"Joint
Venture Marketing For Local Business"
by
Sharon Fling
When
it comes to marketing, offline businesses could do a lot
worse than following in the footsteps of online businesses,
especially their use of Joint Venture (JV) Marketing. That's
when you market your product or service to the customers
of another business, usually complimentary to your own.
For
example, say you own a pool service and you know of a good
landscaper who also services your community. Usually people
with pools also have a yard that needs to be maintained.
Why not team up and recommend each other's services? The
landscaper would certainly notice which yards have pools,
and you can probably tell which of your customers need help
with their gardens. Here is a joint venture waiting to happen.
But will it?
Not
from what I've seen. So many small business owners are paranoid
about collaborating, as if a dollar into your pocket means
one less for them. They act as if their customers won't
pay for both a gardener AND a pool man. Nothing could
be farther from the truth!
Online
marketers are hip to this. It's routine for a product to
hit the Net on Monday and have thousands of sales by Friday.
The truth is, most of those sales are through JVs. All of
the online marketers know each other and they routinely
endorse each others' products. Although they're selling
to the same crowd, there's no fear of competition. They
know that people like to collect information, and no matter
how many books or tapes they have on a subject, they'll
always buy another.
How
is this different from the offline world? Real life people
need a variety of products and services to make their lives
easier. People need electricians, plumbers, and the like,
and most folks would rather get a referral than pick a name
out of the phone book. But I can count on one hand the number
of referrals I've gotten for any of those services from
another business.
With
more businesses joining their Chamber of Commerce or networking
groups like Business Networking International (www.bni.com),
this is slowly changing. But you don't have to spend hundreds
of dollars to make it happen. Joint venture opportunities
are all around you. You just have to open your eyes and
SEE them.
Off
the top of my head, here are a few ideas:
-
If
you own a skin care salon, you could team up with a massage
therapist. Set up a massage room in your salon and get
a percentage of every massage your customers purchase.
-
If you teach piano lessons, connect with someone in piano
sales.
-
Are you a caterer looking to build your clientele? Find
someone who helps to organize events that need catering,
such as a special events coordinator or wedding planner.
-
Do you create silk floral arrangements? Ask small furniture
stores to sell them on consignment. The plants add to
the decor and helps to stage the furniture and give it
the "homey" touch. Customers might buy a table
and the arrangement sitting on top of it because they
look so good together.
-
Are you into arts and crafts? Offer to put on mini-workshops
at local arts and craft stores. Participants will buy
the materials from the store and you get exposure and
referrals.
-
Are you a pet photographer? Get to know your local veterinarians,
pet store owners, pet groomers and pet sitters.
-
Fitness
Trainer/Health & Nutrition Supplements
-
Auto Repair/Paint & Body Shop
- Gardener/Landscaper
The
possibilities are endless. And we won't even go into what
you could do with websites and opt-in mailing lists. This
is plain old "dirt-world" marketing, no-tech stuff
that anybody can do. Add in some endorsed email promotions
and reciprocal linking and ... well, don't get me started.
So
... put on your thinking cap and come up with a list of
NON-COMPETING local businesses whose customers are
in your target market. Then develop a special offer that
results in a win-win for both of you.
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