They say two heads are better than one, and in most cases this is true. In the world of business, it can be especially true. Marketing can be a tricky business, especially in today’s world. You need a big, creative hook. Something that will draw people in, and then most importantly, keep them coming back for more. So you’ve got a solid marketing campaign, and you’re doing alright for yourself, but what if you could do just a little bit better? What if there was some kind of extra way to draw attention to your business?
Well I’m currently thinking of one, and it’s very common. It’s called cross promotion, and it could be very good for your business.
Have you ever been to a 7-11 convenience store around the release of a major motion picture, like say….Marvel’s The Avengers? Gone for a big gulp? Notice anything about the cups? Plastered with Avengers characters. This is due to a deal struck between 7-11 and Disney/Marvel’s marketing team to put a few extra eyes on the movie (and one could say it worked very well, it’s the third highest grossing film of all time).
This is a form of cross promotion. People come in to 7-11 for a Slurpee, get an Avengers cup, and hopefully think to themselves, “Hrmmm…maybe I should go see this.” It’s a fairly low cost endeavor for all involved, with little risk, but the potential return is astounding, even for the consumer (those cups tend to become collectibles that sell for quite a bit online).
So how can this benefit you? Pretty easily. Let’s say you run a Search Engine Optimization business. You have a friend who runs a web design business. The two of you partner up a little, offering a package deal. Get web design through your friend, and you perform SEO on their site. Or vice versa. Somebody comes to you inquiring about SEO, and needs a site built. The package again comes into play. You end up both making money off of a single customer.
This can work with so many different combinations of businesses that I couldn’t possibly name them all. So if you want to get a few extra eyes on your business, and make some extra PIE in the process, take a look around at your friends and colleagues, and see if there isn’t a way you can work together to your mutual benefit. The results may not be in the neighborhood of $1.512 billion dollars, but the extra business brought in on both sides can only be a boon to the both of you.
