Your social media content is more versatile than you may realize. It’s not only about targeting your customers. It’s a new way to reach new audiences and gain exposure for your business.
You can use your content to extend your reach and increase your engagement through partnership marketing.
What is partner marketing?
Partnership marketing involves companies or individuals with significant personal brands working together to achieve mutual goals. They achieve greater brand awareness, expand into new markets, and generate more leads.
Partnership marketing can be a powerful tool to help any business succeed, as long as the partnership is carefully crafted. Let’s look at the steps needed for a successful partnership.
Steps for a Successful Partnership for Social Media
1. Choose the best partner for your business
Getting a partnership right entails creating one that works for both businesses with these criteria:
Choose a business that appeals to a similar audience to yours but isn’t a direct competitor. While it isn’t always easy to find the right audience fit, especially if you’re trying to reach new demographics, any overlap between those audiences is good.
Find out what your potential partner will need to be successful. Likewise, find out what benefits you will receive. If the balance of a relationship is off, especially in a potential deal where one business gets a greater portion than the other, the excitement and interest in the partnership may wane.
Align your brand with a business that has a similar image and values. The audience won’t hold you in high regard if they learn you’re going to work with a business notorious for doing shady business with their clients.
You and your potential partner should specify what you offer each other that neither of you can come up with on your own. Before formalizing the partnership, agree on any relevant mutual goals.
2. Establish tangible goals for the partnership and measure them
Set attainable goals for your partnership gives you a reliable way to check on how your partnership is performing.
Here are some metrics you can use depending on your business needs:
- X% increase in website traffic from social media
- X% increase in social media engagement levels (shares, saves, likes, etc.)
- X% amount of revenue in a month, quarter, or year
- X% qualified leads from a specific audience in a month, quarter, or year
Develop mutual goals and KPIs so you and your partner stay on track for success. A written contract can help reduce conflicts later, especially when you and your partner are not in doubt about what is expected of them.
3. Use social media to scale and increase engagement
A partnership doesn’t have to break the bank. Instead of going big at first, decide what content and channels are going to work best for your audiences. Then move on to more complex projects.
Increasing your engagement through social media is highly effective and can be done at little or no cost:
Asking questions, going on Facebook Live, and making specific content for your audience to share or save will generate engagement. When appropriate, make sure your Facebook content uses humor that speaks directly to your target audience and you almost guarantee engagement.
Take advantage of Instagram Guides to create content featuring eCommerce products from your business and highlighting your partner’s services. You can even create your own FAQs section with Instagram Guides. Other than Instagram Guides, educational content such as how-to’s will generate traffic as well because people often search for solutions on social media. This type of content is more likely to get views, likes, saves, and shares.
TikTok
TikTok leverages trends, which lets you show your personalities, get more exposure, and take advantage of what’s fun with the app. Check out the Discover page to see what’s trending. Create your video with your partner and don’t worry if it doesn’t trend. Just like your other social media accounts, focus on creating quality, authentic content.
By partnering with one another, businesses generate greater brand awareness and create beneficial experiences for customers. Keep in mind though, that not every partnership will be a good fit for your business and your audience.
4.Listen to your audience’s feedback
Audiences react strongly to the best social media campaigns. If you can get excited talking about a potential partnership, your followers may feel the same way. If the concept seems boring to you, it’s likely that they will agree.
If your followers-especially those who have been engaging with your social media accounts for a while-disapprove of the content from your new partner, it might be a sign you should work with other businesses. However, if the response is positive, you have more opportunities to grow your partnership.
5.Share your progress with your partner
If all goes well, you can go even further in your partnership. Talk with your partner about how your businesses could partner up to create a new competitive advantage for your markets.
Collaborate on a useful product or service, or create a revenue-sharing agreement to share customers and opportunities. Establishing a formal relationship could prove worthwhile.
The secret to success is not to go at it alone
Getting your business out there means getting your content in front of people who matter. Partnerships can help companies attain marketing goals more effectively. With the right partnership, you may just get the extra traction you’ve been searching for on social media.
