Let’s talk about partnership marketing.
Long before there was influencer marketing, social media marketing, and even email marketing, there was partnership marketing; a collaboration between businesses with overlapping target markets for the purpose of mutually beneficial promotion. I just saw an ad for Verizon Fios – they’re offering a free year of Amazon Prime if you switch to their service. If two giant companies like these are partnering up, why aren’t you? This is my number one advice to small businesses trying to ramp up their marketing efforts with a small budget. Find a complementary businesses and take advantage of their existing customer base, while giving them access to yours.
Some examples:
– A wedding photographer partnering with an event planner to offer clients a discount when using both services
– An ecommerce fashion business including free samples of a beauty companies products; in exchange, the beauty company displays stacks coupons for the fashion site in their storefront
The scope is unlimited- partner with another company to share the costs of a marketing event; go live together on social media, cross promote content, etc, etc!