Branding Styles

This is a topic that can easily get overlooked or discussed too late in the process — which is why I am discussing this early in this article. Work out the style guides of your content. This can take some work especially if your partners have wildly different design and color choices for their brands. But it’s done all the time so just work it out ahead of time and you will be much happier as content comes together.

Create a Plan, Together

Who’s doing what? Who manages what? Are their point people for specific tasks like choosing media and curating and editing images? Is there a talented copy writer that writes all the copy?

What are the expectations for milestones and the completion of content assets?

Don’t forget to look at special days of the year (boy there are a lot of them) and holidays for specific content strategies.

The end of the year is a perfect time to go into turbo mode on collaboration. It can help you stand out from all the other content too.

Create a Joint Sweepstakes

Create a sweepstakes with your partners. I did this frequently in the musical instrument industry. Working with partners allowed us to create a really valuable prize package of a guitar, amp, microphones, etc. Just make sure your audience knows what they are opting in to and how many companies are getting the email lists.

Host Webinars or Joint Demonstration/Q & A Sessions

This can be a great way to pull in multiple audiences interested in all of your offerings and allow people to ask questions in real time. Plus you can share the video after the fact and each organization can post it in a variety of places.

Don’t Forget Influencers

Influencers can be valuable collaborators if their values and audiences align with yours. Make sure you have an agreement that you can also repurpose the content on your channels too since good influencers can create some excellent content.

Alignment is Crucial

By having alignment each organization can work together but also work separately to create content that works for all of you.

Review the Data with Your Collaborators

Review the data and performance together. Your real time insights communicating together can be very valuable for insights and generating new ideas. Try to enforce the team approach especially for at least six months even though it’s more time consuming

Think Outside the Social Media Bubble

Where else can you use this collaborative approach? Educational articles can be more powerful. Combining offerings for promotional campaigns can show excellent value. Brick and mortar events can sometimes work to meld digital with physical revenue.

The Power of Many

Obviously these two articles can’t cover all the basics in collaborative marketing but hopefully it motivates you to create those partnerships and work them for bigger success for all of you.