The whole lot you have to find out about creating co-marketing campaigns that work – Outbrain

When you run a business, you know that an excellent product or service cannot be sold if the marketing campaign is ineffective for it. Effective marketing is the pipeline that will help you reach your audience – those who are ready and able to buy your product or service. Effective marketing generates sales and helps you build a following around your brand.

This guide will tell you everything there is to know about co-marketing. By the end of this guide, you will have a clear definition of co-marketing and know how to run co-marketing campaigns that will help you secure leads, generate more sales for your business, and build your brand. With that in mind, let’s dive right into this guide.

What is co-marketing?

Co-marketing is when two or more companies work together to create one Contents, usually across multiple channels or run a marketing campaign. Companies work together to develop a campaign and create the relevant marketing material. By working together, the companies involved in a co-marketing campaign hope to reach larger audiences than they could independently.

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This principle is sometimes referred to as “affinity partnership”. An example of a co-marketing campaign is the collaboration between Uber and Spotify in 2014. Spotify Premium users created special playlists for their commute that were automatically played as soon as their Uber trip began. Uber users could control their music directly from the Uber app without opening Spotify.

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Co-marketing differs from co-branding in that with the latter, the participating brands invest their creative energy in a completely new product. The former is a collaboration between two different brands promoting different products.

In the example above, neither Uber nor Spotify had to create a completely new product. All they had to do was adapt each other’s existing products so that they were attractive to both customers.

What are the benefits of co-marketing?

Co-marketing has become one of the most effective advertising channels today, especially for E-commerce Brands. It has enabled brands to promote their products in new, diverse markets and expand their reach.

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Here are a few reasons brands are running co-marketing campaigns:

• Customer enthusiasm through co-branding campaigns and giveaways
• Promote and establish relationships between audience favorite brands as each brand develops goodwill for a new audience
• Reaping the financial benefits of a new group of potential customers
• Save costs by drawing on the resources of everyone involved
• Help with building Brand awareness online in new, untapped markets

Co-marketing is about sharing audiences and resources in order to create campaigns that none of the brands involved could run alone. Whether you’re looking to increase your brand’s popularity on social media, increase your blog followers, or just want to target a larger audience, co-marketing can help tremendously.

Find the right partner

The most important aspect of running a co-marketing campaign perfectly is finding the right partner brands. Several factors come into play in deciding whether another brand would be a good fit for the promotion you are about to run.

At the risk of it sounding like a scene from one of the Mafia films, you always need to have a clear idea of ​​what will benefit all parties from the partnership. Ideally, a co-marketing campaign should benefit you, your partner brand, and the end customer.

Any co-marketing pitch should highlight what both parties can get from it; otherwise it would be difficult to sell. You need to show the proposed partner that they will reap as many rewards as you will – and make sure that statement is true in reality.

This give and take can include:

• Share email subscriber lists and qualified leads generated from previous campaigns
• Benefit from the reputation of the other brand
• Mutual guest appearances / content in social media platforms, Blogs, and YouTube channels
• Presentation of partner brands for all target groups

A current example of an extremely successful co-marketing campaign is McDonald’s BTS Meal, a collaboration between one of the largest fast food brands in the world and arguably the largest boy group in history.

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At face value, the BTS Meal is little more than McNuggets, French fries and Coke. However, the bulk packaging has the distinctive purple color and logo of the group and contains not one, but two special sauces inspired by the band. The sweet chilli cajun sauce has been popular in Korea for several years and is said to be the group’s favorite.

While McDonald’s and BTS each have their fan base, the BTS meal has caused McNuggets sales to grow 250% in Korea and 1000% in other markets. The packaging has seen widespread adoption in online marketplaces, with some complete sets selling for around $ 100 each.

What Can You Learn From The BTS Meal? First, you need to choose partners who are already familiar with your brand so that they can more easily fit your products into your narrative. Second, your partners’ products should be good. I never thought I’d like the cajun sauce, but I have to give it to the band so they can bring the sauce to my location.

But be careful here: if you’re looking to partner with another brand just because it’s trending lately, you’re not doing it right. Trendjacking can get you out to new audiences quickly, but the profits are rarely sustainable. Instead, look for partners who have a consistent social media and online presence to ensure the effects of your co-marketing last longer.

How can you ensure a smooth campaign?

To ensure a smooth co-marketing campaign, you usually need to conduct thorough research on potential partners to find out if their brand personalities and product / service offerings are a perfect match for yours. Whenever possible, try to use existing partnerships – provided your values ​​still match and your previous experiences with them have been positive. If the partner brand meets both criteria, you can work together on a new campaign.

Otherwise, there are hundreds to thousands of open co-marketing opportunities available to you at any time. However, taking advantage of these opportunities boils down to good old-fashioned networking. When looking for partner brands, always pay attention to the following tips:

• Ideally, they shouldn’t be a competitor.
• Your brand personality and audience perception should in some ways align with yours.
• You should have a sizeable audience on social media, email lists, or any other channel that can support automated campaigns on a large scale.
• They are a company similar in size to yours. This ensures that there are no unequal expectations when one partner is forcing their size on the other.

Running a co-marketing campaign requires that all brands involved know what they are getting into, agree on a common approach, and have common expectations. If you feel that your co-marketing campaign is not meeting one or more of the three requirements, it may be wise to reconsider the partnership. Otherwise, you can start engaging the other brand and audience you gain by working together.

Finally

In the corporate world, partnerships of all kinds are concluded on a daily basis. Co-marketing campaigns are one such partnership. Co-marketing enables brands to pool their resources to create a marketing impact that they cannot otherwise afford. A co-marketing campaign also helps you attract new audiences, be it through products or just by sharing contact lists.

To ensure the effectiveness of your co-marketing campaigns, you need to select collaborative brands that have good social media followers, a similar company or audience size, and similar values.

Working with the right partner brand broadens your horizons and enables your message to reach markets that you have not been able to reach before.