6 steps to co-branded marketing success

6 Steps to Co-branded

Marketing SuccessSTEPS FOR EFFECTIVELY MARKETING YOUR CO-BRANDING INITIATIVE

Benefits of a

co-branding

partnership

Immediately increase your

audience size and reach

Increase brand awareness

Drive brand recognition

Increase sales

2

6 Steps to Co-branded Marketing

Success

SetupDetermine

Your Audience

Marketing Outlets

Identify GoalsMarketing

LaunchMeasurement

3

Negotiate marketing terms with

your partner

What is your company

open to?

Where does your company

draw the line?

What “extras” can you

think of?

SetupDetermine

Your Audience

Marketing Outlets


LaunchMeasurement

4

Describe your product or

service

What does the combined

product look like?

Is it a new product, offer or

service?

Is it an existing product

that’s getting a facelift?

Is anything getting co-

branded?

SetupDetermine

Your Audience

Marketing Outlets


LaunchMeasurement

5

Identify strategic opportunities for

the partnership

Where can you capitalize

on brand and audience

enhancement?

Where is there potential for

increased

email/blog/newsletter lists,

etc.?

SetupDetermine

Your Audience

Marketing Outlets


LaunchMeasurement

6

Tentative structure for your

discussions

Bring up timelines for

launch and production

needs – these can remain

fluid at this step, but it’s

always good to start off

with a tentative structure to

revolve your discussions

around.

SetupDetermine

Your Audience

Marketing Outlets


LaunchMeasurement

7

Your audience vs. your

partner’s

Identify: Your Audience

Identify: Partner’s Audience

Your partner will have

unique insights into their

audience and the type of

messaging and delivery

channels they respond to

best.

SetupDetermine

Your Audience

Marketing Outlets


LaunchMeasurement

Does your partner’s audience

align with your own? If not,

identify how they are

different.

8

Determine your target

audience

Once you and your partner have clearly outlined your

respective audiences, determine who is your intended

audience. All marketing messaging will need to be geared

towards these specific recipients.

Put all of this into consideration when you determine how

you want to approach a new, heterogeneous audience.

You might even want to consider having multiple audience

segments, which will allow you to send more customized,

targeted messaging.

SetupDetermine

Your Audience

Marketing Outlets


LaunchMeasurement

9

Marketing channels

When determining your

marketing outlets, take

advantage of unique

channels that your partner

uses, and work with your

partner to get their

messages out through your

own channels.

SetupDetermine

Your Audience

Marketing Outlets


LaunchMeasurement

10

Your outlets can take the form

of:

Co-branded, single subject newsletter blasts

Social media mentions, re-posts and announcements

Co-authored press releases

Unique events or specialized marketing initiatives

General company news distribution and press releases

SetupDetermine

Your Audience

Marketing Outlets


LaunchMeasurement

11

Establish your goals

Establishing a partnership’s

marketing goals is unique

from determining a

marketing department’s or

even a marketing project’s

goals. Here it becomes more

tricky as you have not one,

but two or more distinct

companies to consider, and

specific goals and metrics

may differ from company to

company.

SetupDetermine

Your Audience

Marketing Outlets


LaunchMeasurement

What is important to each

company?

What are each company’s

typical metrics?

12

Metrics

Once you’ve identified your

co-branding goals, find a

good set of metrics that

help you to gain an

understanding of the

progress of your marketing

initiatives.

SetupDetermine

Your Audience

Marketing Outlets


LaunchMeasurement

13

Set your calendar of activities

Start your partnership by setting up your to-do list.

At the very least, write a list of the activities that need to be

accomplished up to and during your marketing launch.

Outline what you are going to do and what you aim to

achieve.

Provide an overview of the messaging that applies to each

applicable step.

SetupDetermine

Your Audience

Marketing Outlets


LaunchMeasurement

14

Set responsibilities

It is also very important to outline who is

responsible for each activity. Doing this

allows you to measure the progress and

performance of your team.

It simultaneously allows you to assess

your resources.

Do you have the manpower you need?

Do you need to hire?

SetupDetermine

Your Audience

Marketing Outlets


LaunchMeasurement

15

Launch your campaign

All of your hard work is

about to pay off!

While the campaign is

running, check in

periodically to make sure

everything is going as

planned.

Make changes in real time

as needed.

It’s time to measure

The last step – you’re almost there!

Now it’s time to go back to your goals.

As you review the goals you initially

set out to accomplish, ask yourself

this:

Have they been met?

Exceeded?

And, most importantly, why?

SetupDetermine

Your Audience

Marketing Outlets


LaunchMeasurement

17

Conclusion

Hopefully this guide has given you a

practical guideline to getting your

partnership off the ground. Every

partnership is different, and certainly

many of these steps will be

customized to bring the most value to

you and your partnership.

SetupDetermine

Your Audience

Marketing Outlets


LaunchMeasurement

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Find out more about Powerlinx

Streamline your partnership planning process on Powerlinx

Get a pre-qualified list of partners that suit your business’ needs.

See your business compatibility with your dynamic PowerScore.

Organize business relationships in Spaces.

Skip the back-and-forth conversations and discover detailed information on your partner’s profile.

Try it free: www.powerlinx.com

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6 steps to co-branded marketing success

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