joint ventures
Build Local Demographic Reports To Attract New Business
If your company is entering a new market with a joint venture partner, maximize the deal by doing your due diligence in building local demographic reports about the business and consumers so that when you attract new business they align with the focus of the company. It’s wise for companies that are selling products and services to a consumer as well as to businesses to know the market in detail and where the products will be offered. This data can be integrated into planning marketing efforts which will be required to reach and close the customers. Focus the joint venture partnership to seek out the most valuable demographics based on your report in order to see immediate returns on a new business relationship.
An important step to understanding a new geographic location is to understand the end customers for your business in the area. Regardless if your business services individuals or companies or a combination of both, the information that is required is similar and easy to acquire. First, ask your new business partner for any relevant business intelligence that they have on the local markets. It’s important to always double check partners work, gather additional details that are important for your decision making, and provide your analysis and ideas to your business partner. Sometimes you may encounter after the fact a business that doesn’t have much detailed information or it is outdated and needs to be done over.
There are many important factors to be gathered when creating a local demographic report. Each company will have to determine the items that are of most value to them and adjust according to the industry.
Basic Details
The basics should include the high level characteristics of the people and the business that are in the area. In the case of consumers, understanding details such as age, gender percentages, education levels, income levels, size of families and monthly spending budgets is very important. Creating a map of businesses located in a territory is essential to visualize the distribution of customers. Create maps of specific neighborhoods when approaching local consumers, as many neighborhoods will be different from one another despite being in the same city and relatively close.
Business reports may differ in the data collected. Identify prominent industries, specific companies by sector, such as transportation, construction, manufacturing, medical, education, etc.
Match With Existing Business Strategy
The purpose of conducting a basic market research study of the local area that you’re considering doing a business deal in to attract new business should be to execute a specific business strategy that includes forming joint venture marketing relationships to grow into new markets. During company planning, the target customer should be discussed on a regular basis. When conducting your assessments of an area, be sure you are confirming “yes” or “no” for the areas of interest to you.
It’s worth the time and resources if necessary to conduct surveys and contact potential customers in a specific area that you are considering doing a business deal for. Don’t always trust a potential partner’s interests in wanting to do a business deal, make sure the area will be a good fit for your products and services by researching yourself.
Business to Business Demographics
If your company does business directly with other business for a majority of the revenue made during the year than it’s important to take a slightly different angle on this task of reviewing new local markets. As a business owner that is negotiating a joint venture partnership with another company, it’s important to conduct your own in depth analysis. Call companies that you think might be potential clients for you and your JV partner in the area and see if they have any opinions about the company, positive or negative. Make sure that you take the time to review a company’s profile on Yelp, the Better Business Bureau, and other business review sites.
Companies with lots of negative issues that seem potentially harmful should be included in your decision making of whether to do the business deal or not. At the end of the day the point is to attract new business, so adjust and align with partners that have maintained strong brands in their local markets.
Review and understand the markets that you are doing business in. It may be necessary to create a binder of all the information on a specific location, but if it helps identify the right joint venture partner that attracts new business it’s worth the effort. Expand your business by doing deals with companies that have strong positions in their local markets that fit your criteria.
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.
Reasons For Joint Ventures During Uncertain Economic Times
When the economy is in a downturn there are several really good reasons for joint ventures as a way for a struggling company to get the little extra business required to stay afloat and live to do business another day. Joint ventures provide many opportunities for companies to grow into new markets, extract additional revenue from their existing client base, and develop a strong network of other businesses that can be relied upon for supporting their customers to ensure a high level of customer retention. During tough times people do not spend as quickly or freely as during good times and so it’s very important to do everything possible to service existing customers and make it as comfortable as possible for new customers to try a product or service for the first time.
Develop New Customer Acquisition Strategies
One of the best reasons for a joint venture during a time of economic uncertainty is the potential to acquire new customers. Acquiring a customer is expensive and time consuming and the beauty of joint venture marketing partnerships is the potential to market to a partners existing customer base a product or service. Gaining access to customer lists or the capability to have a logo and company description sent out from a V.P. of Sales to existing customers can be a make it or break it opportunity for a small business in a tough economy. If a product or service your company is selling fits well with a partners existing offering you might receive new sales and never have to touch the customer because the partner is handling all of the customer facing activities and delivering your product or service to them directly.
Earn Additional Revenue
Earning additional revenue from an existing client base is an excellent reason for joint venture marketing relationships to be established with companies seeking to market to the demographic of existing customers. During tough economic times companies might be willing to negotiate better referral fees and percentages of revenue for each closed sales lead increasing the value of the partnership. Most small businesses are not servicing their customer’s entire needs and so it’s easy to identify at least 3 or 4 great potential partnerships that could support customers’ needs and put money in the company’s pockets simply for making products and services available to the company’s customers.
Create a Strong Web of Support
It is vital to create strong network of partners during a tough economy. It’s important to remain active pursuing the best and most attractive joint venture opportunities. Companies do fail during bad economies and so it is imperative that if a business has an important joint venture partner that is supporting its clients and putting money in its bank account that there is a backup plan in case a partner goes out of business. While it may not be the number one reason to continue to pursuing joint ventures during tough times, if a company that your business has a relationship with fails, it’s important to be able to quickly replace them with a new partner and promptly provide customers the confidence needed to not jump ship. Failing to not have a backup plan in place for servicing client requirements that are supported by joint venture partners is a big problem, but can be resolved by creating a strong network of associates and even partners that are in place, but not yet fully active.
There are many good reasons for joint venture marketing in a tough economy as well as during good times. Focus on developing strong JV partners to limit potential risks that may occur during a down economy and make sure to continue to track down new opportunities. Every joint venture partner is a new potential channel to acquire fresh customers and at the same time is an opportunity to gain additional revenue from an existing customer base.
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.
Strategies To Get New Clients
The best part about developing joint ventures is the ability to create unique strategies to get new clients from the existing client base of the joint venture partner or through new marketing activities together. Some companies mistakenly, simply create a basic press release and expect the new partner to come up with all of the strategies and marketing materials to market the partnership. If a business wants to maximize each joint venture partner it’s best to be active in the marketing decision making process as well as develop creative offerings such as product bundles, free sample offerings, partner promo specials and other strategies to get new clients. If a business commits to being open to new marketing strategies regardless of past marketing campaigns and focuses on developing a complete new channel, great things can happen. At the heart of the strategies to get new clients should be the overwhelming focus to provide customers a great product or service for an affordable price. When developing consumer related joint ventures having special pricing and product promotions is critical.
Product Bundles
Identifying whole solutions or product bundles that can deliver to a customer an entire solution or package that at the same time saves the customer money over buying each component separately is a strategy to get new clients. When marketing to a new potential customer base with a new joint venture partner many of these customers may already be using a competitor’s product or service so there needs to be a strong incentive to use a different company. Product bundling is an excellent way to handle all of a customer’s requirements and give them this great deal. Include a product or service from the joint venture partner into the product bundle if applicable and jointly market the product bundle. This also increases the buy-in that a partner may have in assisting with promoting the partner product bundle.
Free / Lite Version to Partner Customer Base
Depending on whom a joint venture partner’s customer base includes, developing a targeted free or lite version or product samples that can be provided free to the customers is a well proven strategy to get new clients. Often just getting customers to try a product out for the first time is the hardest challenge a business can encounter. This is seen most especially when launching a new product to market. Working in conjunction with a joint venture partner to distribute product samples, free versions of a product or service to identified target customers, will get the product in the customer’s hands quickly and efficiently. This provides potential customers the opportunity to get to know your product before making a buy decision. Depending on the structure of the joint venture partnership a free product demo sent to existing customers can be included in the agreement between the two businesses. Small businesses developing a new joint venture with a much larger company may have the product samples subsidized by the larger corporation because it is in both company’s interest that the target customers become acquainted with the products and the smaller companies brand. These types of joint ventures can really launch a new product into market rapidly. This is a strong strategy to get new clients that all businesses should evaluate if it would work for them.
Partner Promo Specials
Developing unique partner promotions helps differentiate the deal that a customer gets by having an existing relationship with a business that is now a joint venture partner. This is important for businesses that develop multiple joint venture marketing relationships. Depending on the level of a joint venture partner’s commitment, special promos can be developed so that they can offer their customer base a unique offer that is not being provided elsewhere in the targeted market. This allows a business to structure partnerships accordingly. Those partners that do the most for driving new business and spending resources on marketing the partnership can receive better discounts and promotions for their customers. Promotions can set up as just a single offering with a company or have a new monthly promo, whichever makes sense for the partnership. Using partner promo codes is always a great way to organize business leads in a CRM system as they are coming in through the defined sales channels. Being able to record a promo code can help you track leads and determine which sales rep those sales are coming from, which can be great data for managing the partnership.
There are many great strategies to get new clients through joint venture marketing campaigns with partners. Be active in identifying the right strategies for marketing the partnership. A few of the ways a business can reach out to existing customers is to offer them a special promotion, product bundle or even a free product sample to provide the required incentive to try a new product.
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.
Joint Venture Risks To Be Prepared For
Regardless, if this is your first joint venture marketing relationship or fiftieth already in place there are several items that are important to be aware of to minimize the risks that may jeopardize your existing business operations. When announcing a new joint venture make sure that potential problems with customers have been identified so they can be resolved asap. Keep a good line of communication with decision makers from the partner company to ensure fast resolution to any problems can be communicated to all key individuals responsible for handling the partnership. Understand the way your partner company operates and develop relationships with the key individuals that need to be on board in order for the relationship to be successful.
Customer Problems
Identifying where there may be a potential customer problem is the number one joint venture risk, if someone does not perform, an existing customer could potentially be lost. If this occurs because of how a partner serviced the customers’ needs and acted during the process than it’s a poor reflection on both companies and harms both businesses. As soon as a business makes a recommendation they are also responsible in the consumers’ minds for their experience with the partner business. If they get turned off by their actions they may quickly take their business elsewhere altogether. The best thing is to make sure and do a blind test with a new partner so you are 100% confident of how the new partner will be receiving and servicing the clients referred over. If only quality partners are brought into the business model and they fit in terms of industry and customer bases then there should not be problems with customer interactions or any confusion among customers as to what is the purpose of the new joint venture.
Communication Failures
Setting up a new joint venture is usually the easiest part of the whole marketing strategy, however failing to be properly communicate while implementing everything required is a significant risk. If a business is not fully capable of honoring the details in the joint venture agreement it is not worth moving forward with the marketing partnership. It is absolutely mandatory that both parties have clear and open communication channels with the individuals that are directly controlling the process from receiving a new business lead, selling, and then servicing the customer’s needs. To eliminate risks it is vital that communication channels are clearly defined and counterparts from both companies communicate regularly.
If there is a communication breakdown between joint venture companies when both are servicing a company and they need to work together in order to meet deadlines on a project it can be catastrophic to the relationship quickly. Other communication failures that often occur are failing to follow each item in the JV agreement from things as simple to not sending an approval email before going to print with marketing collateral to as severe as not properly reporting all sales transactions as determined in the agreement. Failure to communicate according to everyone’s expectations is a big reason many joint ventures eventually stop working or fail to get going after the initial agreement is put in place.
Internal Company Issues
It is vital when assessing potential risks that are present with a new joint venture marketing partner to learn about the company’s culture, decision making process, and who the real catalysts and decision makers are within a company or division. Failing to know who is really making the decisions regarding supporting a joint venture is a major risk. When developing a significant JV marketing relationship it can be vital to wine and dine decision makers as well as people that are potential gate keepers to those decision makers. When everyone in a company is supporting a new joint venture the chance for failure is reduced. It is a significant risk to do a joint venture if only one or two people are on board with the partnership for whatever internal reasons and success will involve more than the one or two that are committed.
Develop strong relationships with the individuals participating in a joint venture to ensure you have great communication and fully understand the purpose of the JV from the other company’s perspective and you will reduce your joint venture risks and be more at ease entering a new business relationship.
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.
The Advantages Of A Joint Venture For Small Businesses
There are many advantages of a joint venture for small businesses to take advantage of. Most importantly is establishing solid relationships with companies that can provide value to your existing customers which should already be a top priority for any small business owner. It is very difficult as a small business to have the ability to completely service your entire customer’s needs, but if you put in place the right joint venture partners you will be fully capable to service them and at the same time drive additional revenue to your bottom line. Having strong joint venture marketing alliances can increase the reach your brand has while maintaining a lean and limited marketing budget.
Meet New Potential Clients
Small business owners are often faced with having too many things to do during each day of the week and finding the right balance of spending time on generating new business leads and maintaining an existing customer base can be difficult. One of the greatest advantages of a joint venture marketing relationship can provide to a small business is the ability to quickly reach new potential customers. By focusing on developing relationships with companies that already have existing customers and the channels to quickly expose new products and services to them a business owner can focus on having high quality relationships that assist in driving new business. This allows a business owner to continue to manage the day to day operations of the business and service existing customers while a joint venture marketing partner is helping to drive in new qualified leads that are much easier to justify devoting time too rather than cold calling for customers or pursuing other strategies for finding new leads. Small business owners often waste lots of resources on sales teams and sales consultants that underperform and these people also often require significant management time. A great joint venture marketing relationship can out produce even a good sales team if you structure the relationship correctly and manage the relationship properly.
Expand Existing Product / Services Offering
Another significant advantage of a joint venture is expanding the products and services that are available for your existing clients. Most small businesses are excellent at servicing a very specific niche, thus it is difficult for most to be experts in similar services or carry the depth of product lines to fully satisfy all the needs of their customer base. The right joint venture partners that can support your clients with those additional services and products ensures that you will not loose those customers to potential competitors that may be able to service them with a wider range of products and services as well as ensure that you are maximizing every chance to earn revenue from your customer base. Everyone understands that it’s a significant expense to gain a paying customer and so it is important as a small business to encourage your customers to take advantage of joint venture opportunities you can provide not only to share with them a great opportunity, but to most importantly return the favor to those companies that are also sending you business and earn additional revenue in the process.
Co-Marketing Campaigns
Marketing campaigns can be very costly and if they do not immediately provide a solid return on the investment can be detrimental to the success of a small business especially those at the earliest stages. Take advantage of your joint venture marketing partners when they offer to do co-branded promotions. These types of activities reduce the costs for both companies and when done properly will appear as a genuine match that has been developed to ensure customer satisfaction. Many larger companies will offer co-marketing opportunities to small businesses that are providing a serious advantage to their product / services line up or have such a compelling story that the larger company sees significant value in associating their brand with the other business. This is an excellent way to get free branding and marketing as larger firms often already have set in place several core marketing strategies that they will execute for new joint ventures to increase the likely hood for success. As a small business, while doing a joint venture marketing relationship with a bigger company, it is acceptable to ask for marketing support as many companies have in house graphic design teams and others that can help quickly mock up any marketing collateral required. This also ensures that the larger company is approving the way that there company is being represented. It’s never good to spend significant resources as a small business to develop marketing collateral, only to have it redone because the larger partner does not approve of the materials that were created.
Take advantage of joint venture marketing relationships as a small business to increase visibility in the market, establish additional revenue streams with existing customers, and gain access to resources that will help drive business and ensure joint venture activities succeed.
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.
Joint Venture Opportunities: Thinking Outside The Box
A joint venture opportunity may present itself when companies realize the value in pulling together to achieve similar goals. The reasons for creating a joint venture vary depending on the needs and strategies laid out. There are several companies struggling in all sectors of the economy that can benefit from working with each other.
Building their customer base and thus increasing their profits is the main reason former competitors join forces. Another reason may include a scenario when one company can provide excellent marketing strategies, but lack the capital or personnel resources to execute their ideas or maybe one company has the financial and personnel but lacks the ability to properly market their product or service to a specific target market.
Building and construction industry
The construction of a commercial property usually involves different companies forming a joint venture. The strength of each partner is spotlighted during different phases of the project. First, they invite one or more partners because of their experience in securing the necessary financing. Then two or more companies may guide the development and construction of the building(s). During this time, one company may establish a leadership role managing the architects, engineering, and all elements of the indoor and outdoor design. Meanwhile, they might hire a property management company, or maybe bring a third joint venture partner on board for the final phase of the project. The building and construction of commercial property industry are at the forefront of creatively using joint venture opportunities.
Travel industry
The stakeholders involved in the travel sector today often service niche markets. By coming together to provide services, which complement each other, the partners can improve their opportunities for growth. Travel agencies, airlines, hotels, transport services, tourist destination sites are a few segments of the travel industry consistently seeking joint venture opportunities. The relationship can assist in reducing costs of advertising. As a result, they can offer discounts or features their direct competitors are lacking.
For example, in recent years two popular tourist trends have emerged: the mature travellers and those who stay closer to home to enjoy “staycations”. The tourism and convention bureau in a city or state may actively seek a joint venture opportunity with agencies focusing on these market segments. The bureau can give insider information regarding the advantages of a community, while the travel agency understands how to get the message out to a national or international audience.
Entertainment and event organizers
Event and entertainment organizers are sometimes small firms struggling to attract customers. A joint venture between the various service providers allows each to focus on what they do best. For weddings, a florist and caterer partnering is a natural fit. A wedding planner perhaps may choose to share marketing costs with unique venues for the ceremony or reception. Other possible joint venture opportunities exist between audiovisual service providers, photographers, musicians, and limo companies.
As noted by the examples above, joint venture opportunities can easily emerge from within specific industries but they can also be formed between seemingly unrelated markets. For example, “Destination Weddings” have become increasingly popular in recent years. A wedding planner for instance might form a partnership with a travel agency to increase their marketing reach. The “Destination Wedding” planner can then provide services and features that stand out from the majority of their competitors with the aid of their travel agent partner.
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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