Congrats, you’ve made it to the final installment of this marketing mini-series.  Hopefully by this point you’ve familiarized yourself with the thinking behind strategic alliances (Part 1) and browsed some of their more common varieties.  These include licensing, sponsorship, and ingredient branding (Part 2) and well as joint promotions and co-marketing (Part 3).

It’s important to stress once again that these five types aren’t the only options.  For instance, some are natural outputs of even deeper business transactions, such as joint ventures.  When multiple companies partner to introduce a new, independent entity, they each need to apply their full slate of promotional resources against their investment.

Take Hulu.  The digital service began as a joint venture between Fox and NBC (with other partners hopping on later).  Hulu grew its subscriber base by 48% in 2018 alone thanks to the group’s aggressive content and advertising strategy.  A united push will be all the more important as the streaming wars intensify.

Regardless of arrangement type, alliance members face a possible 1 + 1 = 3 scenario.  The question then becomes how to best message their offer to the market.  After all, awesomeness means nothing if it’s poorly communicated.  Strategic alliances have enormous potential upside if all partners are:

• Transparent with one another about their objectives
• Fully committed to supporting the initiative
• Clear in positioning the combined value proposition of their offer

This requires cooperative sales and marketing execution.  Keep in mind the following 10 guidelines when co-developing a communication strategy.

1. Clear articulation of the offer’s value proposition is critical. This is especially true for combinations that may not seem logical on the surface (e.g., Ford and Eddie Bauer).  If your target audience doesn’t understand the connection, your offer will fall on deaf ears.
2. Successful businesses have a strong understanding of the needs, pain points, and behaviors of their audiences, right? Well, successful partnerships work the same way.  Take time to get inside the heads of your partner’s customer base.  You’ll need to position the offer in a way that appeals to both theirs and yours.
3. If your customer base is segmented, be selective about where and how you play up your alliance. It simply may not be a good fit for everyone you’re trying to reach.  Focus resources on the group or groups that would be most receptive to the joint offer.
4. Leave your ego at the door. All marketers have their strengths and weaknesses, so be honest about what you bring to the table.  A sound go-to-market plan uses complementary parts to minimize its limitations.  Decide ahead of time who leads on ATL media, who drives content marketing, and so on.
5. Not only do you and your partner bring different strengths into play, you could also bring unique marketing channels. You may have a track record of wildly successful direct mail campaigns while your partner excels in the digital space.  Be creative with your mix to reach buyers in new and unexpected ways.
6. Consistency is key to avoid confusion and frustration. This is particularly important with your calls to action.  Instructions should be clear about where you want people to go, what you want them to do, whom they should turn to for what (i.e., you or your partner), and the like.
7. SEO is all the rage these days, and deservedly so. Work with your partner on optimizing website language and architecture to make it as easy as possible for people to find your offer in search engines.
8. Social media can be a blessing or a curse depending on how you approach it. Whether you use these platforms for purely promotional purposes, or for other things like customer service, be sure to collaborate closely with your partner on the conversation.
9. Many marketers claim that measurement is a priority, but few actually do it. Even fewer do it well.  Partnerships are great opportunities for testing since there are so many more marketing channels to track between you and your partner.  Take advantage of the supersized menu to find the right language and positioning for maximum results.
10. Be creative. New partnerships equal new opportunities to make a splash.  You can’t do that just by dipping your toe, so go for the cannonball.

Are you considering a new strategic alliance as part of your sales and marketing plan?  Is it time to revamp communications and inject new life into an existing partnership?  Take a page out of other brands’ playbooks and factor in the above best practices to give yourself a solid launching pad for growth.

Let’s chat about how we can turn your alliance into a more effective sales tool.