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.

Attract New Clients Utilizing Unique Landing Page Website

If your business has many different products and services available, attracting new clients can sometimes be a challenge. When you need to target a specific demographic then an online campaign can result in the traffic you need to close new business. To be effective you’ll need to have a well-designed landing page for the web traffic to land on. This is the best way to ensure that all of your online marketing activities are focused to close the deal when they lead to the landing page. Use a low cost solution from the web hosting company when purchasing a new domain address that is relevant to the product or marketing campaign and start building a page. This can be a very cost effective method to allow your brand to represent itself in unique ways to online clients. Send traffic from your Facebook and Twitter accounts to your landing page or purchase relevant keyword advertising from Google to target people searching for a solution precisely like you offer.

Purpose of Landing Page

A landing page should answer the immediate questions for a potential new client that’s interested in the products and services you have available. Basic information and pricing on the product should be the primary focus of the landing page. Be sure to include how to get in touch with someone from your company either by phone or through a live chat system. It’s best to have a trained professional responding to a person’s questions immediately it will increase the success of your landing page in generating new business.

A landing page can be as simple as a single web page that has the basic details necessary on it for the marketing campaign with directions to the main company website and relevant contact details. Another popular method of building domain specific landing pages for marketing purposes is to use a blog platform like WordPress. Use a plugin for making a sticky post. Then you’ll just need to sticky the first post and continue to write relevant content that is published on your blog. This is a great way to not only provide the right first impression for the marketing campaign, but also generate content required for natural SEO rankings.

Engage Through a Landing Page

A landing page is your opportunity to grasp a new client’s attention whether they came to the site through a recommendation on LinkedIn, Facebook, or a Google Adwords click.  It’s now or never as people browsing the web tend to click away quickly if they are not immediately interested.  It’s generally a good idea to not have flash or any heavy graphics that might slow a page down from loading immediately for the user. Generally just forgoing using flash will eliminate page loading problems for most visitors. It’s also a good idea to have a video as an option to either click play on or to have as an additional link off the page as many people enjoy learning about new products and services by watching a short video and demo versus reading an article. Have a contact form and the option to like a Facebook Page, follow on Twitter and other methods of capturing the person’s attention in the future.

Close the Deal

New clients that have visited a landing page and either started a web chat or initiated a phone call will always be the hot leads and the easiest new business to close. By offering a few different avenues for a person to stay in touch with your business whether it is Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Linkedin, or through your company newsletter you have the capability to get business in the future by continuing to establish your brand.

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 with a Monthly or Quarterly Partner Promotion

Attracting new business through a joint venture marketing partner can be achieved with a higher rate of success when a special price or unique product offering is available or exclusive offerings that are only available to clients of a joint venture marketing partner can be pitched by sales teams to their relationships. Discuss potential promotions with JV marketing partners and be open to their suggestions about potential promotions that will work well with planned marketing campaigns. Customers always appreciate a good deal, so use special promotions to acquire new business that is being serviced by a competitor or previously just not ready to make a buy decision.

Channels for Promotions

The following are excellent channels to use to promote a special product or service discount.

Email - Sending an email to a joint venture partner’s existing customer base should be part of any new promotion strategy. Collect emails from people that visit your website or read your companies blog and include them in your email blasts for deals.

Facebook / Twitter - Spread the news about monthly or quarterly special offerings through the social networks. Include specials or unique offerings that are only available to your online community at Facebook and Twitter.

Internal Contests - Reward sales team members of your company or from your JV partners based on their performance. Whether its cash or a nice gift, giving something special to the sales person that sells the most of a monthly or quarterly promotion can help drive more success from the team as a whole.

Online Deal Shopping Sites – If the products and services are consumer facing then consider listing any deals developed with a joint venture marketing partner on sites like SlickDeals.net or FatWallet.com. Both sites allow promotions and special coupons to be listed and shared with the public.

Attract New Business

While many business partnerships use promotions to market to an existing customer base and to extract more revenue from the customers that the business already has, promotions are always a good reason to contact customers to make sure that the business is at the forefront of their customer’s minds and to continue to build strong relationships with them. However; when using a promotion specifically to attract new business, it’s wise to include some of the following techniques in your offering in order to win over new potential customers. While existing customers are always looking for savings or a unique offer, new customers are seeking a major change from their existing providers or they are new to the market and need product education and additional hand holding that an established client may not need.

Free - Include something for free in your offer regardless if it ends up being a minor detail in the overall product or service. A complimentary assessment or small item can get the new customer relationship off to a good start.

Match or Beat Competition – Promising to match or beat the competition’s price on similar items or services is an excellent way to acquire customers that are currently dissatisfied with their existing solution and open for a change even if the savings or discount is only for a limited time frame.

Time Sensitive – Using timing in a promotion can be done in a couple of different ways. Place a specific trigger date that the offering is valid through. The other way to leverage time sensitivities when attracting new business is to provide a new customer with a special discount that only lasts for a certain period of time as a reward for becoming a new customer.

Incorporate the right strategies inside of your monthly and quarterly promotions and it will be much easier for you and your JV marketing partners to attract new business. By making sure the promotions are tailored to the needs of customers that are looking for new solutions or opening to changing what they currently have, your promotions will be more likely to resonate with people that will become new business. Make sure if you’re doing promotions with business partners to extract business from their existing customer base, saving time and energy to be focused on obtaining new clients.

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.

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

Personal Introductions Attracts New Business

Joint venture marketing relationships are designed to attract new business and one of the best methods for reaching customers and closing deals is through personal introductions from a joint venture partner. These introductions can come in many different forms, but are based on the trust that exists between a company / individual and the customers. It should be the goal of every partner to leverage this trust as much as possible without crossing the line that damages the relationship to maximize a marketing partner. Depending on the partnership and the products / services that are being offered to the customers, the following three types of personal introductions will work, but one may be more effective than another based on the situation. It’s best to discuss the types of introductions that will be made while setting up a relationship with a new partner to ensure everyone is on board and committed to leveraging their trusted relationships to drive success for the partnership.

Personal Introductions – Face to Face

While a face to face meeting can be the most time consuming type of personal introduction and recommendation it is also the most likely to attract new business and result in a quick sale or at least end with the potential customer understanding the offering with any immediate questions answered. Meeting in person allows both parties to work closely to ensure that customers are satisfied and take an active role in creating a successful joint venture marketing campaign. Try and keep a face to face meeting to 30 minutes in length. Have marketing collateral that the customer can review at a later time if they have any questions. Always send an email after the meeting and CC the partner that assisted in setting up the meeting so that they are confident in the way that their customers are being handled and taken care of properly.

Personal Introductions – Sales Call

Setting up a sales team within a joint venture that will make personal introductions to an existing customer base will not only attract new business, but is an effective method of reaching many customers quickly and saving time for meetings with only the hot leads that come through the partners sales channel. Review the script that will be used for all outbound calls concerning the product or service, even if this is only a few lines for an introduction that is added into a sales person’s routine call for either new business or maintaining relationships with existing customers. If the message concerning the partnership opportunities is lacking the right hook then it will not be as successful in attracting new business so dedicate time to assisting a partner to craft the right pitch about a product or service.

Personal Introductions – Video Recommendation

While the two options above tend to be a much better solution for an introduction from a partner, sometimes a short video recommendation akin to a product testimonial from a joint venture marketing partner can be very successful at least as a supporting marketing tool to reinforce other marketing avenues. While having a person face to face or on a phone call to answer specific questions is valuable, a strong message of support from a CEO or other executive depending on the size of company can carry a lot of weight in customer’s eyes. These can be utilized as a type of validation and can be used in many different ways, even pointing non partner related customers to the video.

Attract new business utilizing a joint venture marketing partner’s ability to reach their customer base and capture their attention. Sometimes it will take many different methods to reach a customer or finally convince someone to make a call or request a meeting. It is best to have clearly defined the processes for implementing at least these three basic ways of gaining a personal introduction from a joint venture marketing partner.

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.