketing plan is a great experience and well rewarded so do the research and analysis to find the best marketing approaches to continue growing the business.
Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.
To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.
Tips For Getting More Clients From Marketing Activities
The new year is always a time to review last year’s execution and make plans for growing the business. The following tips and techniques can be used to maximize your existing marketing activities in getting more clients. If you have a product or service that is currently being marketed through your own activities or from your joint venture marketing partner then it’s necessary to close every lead and potential deal that is on the table. To acquire a customer it often takes several different attempts with layered marketing of the company and its offerings. By quickly following through with every marketing activity you can potentially hit a customer in multiple channels.
Blog Posting
A blog post may about a new product or new company information that is posted in order to educate customers and potential customers about the product or company. Blog posts are a great foundation to build on and leverage for improving the companies rankings in the search engines. It’s important to expand the reach of your company blog by using the following actions and services on websites to promote the blog post.
Email - Blast a company message with the title, link, and summary of the blog post to people in your newsletter lists.
Facebook - Post a link to your company’s blog post. These should be posted on both companies Facebook pages if it’s a joint venture.
Twitter - Post a link to your company’s blog post. The co-branded blog posts should be posted on both companies Twitter accounts.
Fiverr - Hire someone to submit blog pages to social sites like Reddit, Digg, StumbleUpon and other locations. Hiring additional people to also promote and engage with the content can help posts gain traction faster in the Search Engines.
While results may not be instantaneous, if you follow the steps above your blog posts will receive more value in search engine rankings for your target keywords from Google due to the links that will be created directing back to your specific blog posts. This will help create more traffic to your company’s main website through promoting your content.
Facebook can be a unique place to advertise for many businesses. However; there are a few strategies that can work for companies and their joint venture partners that are looking to gain access into specific local markets and have a solid presence on the social network.
- Facebook ads can generate interests from a partner’s existing customer base that follow them. Create an advertisement special that customers of a partner can have access to if they post a message in there Facebook status about your brand. Getting more clients from Facebook requires them sharing your company with their friends.
- If you want to build a following of people, then as a company you have to be educational and have interesting content that makes people want to subscribe to your content. Create interesting videos that provide specific details about a topic in 2 - 3 minutes and post them to your Facebook page as well as on Youtube.
- Create an interesting ad that targets very specific demographics. The ad itself needs to be short and sweet and catch the attention of viewers for the target market your business is after. Purchase ads to the exact details of the market that you need to reach whether it’s regional or based on the individuals occupation, age or gender. Facebook allows for creating amazingly detailed ad campaigns. Make the campaign about clicking like to your Facebook page versus redirecting to your website or a sales landing page.
Brochures / Mailers
If part of the marketing activities is sending out a regular printed brochure, catalogue, or promotional newsletters / sale offerings then it is important to maximize each piece of mail, due to the cost of regular mail campaigns.
Email - Sending an email at the same time as a physical mailing is a good way to use the marketing material twice and help reinforce the physical papers that may get shuffled around for a few days before being reviewed. Invite them to a webinar that will be conducted concerning a topic related to the products or services that are being offered in the mailer. Include a form in any emails that can be filled out and sent in requesting more information as some people prefer to communicate through these channels rather than making a call.
Phone Call - Making a follow up phone call 5 - 8 days after sending a letter / package to a perspective client is always a wise idea. If you are conducting a massive mail campaign and neither you nor your business partner has a call center, it’s ok. There are people that can be hired for a fairly affordable rate that can quickly understand your company’s basic information and products to make lead generation calls to provide hot leads to your sales team. Train sales people making follow up phone calls to get email addresses during the conversation as it’s the easiest way to ping potential customers on a regular basis.
Have a great 2012; enjoy growing your business and maximizing all of your existing joint venture marketing activities to get more clients.
Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.
To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.
Find New Clients By Hosting Seminars - Sample Agenda And Tips
Setting up a business seminar is an excellent way to find new clients, but it is important to make sure the event is well run and provides a lot of value to the attendees to increase the likelihood the event can be a catalyst for not only finding new clients but for closing deals. A business seminar should have a few core characteristics in order to be a success for all those participating as well as drive interest from others across social media websites. An informative topic that is related to the industry is critical as well as providing networking opportunities amongst the participants. Serving refreshments or a meal is always appreciated by business people that take time away to attend an event.
Luncheon seminars can work very well for business people as lunch is often a time for meeting with people or is a time that’s more flexible for most individuals. This can also be the case with morning events and dinners however many people have more obligations in the evening due to family commitments with kids in the evenings and should be considered depending on the target audience for the seminar.
A sample schedule of a short business luncheon seminar:
11:30 Registration / Name Badges
- Networking
- Lunch should be available
- Any handouts / presentation should be placed at the tables
12:00 Noon start the seminar
- First 5 minutes should be for introduction / speaker background
- Mention way to learn more about speakers company
15 – 25 minutes Presentation about the topic
- The presentation can go longer if the topic is less likely to have a need for interaction with the audience, but no longer than 45 minutes.
5-15 minutes for questions and answers
End by 1PM
- Reserve the space with the location for at least up to 30 minutes of post seminar networking and interactions with the speaker and attendees.
- An additional 30 minutes should also be planned for breaking down equipment, marketing collateral, etc. Do not do this until at least a majority of the guests have left the facility.
While this is a sample short seminar it fits with many busy business peoples schedules and a lot of information can be delivered and connections created. It is recommended to always have additional team members on site for networking with the attendees so the speaker does not feel required to try and meet everyone if the group is a larger one.
Of course seminars can be developed that take up an entire morning or afternoon or even a whole day depending on the topic and frequency of the seminars but short luncheon seminars are a great way to put a face to a name and begin developing relationships with potential clients.
Good items to serve
- Sandwiches
- Pizza
- Fruit / Cheese / Cracker platter
- Breakfast items like Bagels, Muffins, etc.
- Always have a vegetarian option available.
Bad items to serve
- Soup
- Pasta with sauce
- Foods that can potential spill or not easily eaten by holding in a single hand.
Always serve bottled water regardless the time of the event and then adjust other beverages accordingly. Some sodas are usually desired at a luncheon seminar, but also have an alternative such as a juice. If all that is served is bottled water it will still be fine and can be easier to plan and execute if you are setting up the seminar without utilizing outside catering.
Use an online website like Meetup.com or Eventful.com to assist in marketing the event as well as tracking the number of attendees and potential attendees. This is very helpful when deciding on how much food and drink to order. If attendees will be paying to attend the meeting then setting up a payment process through PayPal generally is the easiest method.
Have fun hosting a group of business people for a seminar and if it goes well you will develop relationships with new clients. A regular schedule of seminars can really help establish a new company in an industry and is an awesome platform to use to separate oneself from the existing market.
Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.
To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.
Develop A Mobile Strategy Find New Customers
Consumers are utilizing mobile devices more than ever today for online shopping, sharing photos, videos and messages. Developing a mobile marketing strategy with a joint venture marketing partner is an excellent way to reach customers and connect with these consumers in a fashion that’s innovative and can provide a rich engagement between customer and the brand. There are several ways to participate in the growing mobile marketing industry and find new customers that fit specific demographics. Partnering with an app development company or creating an ad marketing campaign is the easiest method of quickly reaching audiences of the iPhone and/or Android market. Another method could be developing an app either with a partner or on your own. It’s not always an easy choice which path to go and larger companies may experiment with both options.
Advertise / Sponsor
By far the easiest method of engaging with the mobile app user community is to become an advertiser or sponsor with a mobile app or mobile advertising company that can provide impressions on thousands of different sites in a fashion similar to Google Adwords. Mobile networks provide a platform that will allow you to place ads in a multitude of different locations. Work with a joint venture partner that’s seeking to gain access to specific demographics and create a co-branded marketing campaign or sell a solution that both partners can benefit from through the ad campaign.
Top 5 Mobile Advertising Networks
- Admob - By Google very large network
- Mojiva - Capability for a small business owner to easily create a mobile page
- InMobi - Large network that delivers rich content ads
- ValueClick - Large mobile and iPad presence
- MilleninalMedia - Long standing mobile advertising platform
Sponsoring an app can also be part of a joint venture marketing agreement for both parties to find new customers. There are dozens of mutually beneficial marketing scenarios that could present themselves depending on the industry of the company seeking a mobile strategy to reach a target audience. Many app developers also benefit greatly through promotion of their apps and may be interested in doing shared marketing to each other’s customers for a period of time. Most developers are not large companies with significant resources and could likely be open to creative marketing strategies. These types of trades for marketing can be done on a one to one basis with independent mobile developers that have an app that fits your niche as well.
Depending on the app developer there may need to be a financial payment for advertising for a period of time on a free app, however this can still be an effective way to saturate a brands presence with a targeted demographic.
Build
Building an app can be tricky. In order for it to be successful the app needs to be providing true value to customers on several levels instead of just being an app to promote a brand or product. With the right marketing partner an app can be created that drives interest in both the app and then subsequently the company which in turn leads to finding new customers that are willing to buy. An app can cost anywhere from a few hours of time to $25,000 plus, so it’s wise to think a strategy through completely and brainstorm how you and your partners plan on rolling out the app to existing customers and a wider audience as a whole.
Easy Solution
The quickest and easiest solution is to use a service like Appmakr that can help anyone develop an app with no coding required. There are several precise steps that must be followed but an app can be built quickly with many different modules available from video to rss feeds.
Full Service
Hire a mobile development team to take the project from start to finish. This is the wisest solution but will cost you in resources. This is why developing a co-branded solution with a joint venture marketing partner is the best approach to reduce the costs on both parties. As long as the relationship has been structured properly then everyone can benefit from the creation of a mobile app to reach and engage with the right potential new customers.
Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.
To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.
Find New Clients For A Joint Venture Partner With Classified Ads
Finding new clients that can take advantage of an offering from a new joint venture partner can sometimes be a challenge. Posting ads on classifieds sites like Craigslist and BackPage.com can be a successful marketing strategy. It’s always critical to help drive immediate business for a new partner to demonstrate a commitment to the partnership. Classified ads can be an excellent source of new clients to refer over to a partner.
There are specific strategies required to implement in order to have a successful classifieds marketing strategy. Work with a designer to create attractive ads. For certain products and services it’s advisable to create specific landing pages to help educate the market. It’s recommended you create tracking mechanisms to ensure that data can be provided to the partner to show numbers of impressions and sales that result from classified ad campaigns to evaluate whether it is an appropriate channel for marketing the partners’ products and services.
Create a Killer Advertisement and Title
Working with a graphic designer to develop an eye catching ad is the most critical aspect of a classified ad campaign for attracting new clients. It’s always recommended that you use images in the ad, as this will capture the attention of anyone that clicks on the ad. If the person clicking the ad does not become instantly connected through the images then they will most likely continue searching and not even read the words on your advertisement.
A header that captures the reader’s attention and makes them ask a question that is then answered in the bullet points below is a proven strategy to drive click-throughs to learn more from your website. The goal of a classified ad should not be to fully educate the market about the product or service, but get them interested in learning more to lead them to the landing page that has been created. Include in any online advertisement the contact information that’s required to not only learn more information through the web in the form of a link but also a phone number or email address to get in touch directly with a sales representative.
A Landing Page to Sell
Create a landing page that has additional information for the potential new client to read through if they‘re interested in the product. A landing page can be a main website but generally for a joint venture marketing relationship it is best if a special landing page is created so it’s easier to generate analytic reports to provide to a partner, demonstrating the effectiveness of the marketing activities. Aside from core information required to learn about the product or service a contact form should be an important part of any landing page. The leads that are generated from a landing page can then be pursued in several different ways from a sales rep making a phone call to sending additional product brochures or promotions through email or physical mail.
Set a VOIP Phone Number for Each Campaign
Using a VOIP phone service from a company like 8×8 allows a business to set up different phone lines for each marketing campaign so it is easy to track phone calls that come through classified ad campaigns. VOIP phone lines are relatively cheap and it’s easy to associate a specific number for ads that go on Craigslist, Backpages or for any other number of classified sites.
Outsource the Posting of Ads
If the product or service can be sold in many different markets than it can become a very labor intensive job to post hundreds of ads a day that may be required to maximize the partner opportunity. Reach out to overseas labor that can post the ads and corresponding titles to the right categories. It may take a little bit of time to create the right posting team, but after they are in place it can be a long term lead generator for new potential clients.
Experiment with online classified ad campaigns to find new clients for a joint venture partner. This is an excellent way to consistently drive new leads that are actively looking for something new. If the campaign is set up correctly with tracking components built in, it is a great strategy to pursue right away with any new joint venture partners that have a product or service that fits with the categories of online classified sites.
Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.
To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.
Leverage Positive Reviews On Local Web Pages To Attract New Business From Joint Ventures
Businesses that service a defined region need to be very conscious of their online reputation and maintain strong profiles on sites like Google Places, Yahoo Local, Yelp, Merchant Circle, and many others in order to attract new business from the local community. These local focused sites are in essence, an online business directory that has social components built in. When a customer leaves a review and then shares the review with their Facebook account, not only have they left a permanent record about their personal experience with a product or company, but their entire network of family and friends also are informed.
A business can benefit greatly from a strong online reputation and just as easily fail miserably because of too many vocal customers that were upset about a product or service and leave negative reviews and poor ratings. Not only can a weak online reputation limit a business’s ability to grow in a community, they can harm the potential for a successful joint venture partnership from ever getting off the ground because no established brand wants to associate their product with a company that is seen in poor standing. Achieving a great reputation online allows you to not only demonstrate to a partner the ability to provide excellent service to customers, but it’s a great asset that can be leveraged to close the deal when a business attracts new customers.
These are highlights of what to do in order to have a successful local company profile page to attract new business.
Setting up a local page
- Complete the profile including the address, this is critical because users may be looking for plumbers in New Jersey and if that’s you, then you need to show up. This also allows for the business listing to be displayed in Google Maps and other location based services.
- Maximize the category and sub categories for your business. In many of the local business directory websites on the web the profile section will include a place for selecting the industry and any related sub categories. Maximize the number of selections as long as they are relevant to their business.
- Upload the company logo for the main image for the profile or a quality picture of the outside of the office / facility. If the business is a consumer facing business with a retail store it’s important to have the front of the store as the first picture and several pictures of the inside as the secondary pictures.
- Send instructions to your website developer to place icons on your home page and “contact us” page that lead directly to the profile on Google Places and Yelp. If the business is a member of the Better Business Bureau, then also link directly to the business profile on the BBB’s website using their seal of approval logo.
Get Positive Reviews
- Reach out to three customers that have been loyal to the business. If this is a new business, then work hard with your initial customers and ask them to follow the same steps. Send the 3 customers the link to one of the online local web pages and ask for a positive rating and review. It’s best to spread these emails out over several days to stagger the reviews so they appear more natural. Then reach out to three more customers and repeat with a different website. In the course of a couple of weeks, the business will have several very unique and positive reviews across several different local websites.
- When sending follow up messages to customers have a script already written that asks for a positive review on a specific site or you can list the sites with all of the links and ask for a review on one of the sites. Most business owners don’t recognize how many customers truly appreciate the hard work and would give them a great review, but will not do so unless they are encouraged to write the review, so start encouraging the best customers to help attract new business by writing a positive review.
Leverage a Positive Reputation
- Show the positive reviews that are being written about the business when in discussions with new potential partners. This helps alleviate fears that they may have about how their customers will be catered to when they refer them over.
- Utilize the links to the review sites like Yelp and Google Places when sending out marketing collateral in attempts to attract new business from existing client bases of new joint venture partners. This demonstrates the commitment to servicing each customer and the business is open and transparent about its interactions with customers.
Many companies try and hide from local web pages because of the potential for negative reviews that is why it is so important to leverage positive reviews and a strong online reputation when attracting new business. It can be easier for a mid-level person inside of a business to sell a new joint venture partnership to executives when the potential partner company is capable of providing the value that they are looking for and maintain a strong reputation in the local community for providing excellent service.
Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.
To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.
Attract New Business With An Amazing One Page Flier
A single one page flier that is short and sweet with exceptional imagery can help attract new business through a joint venture marketing partner. Gone are the days of needing to have a detailed tri-fold brochure or complex marketing packet / folder in order to deliver the information customers require to make a buy decision. People are inundated with marketing from many different mediums and so often a business is required to capture a potential customer’s attention in seconds and one effective method that’s proven to attract new business is a well thought out sales brochure that is a single page that is heavy with images versus blocks of text. If a business can capture a person’s interest with a simple brochure then a website can be used to provide more in depth detail and answer additional questions that may exist. If a large portion of a joint venture marketing activities occur in person through sales reps or customer service representatives than it is essential to arm them with the capability to deliver the sales pitch in a single sheet of paper. The following are items to be concerned with when developing a sexy brochure.
Images
Deciding what images to use and the number of images on a flier are essential to creating a great marketing brochure. A good flier should have around 3 images at the most. A company logo is essential. When working with a joint venture partner there logo should also be present if they will be handing out the flier to their existing customer base. This helps reinforce their support of the partner company and validates the partnership. If a company is interested in being a joint venture partner, but hesitant about co-branding marketing collateral this is a red flag concerning the company’s commitment to the partnership and should be cause for concern about moving forward with the relationship. This should be discussed in the early developments of setting up the relationship. The next important image on a flier should be something eye catching and resonate with the customer base. For example, if marketing a moving company the image should reflect a happy family with smiling faces as that is the experience that needs to be sold to the customer base since everyone knows moving can be stressful. Lastly some fliers can benefit from an infographic. An infographic is an image that utilizes an image or several small graphics and very limited words to deliver a lot of information. This can be used to showcase features of a product.
Text
The biggest failure most small businesses make when developing a marketing flier is using way too much text. Utilize bullet points with three to four word blurbs that get right to the point. Identify a problem, address the solution as the product or service being sold and direct customers to how they can gain additional information whether it’s a website or a direct phone number. It’s important to not get in the habit of writing blocks of text. Even a couple of full sentences can be too much text on a marketing flier. The best fliers say very little, but deliver the message that a product or service is the best solution and can deliver results. When seeking to attract new business from a joint venture partner that will be capable of handing out a marketing flier there will more than likely be a conversation with the potential customer from a sales representative or someone with additional information about the product or service. The one page flier helps reinforce the opportunity when the potential customer has gone back to their office. Sometimes a flier will be tucked away for weeks, but when needed, can be found or is just stumbled upon later and helps trigger the conversation with the sales rep and encourage a phone call or additional online research.
It’s important to use a flier for the purpose it is designed for, to help reinforce important ideas about a product or service and help direct new business to more information about how to contact the company to buy the product or service. It does not need to answer every question nor does it need to provide in depth company information. Make a short and sweet one page flier with great images and your joint venture marketing partners will have an easier job in attracting new business.
Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.
To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.
How To Track Joint Venture Activities Through Online Tools
How to track joint venture marketing activities is the most important element of executing a successful joint venture marketing relationship. Without being able to understand what successes are achieved and where failures may be occurring it will be difficult to improve your joint venture marketing activities and it will also be next to impossible to hold your partners accountable to the agreed upon terms of the relationship. There are several online tools that allow anyone to quickly set up and execute a joint venture relationship as well as manage the relationship over the long haul. It’s important to clearly identify all of the ways that the joint venture marketing will happen and sales will occur to ensure everything is accounted for and easily track able. It is vital that through the tracking solution deployed metric based reports can be crafted to analyze activities to know what to focus on in the future and what can be avoided.
Affiliate Marketing Sites
If the majority of the joint venture sales activities will be delivered through online referrals than it is extremely important that that an affiliate network program has been established for the JV partners to utilize. This can be achieved through several different methods. One model is to simply sign up with one of the large affiliate marketing sites like Commission Junction, this not only provides access to the tools necessary to create a tracking system for referrals and sales, but also will help market JV opportunities to website owners that are seeking additional partners that fit well with their customer demographics.
Choosing to not create a presence in one of the large affiliate marketing databases is more than acceptable as there are several solutions available to develop the same capabilities in house, that provide tools for tracking marketing activities of joint venture partners, whenever they are promoting your brand online whether on a website or in an email. A few of the more popular affiliate marketing tools available are LinkTrust, HitPath, and DirectTrack. Each of these services allows a business to create unique ads that will track the clicks and actions that a user makes when clicking on one of these ads. This is vital for a joint venture and will ensure all actions can be tracked back to who is achieving the goal of successfully selling products and services and how much they have earned from their activities. Failing to track leads and sales successfully will quickly harm joint venture marketing relationships and potentially loose a business a valuable partner.
CRM
While online sales may be an important element to a joint venture it also may not be nearly as important as personal introductions and more traditional marketing efforts that may occur from a joint venture marketing relationship. If a business specializes in larger priced items, it is much less likely that a sale will occur from a website click, therefore having a Customer Relationship Management “CRM” system in place to track the lead from the initial referral all the way to closing the sale will be able to provide the data necessary to track, evaluate, and reward marketing partners. A few of the popular CRM solutions are Salesforce, ZohoCRM, and SugarCRM each has the customization capabilities to fit the requirements of almost any business and sales process. These systems can be set up quickly. Joint venture partners can be invited into the system to enter potential sales prospects and follow the sales cycle, all the way to closing of the lead as well as seeing the final closing amount for the client. This will help track and calculate the monthly or quarterly referral checks that need to be issued to each joint venture partner as well as keep them in the loop about the progress of any deals that may be closing.
Promo Codes
Setting up a promo code and assigning it to an individual person or to a specific company or marketing campaign will help track joint venture activities. If a business wants to be able to measure the success of a specific marketing activity just including a simple promo code will ensure that customers will actively assist in gaining the knowledge required to know if they came in through the marketing brochure, radio ad, or were just flipping through the yellow pages and decided to call. By utilizing promo codes it’s easy to put together raw reports of how many people are responding to a specific message, to refine your marketing pitch, or to identify which sales people in a company that you have a JV relationship are really pushing the products and services and who is not. Being able to reward those that are selling products is vital to make them feel appreciated and this data point is easy to set up. Make sure you create a field in your CRM system called promo code and instruct everyone processing sales leads to always ask the customer if they have a promo code and include the details in the field. Since it will be a field in the CRM then you can run a report just for that individual code or look at the results of several codes.
Use online tools to track joint venture marketing activities and ensure that energy and resources are dedicated to the right partners and channels. Make sure that when structuring a new joint venture each party clearly understands the expectations of the agreement concerning reporting and tracking all activities and that everyone is fully capable and trained to meet the requirements. Failure to track a joint venture properly can lead to many problems in the future and create more hassles then overall benefits.
Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.
To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.
Find More Clients Being Active In Local Business Communities
Small business owners can find more clients by becoming active members in the local business community, whether by joining a local business chamber of commerce or through industry groups, or just attending business social events and local trade shows. By interacting with local businesses a small business owner has the best chance at locating companies that can be excellent joint venture partners that are currently servicing their exact demographic. The following, highlights a few of the most important aspects of developing joint ventures through participation at local business community events.
Find Industry Groups / Business Owner Gatherings
Determining the type of companies and people that are required to develop the relationships needed to create successful joint ventures is the first thing required before identifying where to meet them. There are lots of places to find information about local business groups and trade shows for industry groups. A few Google searches for trade shows and a specific location will result in lists of venues and upcoming events. Attend relevant events that would be interesting for pursuing companies and individuals of interest to your business. One good source for finding local events is Meetup.com where there are plenty of business / entrepreneur focused groups where business owners get together to talk about business topics as well as industry groups that are interested in a specific niche, like software developers that get together to talk about industry topics.
Develop Relationships with Business Decision Makers
When at business functions and events as a small business owner it is best to focus energies on meeting and spending time talking with individuals that are decision makers. At business events and trade shows time can be wasted interacting with a sales rep that is just looking for sales opportunities. This can be good if there is an existing customer base for your business that aligns with their product or service, but if the desire is to locate new existing customers for a business through joint ventures, spending time with executive management is key and it’s best to avoid the typical sales rep just pitching products and services.
Establish Joint Venture Partnerships with Local Businesses
Reaching out to local businesses to become joint venture partners is a proven way to find more clients in a specific region. For most small business owners the focus is on servicing the local community with a product or service and so developing partners with other local businesses can quickly expand brand awareness to the right demographic of customers. Local business owners will be easier to develop relationships with regardless if a business is planning on only servicing a local region or planning an eventual national or global launch. It’s important that each joint venture is successful to build momentum in the market and maintaining strong communication between partners is more easily done when decision makers for each business are close enough to meet in person.
Don’t Sell - Find Champions Who Sell
When meeting business executives and business decision makers it is important to not spend lots of time selling a product or service, instead develop relationships with others that can become a champion for your product or service to their existing customer base which will lead to your business finding more clients. Build a personal relationship first even though attending business related functions, the business part will always come, but learn the kids and spouse’s names and other details through the conversation to be used in later conversations to develop a personal relationship with a potential business partner. By the time a partnership agreement is on the table and discussions about how to implement the marketing strategies for promoting the joint venture the terms will always be more favorable than if approaching joint venture partnerships from a strictly business perspective when dealing with local business owners.
Find more clients locally by becoming engaged with local business activities such as small business owner events, chambers of commerce, and other business related activities such as industry trade shows. These venues provide the capability to meet with local business decision makers and find individuals that can help really drive a successful joint venture marketing partnership for the long term.
Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.
To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.
How Joint Venture Marketing Attracts More Clients
Joint venture marketing attracts more clients for businesses because the core this type of marketing is to establish channels to customers. These marketing channels are effective because companies have special relationships with their customer base. Developing a high quality relationship with a business that has a loyal following of customers that trust the recommendations they receive from the business is the best way to attract more clients. These businesses have developed a level of trust that can really provide a company looking to penetrate new markets a quick entry point to gaining brand awareness and at the same time potentially receive additional marketing and sales support to close business opportunities that arise from the joint venture.
Reach Established Customer Relationships
The best way to attract more clients is to reach them through personal introductions from joint venture marketing partners. This can come in several different formats. Sometimes a partner will have an active sales force, an on-site maintenance team or company representative that interacts with the businesses customers and can provide information about the partners’ products and services. Depending upon what the products and services covered in a joint venture agreement are, any one that interacts on some level with a customer could be a potential marketing channel. Determining the best level of introduction should be clearly defined in the partnership agreement.
Sell Through Trusted Relationships
There are many consumer focused businesses that have opportunities to sell additional products to their clients due to the trust and respect that the clients has for their opinion. A common example of a trusted relationship product recommendation is a dentist recommending a specific type of electronic toothbrush like a Sonicare. It’s hard to ignore the advice if a person is confident that the dentist is looking out for their health regardless of the referral fee they may be receiving for recommending that product over another. In business to business transactions when making a recommendation for a new product or service a person’s job could potentially be on the line. It is always far easier for an employee to say “no” to trying something new and sticking with the status quo when making a buying decision for business use. If the goal of a joint venture is to attract more clients, then having trusted relationships that can provide the confidence needed to reassure customers that they are in good hands is critical with business to business focused joint ventures.
Expand Brand Awareness
Joint venture marketing attracts more clients due to the increase in brand awareness among the target demographics that are being pursued. If the proper research was done prior to reaching out to potential partners as the deals are being done the business is instantly improving its prospects of attracting the right clients. Each time a new joint venture is put into place there are several activities that help to expand the new partners brand awareness with the other companies existing customer relationships. A mention on the website through a press release or blog post is a good way to begin announcing the relationship to attract more clients. An email newsletter or personal introduction from the individual that has a trusted relationship with the clients should also be a part of any early stage of implementing a new JV marketing campaign.
Increase in Marketing Capabilities
The increase in marketing capabilities joint ventures provide can be critical in helping a business grow. Developing a new sales pipeline through JV partners and structuring the communication properly so the best suited person is talking with the customers and closing the deals will ensure that the clients that are attracted will be closed and become long term customers. Take advantage of any marketing opportunities or recommendations from partners on how to best market to their existing customers to attract more clients. Leverage all offers of marketing support to keep marketing costs under control in order to maximize each joint venture return on investment.
It’s important to attract more clients from a joint venture by marketing the opportunities to the new potential customers through the correct means to build their confidence through building strong brand awareness and building from a trusted relationship. Have a well-planned process for customer engagements and proper methods for educating existing customers about the joint venture activities.
Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.
To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.
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