Reach New Customers & Potential Partners Through Existing Business

Small business owners that develop relationships with their best customers can receive excellent referrals in the form of new business as well as partnerships with other companies within the industry. Marketing can be very expensive and with limited budgets many small businesses can gain an advantage by tapping into the rolodex of their customers whenever possible. Many people that you interact with on a regular basis during your daily business activities will be more than willing to make an introduction or referral, but you have to ask. I’ve found that most business relationships can lead to at least a few new opportunities and sometimes many more so it’s wise to take the time for lunches, dinners, sporting events, rounds of golf, and other casual activities that can help build your ecosystem of business professionals willing to make introductions and referrals.

Develop Individual Relationships with Key Customers

Taking the time to build individual relationships with your best customers can be advantages for many reasons including; finding new clients, creating introductions to new business opportunities and gaining referrals that close. Every customer interaction is a potential link to a new customer so make sure you take the time to educate consumers about opportunities to make referrals and the discounts or cash payments they may receive for making an introduction or referral. A typical activity that should be done on a regular basis is to send out emails about product updates and new services that also mention the opportunity for making referrals to new customers.

It’s important that you are close with your key customers and business partners that provide the bulk of your referral business and this is best done in a setting away from the office or in traditional meetings. Key clients and partners should be wined and dined and taken care of based on the importance of the role they play in the growth of your business. There are many ways to show appreciation to a key person in your professional ecosystem. Business referrals and revenue shares are always appreciated and a great way to solidify a business relationship with a customer that helps expand your business. Additional methods for rewarding contributing players include; a nice lunch on your tab or maybe tickets to a sporting event that show your appreciation without having to directly dole out cash. Other gestures that can be much appreciated are gift certificates for nice restaurants in your local area or a weekend getaway at a nearby resort. Again make sure to reward your business ecosystem, but do so according to the value they provide for the growth of your businesses.

Ask for the Business

Many small company owners are fearful to ask directly for someone’s business when it’s actually the best way to do it. If you don’t ask, people will often think that you’re busy, have plenty of deal flow or not actively seeking new clients. Consequently the people that have great connections for you will simply not offer even though they are willing to help. Small business owners need to routinely ask customers and business associates for client referrals. By keeping a log of your communications with different customers and business relationships in your CRM system you will not need to worry about feeling like you are asking the same person too frequently. It’s critical that you remain in the forefront of your business acquaintances’ minds in order for them to remember you and your company when they interact with someone that could use your product or service. Send birthday cards, make occasional calls and drop by to say “hello” to key customers and people your business interacts with in order to keep those relationships fresh and relevant.

Every small business owner needs to maximize their business and customer relations in order to reach the next customer or next hot lead. Make sure to reward your ecosystem for providing quality leads that close and don’t be afraid to ask for business or client referrals.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

Positive Customer Support Attracts More Business from Existing Clients

A joint venture marketing partnership gets a business and their line of products and/or services in front of new customers, but failure to execute satisfactorily will kill the deal. If you are unable to properly service the inflow of customers and ensure satisfied clients than the partnership flow of hot leads will dry up and many partners may walk away from the deal if they feel customers have been impacted negatively.

The biggest fear of any joint venture partner is how there customers will be treated from the start of the sales cycle to the delivery of the goods or services and any issues that may arise in between. No one wants to be the person that recommends a company only for that person to have an unpleasant experience. This needs to be a number one priority for heavily sales focused organizations that have teams constantly pushing for the next deal to close. Create processes in the exchange between partners to make sure customers are followed up with on specific time intervals post sales transaction to ensure any issues are resolved quickly and efficiently.

Ticket System for Issues

Depending on the size of the partner businesses and the number of potential customers it is wise to have a ticket system in place for reporting issues. This system should be made available to all partners for the purpose of responding to customer service issues as they arise in order to make sure they’re handled in an efficient and timely manner. There’s nothing worse then being a customer with a problem and feeling like you are contacting a black hole. Create an online email form where customers can fill out requests or ask questions. Make sure the online ticket system has an automated response to reassure the customer that their issue has been received and will be addressed soon.

Log Problems & Update During Meetings

Logging all customer problems should be mandatory in the partnership agreement so that both parties can improve the customer experience. Both partner companies should be seeking clients that will actively refer their business based on a smooth and professional customer service experience. During meetings with partners resolving customer complaints and problems with service should be addressed without delay and if there is a string of issues that stem from a single problem do not wait to address the problem at a later date get it fixed immediately. It can be easy to avoid making changes to personal or procedures, but that’s why any partnership needs to start slow and work out any kinks between the two companies servicing the customer together.

Reward Excellent Customer Service

If you have an employee that is repeatedly acknowledged by customers as especially helpful, make sure to reward that employee in a way that fits your company’s culture. Whether it’s a small bonus or gift certificate, employees that go above and beyond to provide excellent service deserve recognition for the work they’re putting in. Resolving customer problems and dealing with issues that the sales team may have not been clear about can be difficult on a customer support team member. For this reason it’s extremely important to do everything possible to make sure the marketing and sales pitches are consistent across the board.

Take the time to make consumers feel special and you’ll be rewarded with long term customers that ultimately assist you in attracting new business by their referrals. Failure to provide consistent and excellent customer service will only cost your business in the long run by losing crucial customer referrals. Spend time with your front line of customer support team to understand the issues that they’re facing repeatedly to try and resolve them from occurring altogether in the future.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

Find New Business through Creative Marketing Strategies

It’s critical to keep marketing activities fresh to stay connected with the market and find new business for you and your joint venture marketing partners. Find initial success it may be tempting to get lazy regarding marketing activities. The following ideas are worth experimenting with depending on the product / service that you are selling. Appealing to a new market or using a new channel can be the best way to quickly grow a new base of clients. The risk is worth the reward to keep part of your marketing budget available for creative and special campaigns.

Reach a New Demographic

Certainly some businesses are very restricted in potential demographics in terms of where their products and/or services have an appeal. However; many businesses and especially consumer focused businesses have several niche demographics they can serve. Find ways to establish your brand into these available niche’s for your business to expand its reach. Adjusting the basic marketing message and approach can result in gaining new business. An observable example of a business that successfully attracted more business through reaching a new demographic are the TV ads on sports channels of male sports stars marketing weight watcher type meal solutions, a product historically advertised for women.

Participate at Major Events

Attending major business and industry events are great places to meet business leaders and decision makers within your industry. While sponsoring the largest of events is often reserved for companies that have significant resources to spend on marketing it does not mean you can’t participate in meaningful ways. Get a booth at a major event and then host an “after event” social gathering at a nice bar or hotel nearby. These are the places to meet potential business partners and people that could be become your next clients.

Start a Conversation

Engage in conversations online on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. While these sites are amazing platforms for reaching customers, be gentle in selling as most people are savvy enough to see the over selling marketing in an online post. Be a true contributor to the conversation and provide value to others that read your posts. The time spent developing credibility on industry focused forums and sites like Reddit will allow you to get away with subtle marketing through your comments, suggestions, and links that may be present in your profile.

Try a Pop Up Sale

If your business is capable of operating a pop up sale, find a few locations that will have a large number of people that fall within your target market and go to the location and set up a presence. This may simply be you in a t shirt and a handful of fliers or a full on booth that is rented from the location that you can operate as a store. Summer can be a great time to plan for a pop up store and sell your products to people that are on vacation or just enjoying the nice weather outside.

Finding a new marketing strategy or establishing a new demographic channel of customers is exciting and should be focused on by every business. Never stop experimenting and innovating with your products and services as well as your marketing strategies.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

Attract New Business by Creating Personal Connections with Business Partners and Clients

When attracting new business it is wise to build personal relationships with the people you interact with the most, whether it’s a business partner or a potential long term client. While it is important to be focused on the core business issues at hand during a conversation with a business partner or a new client, spending a few minutes to gather some personal information and being conscious of building a personal relationship will ensure that special connections can be made.

While a personal relationship does not always immediately attract new business it can be the difference in closing a deal or getting a business referral later down the road. Leverage your personal relationship in marketing strategies to reach new clients, especially through social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Focus on the most important details for a person and make them feel special to attract new business through personal relationships.

Details To Capture

During a business meeting there is often personal information that is shared either in the first few minutes before the meeting gets going or during the meeting when used to discuss a specific issue. Be aware of these details and jot them down in your notepad to record later. It’s important when meeting with someone that could be a business partner or long term client to be focused on developing a personal connection. Personal connections not only help you with the business transaction that is on the table at the time, but can assist in attracting new business down the road as well as build your own network of contacts.

The following details are often openly discussed and can be used to make a personal connection:

• Name of spouse – If someone mentions they are planning a birthday or anniversary for their spouse, write that down, if you are still doing business with that person in a year sending a message to say happy anniversary or birthday will be a surprise to them and be something that will help solidify a personal relationship.

• Special Dates – Be aware of any special days that are mentioned as being important to the person and jot this down. Can be a birthday for themselves or the kids, anniversary, or special holidays etc.

• Family names – Write down the names of children and ages also note down any specific activities. If someone mentions one of their kids is playing sports and they will be at a game that weekend, make sure to ask how Jimmy or Sally did in there game that weekend when you talk next. Showing that you care about what is important to them outside of the work environment is really important to create a relationship that is distinguishable from a standard working relationship.

• Favorite Activities – Learning what a person does in their free time gives you a reason to start off the next conversation with a topic that the person enjoys. An example would be if someone mentions that they were out fishing the previous weekend and you are meeting a few weeks later, asking if they got a chance to get out on the water shows you care to understand about what they are passionate about. This is the same if someone mentions they like going to music shows or seeing sporting events, finding out what a person enjoys and bringing it up during the informal parts of a meeting can forge the personal connection that leads to more business later.

Leverage Personal Relationships

Leveraging personal relationships in business to attract new clients is important. Most people that are active in social media and a business professional will have a LinkedIn account. Getting access to someone’s LinkedIn account by allowing them to connect with you is important even if it’s a purely business relationship. However if you can become friends with someone on Facebook the likely hood you can generate more business from them increases as most people are more reserved in who they will friend on Facebook versus LinkedIn. Depending on your business marketing strategy Facebook can be effective, but only if you have the friends that are the right people that can actually either act on the business opportunity or have people as friends that would make a business referral.

Getting your personal relationships to help attract new business for your business is the ultimate goal of spending the time necessary to build real relationships with people versus superficial ones or business only connections.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

Integrate With Business Partners to Get New Clients

Small business owners that are looking for their big break in reaching new clients quickly are wise to develop joint venture partnerships with companies that can instantly integrate their product into existing offerings. This is the type of partnership that will limit the amount of interaction a company will have with the end customer, however it drives sales numbers so it’s worth the loss in branding to partner with a top tier company that can really accelerate growth quickly.

Be conscious of who you partner with in these types of relationships. If you have developed a truly unique product the company you do business deals with may see you as a potential target for acquisition. Be sure you have the proper intellectual property documentation filed. This is a good thing for most business owners, however even at the earliest stages of a company with unique intellectual property you need to be aware of your exit strategies and how structuring a business deal leads you down different paths.

Path of Least Resistance

Going to market and acquiring customers is expensive. The purpose of a joint venture relationship is to leverage the capability of a business partner to bring new clients that are actively looking to buy a product or service. However, sometimes the path of least resistance for quickly closing new business is to integrate with a partner and allow them to sell their clients a solution that includes both you and your partner’s products and services with no difference seen by the customer.

By allowing a partner to OEM or white label your product it reduces the amount of training and education required for effective selling to new clients. Bundling a product into an existing offering allows a partner to increase their value to their customers and at the same time reward you for your innovation. These types of relationships also reduce the overhead that is required for even basic tasks like accounting and customer service. While there may be some duties required, if issues arise with the product or service these will generally be dealt with between the two companies independent of the customer.

Prepare for Growth

When doing an OEM deal with a product for a business partner that has the Rolodex of customers to quickly sell a product or service it’s important to anticipate and plan for the growth. However; it is critical for most small businesses to time the addition of new employees with the actual time they are needed to fill in. Temporary hires can always be found in a pinch through a temp agency depending on the tasks your business and the partnership will require. It’s crucial that you have a clear and open dialogue with the business partner and to start the roll out slow with a pilot program in order to give your business time to ramp up and keep up with demand.

The plan for your businesses growth if doing business with a larger Fortune 500 type company is essential to the success of the partnership. There will need to be funds available to service the demand if the business partnerships success increases faster than anticipated. Some revenue cycles for larger companies may be longer than a small business is capable of operating under without having the necessary cash for pay roll and new costs associated to the growth occurring with new clients.

Find partners that can integrate your company seamlessly and the chances for a successful partnership go up dramatically. The reduced costs involved with an OEM type relationship will increase the ROI on each relationship versus other deals that may have significant capital investments in marketing and customer support duties.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

How to Get More Clients: Hire a Business Development Expert

If your business has been struggling to get more clients in the last few months or year then consider hiring a business development expert that can find the right joint venture marketing partners that can deliver hot leads to your sales team. Many businesses can find themselves in a rut where it’s really difficult to acquire new customers. A joint venture marketing partnership can be the right strategy to get moving forward again. A business development pro will understand the process of putting together a solid business deal that can grow your company. If you feel that building a network of business partners can help grow your business in ways that are unachievable by yourself then find the right consultant or individual that you can bring in-house and do the deals that will get your company more clients.

Hire the Right Person

Hiring a business development person is different than finding a sales person for your team. While a business development expert can always play the role as sales person the opposite is not always true. A person that specifically focuses on business development will understand how to communicate potential business deals to perspective businesses in the right manner. They will understand that it is critical that a strong relationship is forged between the individuals doing the business deal and the company employees that will be involved in implementing the partnership.

Hiring a consultant or consulting firm to act as a business development team for you company is a great route for many small businesses. Many business that do not have the internal man power and capabilities to identify, engage, and do the business deals necessary for growth can benefit from a consultant or consulting firm that has access to the business decision makers or the experience necessary to reach out to companies and develop the relationships required to put together a great business deal.

While a consultants hourly rate may be higher than you’re comfortable with a deal can be put together much faster by a professional than someone trying for the first time to structure a business partnership. Consultants often will require an hourly rate or fixed salary as well as some kind of bonus structure for placing deals together which may be a single payout for each business deal that is signed or a revenue share that is paid out over a period of time based on the amount of business that is ultimately generated from the relationships. Most consultants will not work for pure commission deals unless they believe that a deal can be put together extremely fast and will generate immediate revenue. Most will want a cash payment coupled with a bonus structure. Companies that want to execute business deals with larger fortune 500 type companies should always highly consider hiring an expert that has preexisting relationships with the company that you want to do a deal with. It’s common to hire a consultant for one specific business partnership.

Managing a Business Development Team

Managing a business development team member is similar to a sales team member in many respects. It is important that as a business owner you control and own the data that is developed by the team member by making them use the corporate customer relationship management system and uploading any data and reports on potential business partners to the corporate document server. Failing to do this a common problem with companies and their sales teams and even more so with business development professionals as the relationships they have and bringing to the table are often held tightly and not given up easily.

If you are hiring an outside consultant there may be specific clauses in the agreement about who owns what data. This is something to be aware of as it can be very frustrating to be a month or two in developing a new business partner and have a person leave and take the contact information and data with them leaving you in a tough place to continue. It’s critical to recognize that a business development team member is going to need to spend time out of the office meeting with companies, going to business events and other functions that may be fruitful in finding and meeting the right business partners, however if you are paying for someone to be at an event then make sure the business cards that are collected get scanned and retained by the company.

If you have decided that in order to get more clients your business needs to develop strategic business partners than consider outsourcing the work to a consultant or hiring a business development expert in order to speed up the process. Avoid taking team members off their existing duties or forcing yourself to forge the relationships by yourself and add more duties to your already exhausting schedule.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

Attract New Clients with Regional Partners

If your business is looking to attract new clients through joint venture partnerships, identifying businesses that have significant market share in a specific region is an excellent way to tap new markets that otherwise are impenetrable. Leveraging partners in hot markets whether that it’s a city, state, or country is the fastest way to reach communities of potential new clients.

Developing a regional or locally focused strategy for joint venture marketing partnerships will generally mean working with smaller businesses versus large national or international corporations which require specific techniques to make successful. Small business owners may be less inclined to risk hurting their existing client base by introducing a partner’s products or services but due to their specific market intelligence and the close relationships with your target customers, once a partnership is crafted new business should close quickly.

Finding Regional Partners

If your company has made the decision to attempt to attract new clients with regional joint venture marketing partners than it’s important to create a database of potential partners. There are several sources that can be used including online and offline methods. A few of the best locations to find information about what companies exist in the markets you are seeking are:

Yelp - There is loads of business listed in Yelp. Search for the types of companies that are perfect fits for your business based on the industry and then by city for the regions that you are pursuing. Make sure and review the ratings and comments about the business.

 

Trades Shows – Finding regional partners by attending industry trade shows is an excellent way to not only find which small business exist in the space, but it’s also a great opportunity to meet and discuss potential partnerships with business development professionals that often attend trade shows for companies. Reviewing trade show websites and looking through the list of attending businesses can also help you identify which regional businesses are out there.

 

Outsource Business Development - Hire a local person to assist with the legwork of finding the right potential partners. By working with a person that resides in the location that you want to take your business into is an excellent way to tap local knowledge and get personal introductions and referrals to likely candidates.

 

Benefits for Small Business Partners

Make sure that you have fully thought out what the benefits are that a partnership with your business grants to a small business partner. Small businesses are likely to be extremely cost conscious concerning exploring a potential new partnership. Most small businesses will not have a person that is dedicated entirely to creating partnerships with other business and so you’ll be taking time away from a sales person or executive management right away when discussing a partnership strategy. Due to this fact it is vital that you have a carrot to offer to small business owners so they can see how a new relationship will generate revenue quickly. Partnerships not able to attack “low hanging fruit” which result in immediate ROI for a small business will be less likely to succeed or turn into a long lasting relationship.

Including marketing support resources will help a small business owner look favorably on your idea of developing a business relationship. While it is essential that you attract new clients for your own business, a partner will often be looking for opportunities to attract new business for themselves as well. That is of course unless the revenue share involved in the partnership is so good that it does not matter, however most small businesses will want to grow there number of clients as well. Marketing support can be as limited as just providing the basic marketing collateral already printed and prepared to be handed out to existing clients.

Finding the right local partners is a great way to build a roster of new clients in a specific region, but make sure that your small business partners are well taken care of and can see an ROI in a short time frame. If you can deliver to a small business partner it can be your greatest ally in a new market, however failing to be conscious of their specific interests and resources can see a partnership deteriorate before getting off the ground.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

Find New Clients for a Joint Venture Partner with Classified Ads

joint venture marketing

joint venture marketing

Finding new clients that can take advantage of an offering from a new joint venture partner can sometimes be a challenge. Posting ads on classifieds sites like Craigslist and BackPage.com can be a successful marketing strategy. It’s always critical to help drive immediate business for a new partner to demonstrate a commitment to the partnership. Classified ads can be an excellent source of new clients to refer over to a partner.

There are specific strategies required to implement in order to have a successful classifieds marketing strategy. Work with a designer to create attractive ads. For certain products and services it’s advisable to create specific landing pages to help educate the market. It’s recommended you create tracking mechanisms to ensure that data can be provided to the partner to show numbers of impressions and sales that result from classified ad campaigns to evaluate whether it is an appropriate channel for marketing the partners’ products and services.

Create a Killer Advertisement and Title

Working with a graphic designer to develop an eye catching ad is the most critical aspect of a classified ad campaign for attracting new clients. It’s always recommended that you use images in the ad, as this will capture the attention of anyone that clicks on the ad. If the person clicking the ad does not become instantly connected through the images then they will most likely continue searching and not even read the words on your advertisement.

A header that captures the reader’s attention and makes them ask a question that is then answered in the bullet points below is a proven strategy to drive click-throughs to learn more from your website. The goal of a classified ad should not be to fully educate the market about the product or service, but get them interested in learning more to lead them to the landing page that has been created. Include in any online advertisement the contact information that’s required to not only learn more information through the web in the form of a link but also a phone number or email address to get in touch directly with a sales representative.

A Landing Page to Sell

Create a landing page that has additional information for the potential new client to read through if they‘re interested in the product. A landing page can be a main website but generally for a joint venture marketing relationship it is best if a special landing page is created so it’s easier to generate analytic reports to provide to a partner, demonstrating the effectiveness of the marketing activities. Aside from core information required to learn about the product or service a contact form should be an important part of any landing page. The leads that are generated from a landing page can then be pursued in several different ways from a sales rep making a phone call to sending additional product brochures or promotions through email or physical mail.

Set a VOIP Phone Number for Each Campaign

Using a VOIP phone service from a company like 8×8 allows a business to set up different phone lines for each marketing campaign so it is easy to track phone calls that come through classified ad campaigns. VOIP phone lines are relatively cheap and it’s easy to associate a specific number for ads that go on Craigslist, Backpages or for any other number of classified sites.

Outsource the Posting of Ads

If the product or service can be sold in many different markets than it can become a very labor intensive job to post hundreds of ads a day that may be required to maximize the partner opportunity. Reach out to overseas labor that can post the ads and corresponding titles to the right categories. It may take a little bit of time to create the right posting team, but after they are in place it can be a long term lead generator for new potential clients.

Experiment with online classified ad campaigns to find new clients for a joint venture partner. This is an excellent way to consistently drive new leads that are actively looking for something new. If the campaign is set up correctly with tracking components built in, it is a great strategy to pursue right away with any new joint venture partners that have a product or service that fits with the categories of online classified sites.

christian fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A joint venture marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Discover more joint venture marketing Strategies join his free report on joint venture marketing.

joint venture marketing

joint venture marketing

Host an Educational Seminar to Attract New Clients

joint venture marketing

joint venture marketing

Reaching out to potential customers through a joint venture marketing partner by hosting an educational seminar is an effective way to attract new clients. There are a couple of ways to set up and host a seminar in order to get in front of new customers, the most popular being a meeting in person or a webinar that is done over the web. It’s essential when preparing to host a seminar that the focus of the seminar is a topic that will be of interest to the audience and be educational about the topic versus a pure business pitch selling a product or service. Remember to capture the content created during the seminar in order to use it for future marketing activities. Work closely with partners to craft exciting and interesting topics that will strengthen both companies’ brands with the target audience and consider opening the events up to anyone that may be interested as another channel for attracting new clients for both companies in the partnership.

Meet Up or Webinar to Attract New Clients

The first major decision that needs to be made when considering to host an educational seminar with a joint venture partner is whether the event should be a real in-person meeting or done through the web in the form of a webinar. There are pros and cons for both and here are few of the most common differences and items to be aware of when making a decision.

A meeting in person is beneficial because a face-to-face interaction allows for a much different relationship to form with potential clients versus an online exchange. It also allows provides more structure for the seminar and can be planned around a breakfast, lunch, or dinner which is often appreciated by people attending. If setting up an in-person seminar, then it’s also important to have marketing collateral prepared and printed as well as product samples on site if relevant. Live seminars should be video recorded in order to be used online later for building a library of interesting information for other future potential customers that are also interested in learning about the topic of the seminar. The biggest drawback for a live meeting are the costs associated with hosting such an event, especially if a location needs to be rented to host the seminar and the seminar is restricted to only a specific geographic area. However, if a partner has a conference room or larger meeting space that can be utilized and the number of potential clients in a specific area warrants a seminar in person then it should be highly considered.

An online webinar is a very effective method to reach many potential customers very easily. This is the best method if the customer base is spread over a large region. Depending on the platform that is chosen for hosting the webinar, the host can still share marketing collateral, PowerPoint presentations, and links with the audience. A webinar is generally easier to record, share or publish to the web and many webinar platforms have this capability built into the product.

Utilize Social Media to Maximize Seminars

Maximize your decision to host a seminar for a joint venture marketing partner’s existing clients by opening the seminar up to the public and promoting it through both company’s social media accounts. An industry related educational seminar should always be looked at as a way for both companies to increase their presence with potential customers. If a live seminar is being recorded it can also be streamed live so anyone that is not able to attend in-person can still attend via the web. Services like Ustream and Justin.tv allow for anyone to easily live stream video from the event. If your event is open to the public you can promote it through sites like MeetUp.com or eventful.com. Make sure that all partners promote seminars through their Facebook and Twitter accounts as well as through more traditional means such as mailers, email, phone calls, and personal recommendations to attend.

Remember when hosting an educational seminar the focus should be on the topic at hand for the majority of the event and through providing interesting and relevant information. The goal is to be seen as an industry expert that can help the potential customers which will ultimately attract new clients. Spending too much time directly pitching a product or service can be a hindrance to developing relationships with potential customers and be a turn off, so go easy with the pitch and have fun educating people about a topic that can be presented with passion.

christian fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A joint venture marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Discover more joint venture marketing Strategies join his free report on joint venture marketing.

joint venture marketing

joint venture marketing

Establish a Strong Presence to Get Clients Online

A joint venture marketing partnership can help promote a brand or product to a large customer base, but in order to get clients online it’s important to have a strong online presence with positive remarks from many thought leaders in an industry across many different online communities. It is not easy to quickly build a very visible brand online as most savvy Internet users rely on many different websites and personal recommendations to assist their decision making process when evaluating a new product or service. For most industries there are several places that are important for a business to have a strong brand.

The following are all sites that should be considered for creating content to achieve the product awareness that is required to get clients online. While a joint venture is extremely important for getting a name into a customer’s mind, most people will initiate at least a basic Google search for making even small purchases and will go deep in Google if the purchase is of a significant dollar value. A business person doing their proper due diligence before making a purchase will often go to at least a few of the following locations looking for additional information, personal product / service reviews and search for both positive and negative opinions. It’s common knowledge that it often takes multiple marketing approaches to reach an end customer and close the deal, so prepare for the momentum that can occur with the promotion provided by a joint venture partner.

Social Networks

Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google Plus are all important to utilize to develop a strong brand presence in order to get more clients online. Small businesses may only have the capability to set up a simple profile with the business owner promoting the product or service to their personal networks within these sites. Larger companies are capable of setting up more complex campaigns with larger groups of people participating with their brand online, but regardless of a business’s capability to fully capitalize on the benefits of social networking, avoiding them altogether can damage the online brand by simply not showing up at all. When a partner recommends a product or service to their customers it is important that the customer can find more information about the company when searching on their preferred social network site.

Business Listing Sites

Yelp, Google Places (which is combined with Google Maps), and the Better Business Bureau are all important locations to have a basic presence. It only takes a few minutes to go through the processes of signing up and claiming the business as your own if you are the business owner. This allows for customizing the profile and providing additional information that’s important for customers to find. Failing to go through the claim process will not mean the company does not show up on these sites, as they still will if the business has been around for more than a few days and has an active website, is incorporated, etc. However it will mean that an opportunity to craft the message customers receive about the company is lost. These sites all have a high likely hood of showing up in the top natural Google search results if a potential online client is searching for more information after hearing about the business through a joint venture partner recommendation, so take advantage of that by building out a strong profile.

News & Information

Creating basic press releases and developing a process for promoting newsworthy information through press release distribution sites like PRLeap, Reddit and Digg which are news aggregation sites and Quora or Yahoo Answers will help get broader community opinions about the product and service. While social networks and business listings are easier to control and manage, news sites have the capability to provide reader opinions which can be positive if done right and negative if done incorrectly.

Getting news stories indexed within Google news can be frustrating at first, but can be achieved through several PR websites for a fee. When participating in News Aggregation sites and Question and Answer sites it’s best not to over sell and to be supportive of the community in general rather than just talking about a specific product or service in order to build the credibility from others within a specific industry. Use industry expertise and knowledge to build a strong brand online through these sites which will result in getting more clients online.

Develop a strong brand online to reinforce the positive impacts of joint venture marketing campaigns. By developing a strong online brand a company will not only ensure that a joint venture marketing activity is more successful, it can also be a catalyst for acquiring JV marketing partners and thus should be an integral part of any efforts to develop a strong JV marketing business model.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

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