Cross-promotion definition:
Cross-promotion is a marketing strategy where two or more brands collaborate to promote each other’s products or services. This strategy aims to reach a broader audience and leverage the strengths and customer bases of the partnering brands.
Have you ever noticed how some brands magically appear alongside others, creating a buzz that’s hard to miss? That’s the art of cross-promotion – a strategy as old as marketing itself, yet constantly evolving.
Cross-promotion marketing happens around us all the time. You can see it everywhere. It’s that McDonald’s Happy Meal promoting the latest blockbuster hit. It’s that box of cereal sponsoring an Olympic athlete.
As you can see, there are a lot of businesses that cross-promote. Monster, Skittles, Toyota, and NASCAR are all cross-promoting themselves simultaneously.
But if cross-promotion isn’t anything new, why are we talking about it?
Glad you asked! Traditionally, large-scale cross-promotion was something that big business did. Aside from the occasional event sponsorship, local businesses usually focus on advertising. Collaborating with other brands was an afterthought.
But the industry has changed. Running a successful eCommerce store is easier than ever.
Anyone can build a virtual store with a platform like Shopify or WooCommerce. All you need is a good idea and a good product. And with marketing tools and social media management tools, connecting with similar companies is much easier.
This means that anyone can lay the groundwork for a successful cross-promotion campaign by
- Establishing a well-known brand.
- Building relationships with other businesses.
But first, you have to start. That’s where we come in. Because we’re about to give you the inside scoop of cross-promotion, free of charge. So, don’t go anywhere until you read these cross-promotion ideas. That way, you’re prepared to launch the perfect marketing campaign.
- What is Cross-Promotion?
- Benefits of Cross-Promotion
- Getting Started With Cross Promotion
- How to Cross-Promote
What is Cross-Promotion?
At its core, cross-promotion is about partnership and mutual benefit. It’s when two or more businesses promote each other’s products or services to their respective target audiences. Think of it as a marketing tag team where each partner brings their strengths to the table.
Unlike traditional advertising, cross-promotion is inherently collaborative. It’s not just about brand awareness; it’s about creating value for both the businesses involved and their customers.
This collaborative nature often leads to more authentic and engaging marketing efforts.
Remember the Spotify and Uber partnership? When you could control the music in your Uber ride through Spotify? That’s cross-promotion at its finest – seamless, innovative, and enhancing the user experience for both sets of customers.
Benefits of Cross-Promotion
The following are the reasons why cross-promotion is important for your business:
1. Cost-Effectiveness
One of the biggest draws of cross-promotion is how cost-effective it is. This fall MonsterInsights did a webinar with OptinMonster. The result? Increased foot traffic for both of us, with minimal marketing spend.
2. Reaching New Audiences
Cross-promotion opens doors to new audiences. OptinMonster collaborates with partner brands to co-create a series of posts, and our combined audiences doubled our usual reach, bringing fresh eyes to both our content.
3. Building Partnerships and Networks
It’s not just about the immediate marketing win; it’s also about building lasting relationships. These partnerships can evolve into a supportive network, crucial for long-term business growth.
4. Enhanced Credibility
When a well-respected brand vouches for you, it lends credibility to your business. The endorsement is worth more than any ad could pay.
Getting Started With Cross Promotion
You should follow the key steps below to effectively integrate cross-promotion into your business strategy and reap its benefits.
1. Conduct Your Own Research
Know a brand that really complements your product?
Are they a competitor? If not, see if they’re interested in working together. There are many influencers, non-profits, and businesses out there. And many would jump at an opportunity to collaborate with another brand.
If you’re not someone that networks, reaching out to brands probably sounds tough. The good news is that the days of cold-calling are gone. You can use social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to connect with businesses in your industry.
In fact, you don’t even have to stick to your industry. As long as you see an opportunity for you and another brand to work together, go for it. Just steer clear of competitors.
If you need some help conducting research, we’ve got a great article on competitor research tools you’ll find interesting. Don’t let the name fool you. Many of those tools can be used to research collaborators as well. One platform you may find especially helpful is SEO PowerSuite.
You can use their LinkAssistant tool to research and build connections with companies. It’s really helpful, so go check it out.
2. Build Relationships With Other Brands
By now, you probably understand the importance of researching potential partners. So, it’s time to actually start making those connections.
Don’t go messaging everyone under the sun just yet. You want to keep these cross-promotion tips in mind as you scout prospects:
- Don’t venture too far away from your brand. First, make sure that prospective companies share similar customers to your own. Otherwise, your cross-promotion efforts will likely fall short.
- Be cautious when building relationships. Don’t jump into a partnership with just anyone. First, do a bit of research on the company and see how they fit into your brand image. Do they share the same core values? Are they well-liked? These are important things to consider before associating with another company.
- Start with a plan. Every successful marketing campaign needs a plan. Your cross-promotion efforts aren’t any different. Before diving into your partnership, decide how long this cross-promotion campaign will last. Determine what products will be marketed, and how.
Need some help building cross-promotional marketing connections? Don’t worry, there’s an app for that. It’s called Madneto
Madneto markets itself as the first-ever cross-promotional tool for businesses. While we can’t verify that, one thing’s for certain. It’s great for finding business partners and managing cross-promotion campaigns. Plus, it offers a free 3-month trial. So, give it a try and see how you find it.
How to Cross-Promote
1. Co-Host a Webinar or Podcast Series
3. Offer Discounts for Partners
4. Take Your Cross-Promotion Strategy to Social Media
7. Build a Presence on Other Platforms
8. Email Marketing Partnerships
Once you’ve got the relationship building out of the way, it’s time to put in the work. This is where things can get a little tricky. Just having your name mentioned by another company isn’t enough. Customers need to believe your collaboration is more than just a marketing opportunity. Otherwise, you’re not getting the cross-promotion benefits you hoped for.
In short, your collaboration needs to be meaningful. It’s more than a shout out. It’s an opportunity to team up with another brand and create something bigger and better.
Here are eight cross-promotion strategies:
1. Co-Host a Webinar or Podcast Series
Share expertise in a joint webinar or workshop, providing value to both customer bases. For example, an interior designer and furniture store could partner up to discuss home remodeling.
2. Write an Ebook Together
Ebooks are actually a really great way to share more information in your area of expertise. Who doesn’t love an informative ebook, after all? Just ask LiveChat.
After creating an ebook with a marketing company, The Chat Shop, they experienced an uptick in customer engagement.
3. Offer Discounts for Partners
Discounts and promo codes are great for driving sales. Everyone loves a deal!
So, why not use discounts to promote your partners (and give them a chance to promote you)? Create a lead generation campaign that advertises your partner’s discounts and deals upon conversion. And have them run the same campaign for you. That way, everyone’s products get promoted.
Best of all, you and your partner companies can create these campaigns in a few short minutes. All you need is OptinMonster. That’s because OptinMonster’s drag and drop feature makes it easy to make beautifully crafted optins.
You can use it to:
- Grow your mailing list.
- Target cart abandoners.
- Create coupons.
For your cross-promotion strategy, you’d be creating coupons for your partners. And you’d give those coupons to visitors that complete your optin. You grow your mailing list, your partner receives buzz around their product. Everyone wins.
You can even go the extra mile and make your discounts reciprocal. That means that you and your partners honor each other’s coupons. Your coupon works with participating companies and vice versa.
4. Take Your Cross-Promotion Strategy to Social Media
One of the easiest cross-promotion tips we can give you is to use social media to the fullest. Don’t create a social media presence on one site. Establish yourself on all popular social media platforms.
But the trick to cross-promoting on social media is to be different on each platform. For example, you could
- Use your Twitter account for engaging with customers.
- Post articles and in-depth content on Facebook.
- Share downloadable material on Pinterest.
- Partner with a complementary business to host a giveaway or contest on social media. Each partner can contribute to the prize pool, attracting a wider audience.
- Swap guest posts or share each other’s content on social media platforms to reach new audiences.
The idea is to create a niche on each platform so that people have a reason to visit all your accounts.
Oh, and don’t forget to share images of your partners’ brands as well. Share their content. Write meaningful reviews of their products. Give them a shout out from time to time.
This is a great way to share your network with your business partners. And if they return the favor, which they should, then you should see an influx of social media traffic as well.
5. Create Bundle Deals
This cross-promotion tip only works if you and your partner are in a similar industry.
A good way to drive sales and create awareness around you and your partner’s brands is through bundle deals. Here’s a picture of a bundle from Amazon taken from The Dot Store.
The main product is the headphones, but the other 2 items actually enhance the headphones. That’s why they’re all sold together. You can apply this concept to your cross-promotion campaign by creating bundles using your partners’ products. For example, if you’re an online florist and your business partner owns a bakery, the two of you could sell gift baskets to customers. You provide the flowers, they provide the treats that go in the basket.
You could even offer discounts to improve sales. When the customer buys your item, they can buy your partners’ items at a discount.
6. Start a Referral Program
According to Neilsen research, 92% of people trust product recommendations from people in their peer group.
In other words, referrals coming from friends, family members, and co-workers are incredibly effective. In fact, they’re arguably one of the best ways to promote your company.
This makes sense when you think about it. Customers want authentic reviews coming from unbiased, third-party people. This is similar to the reason influencer marketing became popular—we value authenticity above everything else.
And with a rewards program, you can take advantage of this and overhaul your cross-promotion strategy. Start tracking the people who share your product with their friends and family, and reward those who sign up new members.
With OptinMonster, you can create discount coupons and give them to people who bring in referrals.
You can also use OptinMonster’s Referrer Detection feature to automate your referral program. That’ll help you target visitors that come through your site on a specific traffic source, like a landing page linked to your referral program.
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how you run your referral program. Just make sure you’re rewarding loyal customers. Turning customers into brand advocates is one of the best cross-marketing strategies around.
7. Build a Presence on Other Platforms
If you want to maximize your cross-promotion benefits, you need to step out of your comfort zone. And by that, we mean exploring new platforms.
One obvious way to do this is to strengthen your social media presence, which we covered earlier. But that’s not the only way you can market your brand. Here are some other cross-promotion ideas to establish yourself on other platforms:
- Offer to write guest posts for sites like Huffington Post and Inc.com.
- Create content and engage in discussions on blogging platforms like Medium and Tumblr.
- Promote your brand on messaging services.
This will help you adopt a multichannel marketing approach. That’s when you use multiple platforms to engage with followers and customers.
Use OptinMonster as your go-to lead generating solution. You’ll have no problem going multichannel.
That’s because OptinMonster lets you connect your optins to Facebook Messenger. This lets you engage with customers on a new marketing channel that’s just starting to show its full potential. And we’re being serious when we say potential. On average, marketing through Facebook Messenger gives you 60-70% open rates within your first hour.
Check out our Chatbot feature. You could easily have it up and running by the time it takes to brew a pot of coffee.
8. Email Marketing Partnerships
Promote each other’s products, services, or events in your email newsletters. Send out emails specifically designed to highlight the partnership and its benefits to customers.
Remember, the key to successful cross-promotion is finding a partner whose business complements yours and whose audience aligns with your target market. The collaboration should feel natural and beneficial to both parties, as well as to the customers.
Exploit the Power of Cross-Promotion With OptinMonster
To truly capitalize on the potential of cross-promotion, having the right tools at your disposal is essential. This is where OptinMonster comes into play.
OptinMonster is a leading conversion optimization toolkit that can supercharge your cross-promotional efforts. Whether you’re looking to grow your email list, improve website conversions, or create targeted campaigns, OptinMonster provides a suite of tools to help you easily achieve these goals.
With its user-friendly interface, you can create stunning opt-in forms, floating bars, and full-screen welcome mats that capture your audience’s attention. These tools are handy when promoting joint ventures, special offers, or co-created content with your cross-promotion partners.
OptinMonster’s advanced targeting features allow you to display these campaigns to specific audience segments, ensuring the right people see the right message at the right time.
Moreover, OptinMonster’s analytics capabilities enable you to track the success of your cross-promotional campaigns, giving you valuable insights into what’s working and what can be improved. This data-driven approach ensures that your cross-promotion strategies are creative, collaborative, and grounded in real results.
So, as you embark on your next cross-promotional adventure, consider how OptinMonster can help you turn your collaborative visions into tangible successes.
Create High Converting Optin Campaigns Today!
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