Long-lasting business partnerships make or break any company—whether it is a business-to-consumer (B2C) partnership for a major retail company, or a business-to-business (B2B) partnership where a software company helps enhance a large corporation’s success. The way partnerships progress over time will create long-standing morale and uplift any industry, as they are the foundation for increasing revenue.
Agility uses strategic collaborations with our clients to drive the best programmatic marketing results. Optimizing and driving toward return goals is the main focus, but our client alliance is the ultimate success point. In this post, I will be going through what we do to best drive successful partnerships in marketing. I will provide nine principles of successful partnerships to help you enhance your digital marketing partnerships.
Tips to Maximize Partnership
#1 – Set Expectations for the Partnership
Start a marketing partnership off right by setting proper expectations for success from the beginning. Make sure to communicate regularly and decide how often that needs to be for both of you. Regularly might mean once a week, or it might mean once a month. It’s important to be on the same page. Decide how you’ll communicate, whether it’s in-person, on the phone, or in a Zoom call. Face-to-face communication is important, but not every discussion needs to happen face-to-face, especially if it’s inconvenient for one or both of you. In addition to communication, set up expectations for each other. Talk about your strengths and weaknesses, what you can do, what you can’t do, and be upfront about what you expect so that you’re both aware of what you’re bringing to the table.
#2 – Set Goals
Talk about your business goals with your partner. Set both long-term and short-term goals ahead of time, but be flexible if goals need to be adjusted later on. Establish “ground rules” by ensuring you and the client have mutual respect for the end goal. It is important to set proper and fair return goals along the way so that both partners know expectations. It’s also important to collaborate on ideas in the present and ongoing.
#3 – Get to Know Your Partner
Focus the beginning of the partnership on creating personal connections with your partners instead of zoning in on the designated project. This way, you extend more than a business hand to clients. This is key because most people desire more than a business relationship – they desire genuine, human connection. Think of when you are trying to reach a customer service agent on the phone and how frustrating it is when you are not able to reach a human. This is the same reasoning behind why people value human interaction in client relationships. Look at this as a dating app for your marketing partnerships; learn their hobbies, their family structure, and their favorite sports teams. Spend more time “small talking” while still moving in a productive direction for their business.
#4 – Establish Face to Face Communication
Make the effort. We may live in a digital world, but interactions do not have to be the same. Visit your partners, take them to lunch or out for drinks. Put a large investment into large output clients. You will spend a minimal amount of money that will be well worth the investment on the business side. Not only does this provide you a chance to say “thanks for your business,” it’s also a chance to have fun and build a relationship with your client.
#5 – Be Charismatic
Periods are lame! The best way to show a client you care and are passionate about the marketing partnership is by using appropriate punctuation. Also, read your audience. In the digital world, meanings and interpretations are often skewed depending on the person. You may come off to people as abrasive when you are trying to represent passion. Utilize emojis to communicate your desired tone. By showing your marketing partner that you are passionate about an email, you also show that you are passionate about the results you are driving. Show off your personality.
#6 – Instill Trust
Nothing is more important in ANY relationship than trust. Think about your romantic relationships, friendships, and business partnerships. Without trust, you can never progress beyond the original state of your relationship. Being able to be my true authentic self, and knowing that my clients trust me, is my favorite part of a digital marketing partnership. Loyalty is there, and they will always be willing to learn and collaborate because we trust each other.
#7 – Give Feedback, Accept Feedback
There is always a stigma about constructive criticism. It is not easy to give, and not easy to take. Personally, in my short career, I have been given an ample amount of hard feedback, but it has ultimately made me a better employee, friend, daughter, significant other, and dog mom. Feedback is the key to success. The importance behind feedback doesn’t just lie in personal relationships. Your partners often There is always a stigma about constructive criticism. It is not easy to give, and not easy to take. Personally, in my short career, I have been given an ample amount of hard feedback, but it has ultimately made me a better employee, friend, daughter, significant other, and dog mom. Feedback is the key to success. The importance behind feedback doesn’t just lie in personal relationships. Your partners often seek expert feedback on a subject that they may not be familiar with. Share your thoughts, explore the possibilities, and connect with them on deeper subjects by taking their feedback and giving your insight. Find a common ground and a success point by sharing opinions. Learning from each other is one of the benefits of partnership marketing.
#8 – Be Open, Honest, and Responsible
If you make a mistake, bring it up right away, and own up to it. Then talk about it and figure it out together. Your partner will respect you for being honest and will appreciate that you brought it up quickly rather than kept it to yourself until it was too late. Always take full responsibility for your actions, good and bad. It does no good to blame your mistakes on your partner. Having an honest partnership in marketing will help you be successful.
#9 – Put Things in Writing
We’ve all had times when we forgot about a conversation or something that was said. Putting things in writing will ensure that you have all the important information you need to be documented somewhere for future reference. The last thing you want to happen in your partnership is miscommunication or an argument about “who said what” because neither side remembers the full story. Writing it down will help you remember it better, in addition to having it documented.
The takeaway here is to value your marketing partnerships on a deeper level. Over time, this will lead to greater revenue, in addition to other benefits of partnership marketing like networking opportunities, broadening your audience, and learning from other experts. Before then, understand that business is more than delivering on results. Business is about networking, giving 100%, and being personable.
To learn more about meaningful and strategic partnerships in digital marketing, go to agilityads.com and request more information and a demo. Agility and their partners have more skin in the game with access to amazing strategists and resources.
