You’ve probably seen that scenario in teen movies, where the unpopular, girl that nobody cares about, makes friends with the super popular ‘it girl’ of the school, learns a few tips about fitting in, and then suddenly becomes the centre of attention with everyone eager to talk to her and invite her to all the cool events and parties.
Believe it or not, the above situation is ideally what your business needs to do in order to gain popularity in today’s modern world (minus the bullying and inauthenticity that often accompanies such situations).
However, instead of imitating the admired business, you collaborate with them.
Why?
Because brand collaborations can help to significantly boost exposure for your business and set you up as a reputable and trustworthy force that your audience will want to get behind. How is this possible? Keep reading to find out.
What Exactly is a Brand Collaboration?
In case you were wondering exactly what is meant by ‘brand collaboration’, it is simply when two or more businesses who have similar goals or objectives, decide to come together and help each other to reach those goals in a number of different ways.
So if you own a hair salon, for example, and want more people to know about your business and what it is you offer, you can collaborate with another company in the beauty industry (e.g. a cosmetic business) that already has a client base, but is interested in expanding.
Such a collaboration would work because audiences interested in cosmetics, will most likely also be interested in other beauty services, such as your hair salon!
So in the end, you get a share of the cosmetic company’s market, and they get a share of yours. It’s a win-win situation that leads to a lot more exposure for both companies.
As the old saying goes, ‘We are stronger together, than we are alone’.
Sky-Rocket Your Exposure with Collaborations
If done right, collaborations can double, triple and even quadruple exposure to your brand. However, it is important to understand what your own objectives and shortcomings are, when deciding what business you will collaborate with. That being said, here are a few ways brand collaborations can help with increasing your exposure.
Learn from the Master
There are so many factors to consider when launching your own promotional campaign—advertising costs, target market research, content strategy— that it can be quite overwhelming to figure out the when, where and how to effectively pursue it.
However, teaming up with a well-recognized and established brand is like being handed your very own cheat sheet, where you get to experience very similar results as the brand you’re collaborating with, even when you don’t have all the tools at hand.
Established brands have most likely already gone through many of the hurdles that you might be struggling with, and have achieved the know, like and trust factor with their ideal audience.
Therefore, when a collaboration is formed, that brand’s audience now sees you and starts noticing your company, since their favourite brand is recommending you. That’s instant exposure and more than half your marketing objectives completed already without you having to spend a dime or put out a bucket full of new content.
Strength in Numbers
Sometimes the particular product or service your business offers will only cater to a specific market. For example, as a contractor, your main audience will consist of those individuals who are ready to build.
However, that audience who sees a house in their future, but aren’t yet sure of what design they want, will go to an architect long before they start considering your service.
So, imagine how much larger your audience could become if you were to join forces with an architect. The audience of the architect will ensure that their customers come to you once they’ve figured out what they want, and you will point your audience towards that architect, the next time they have something else they want to build.
Inspire Creativity
Never has the famous quote by Steve Jobs been more relevant, ‘Great things in business are never done by one person. They’re done by a team of people". Alone, you may have 1000 great ideas, great content, a killer marketing strategy, and probably even a commendable client base.
But…why limit yourself?
Clients come and go, times change, and ideas become old or outdated. Alone, you can only do so much; put your mind together with just one other business or company ,though, and watch as the possibilities for your business’s growth potential multiply before your eyes.
When you collaborate with another business, you get to view things from an entirely different perspectives you might never have thought of before. Original ideas can be tweaked or expanded upon to maximize your marketing efforts. You can even pick up on and integrate techniques from the partnering company into your own business strategy to grow your exposure and following faster than you might have been doing before.
To Infinity & Beyond
When it comes right down to it, collaborations help you realize that teamwork really does make the dream work. As long as you are connecting with people, sharing ideas, and willing to accept help from others when you hit roadblocks, your exposure will start to sky rocket like you have never seen before!
Give it a try, and let me know how it works
Commentaires