6 Steps to Co-branded

Marketing Success
STEPS FOR EFFECTIVELY MARKETING YOUR CO-BRANDING INITIATIVE

Benefits of a
co-branding
partnership

Immediately increase your

audience size and reach

Increase brand awareness

Drive brand recognition

Increase sales

6 Steps to Co-branded
Marketing Success

Setup

Determine
Your
Audience

Marketing
Outlets

Identify Goals

Marketing
Launch

Measurement

Negotiate marketing terms

with your partner
u

What is your company

open to?

Where does your

company draw the line?

What extras can you

think of?

Setup

Determine
Your
Audience

Marketing
Outlets

Identify Goals

Marketing
Launch

Measurement

Describe your product or

service
u

What does the combined

product look like?

Is it a new product, oer

or service?

Is it an existing product
thats getting a facelift?

Is anything getting cobranded?

Setup

Determine
Your
Audience

Marketing
Outlets

Identify Goals

Marketing
Launch

Measurement

Identify strategic opportunities

for the partnership
u

Where can you capitalize

on brand and audience
enhancement?

Where is there potential

for increased email/blog/
newsletter lists, etc.?

Setup

Determine
Your
Audience

Marketing
Outlets

Identify Goals

Marketing
Launch

Measurement

Tentative structure for your

discussions
u

Setup

Bring up timelines for

launch and production
needs these can remain
uid at this step, but its
always good to start o
with a tentative structure
to revolve your
discussions around.

Determine
Your
Audience

Marketing
Outlets

Identify Goals

Marketing
Launch

Measurement

Your audience vs. your

partners
u

Identify: Your Audience

Identify: Partners
Audience

Your partner will have

unique insights into their
audience and the type of
messaging and delivery
channels they respond to
best.

Setup

Determine
Your
Audience

Marketing
Outlets

Does your partners audience

align with your own? If not,
identify how they are
dierent.

Identify Goals

Marketing
Launch

Measurement

Determine your target

audience
u

Once you and your partner have clearly outlined your

respective audiences, determine who is your intended
audience. All marketing messaging will need to be
geared towards these specic recipients.

Put all of this into consideration when you determine

how you want to approach a new, heterogeneous
audience.

You might even want to consider having multiple

audience segments, which will allow you to send more
customized, targeted messaging.

Setup

Determine
Your
Audience

Marketing
Outlets

Identify Goals

Marketing
Launch

Measurement

10

Marketing channels
u

Setup

When determining your

marketing outlets, take
advantage of unique
channels that your
partner uses, and work
with your partner to get
their messages out
through your own
channels.

Determine
Your
Audience

Marketing
Outlets

Identify Goals

Marketing
Launch

Measurement

11

Your outlets can take the

form of:
u

Co-branded, single subject newsletter blasts

Social media mentions, re-posts and announcements

Co-authored press releases

Unique events or specialized marketing initiatives

General company news distribution and press releases

Setup

Determine
Your
Audience

Marketing
Outlets

Identify Goals

Marketing
Launch

Measurement

12

Establish your goals

u

Setup

Establishing a partnerships
marketing goals is unique
from determining a
marketing departments or
even a marketing projects
goals. Here it becomes
more tricky as you have not
one, but two or more
distinct companies to
consider, and specic goals
and metrics may dier
from company to company.
Determine
Your
Audience

Marketing
Outlets

What is important to each

company?
What are each companys
typical metrics?

Identify Goals

Marketing
Launch

Measurement

13

Metrics
u

Setup

Once youve identied

your co-branding goals,
nd a good set of metrics
that help you to gain an
understanding of the
progress of your
marketing initiatives.

Determine
Your
Audience

Marketing
Outlets

Identify Goals

Marketing
Launch

Measurement

14

Set your calendar of activities

u

Start your partnership by setting up your to-do list.

At the very least, write a list of the activities that need to

be accomplished up to and during your marketing
launch.

Outline what you are going to do and what you aim to

achieve.

Provide an overview of the messaging that applies to

each applicable step.

Setup

Determine
Your
Audience

Marketing
Outlets

Identify Goals

Marketing
Launch

Measurement

15

Set responsibilities
u

It is also very important to outline

who is responsible for each activity.
Doing this allows you to measure the
progress and performance of your
team.

It simultaneously allows you to assess

your resources.

Setup

Do you have the manpower you need?

Do you need to hire?

Determine
Your
Audience

Marketing
Outlets

Identify Goals

Marketing
Launch

Measurement

Launch your campaign

u

All of your hard work is

about to pay o!

While the campaign is

running, check in
periodically to make sure
everything is going as
planned.

Make changes in real time

as needed.

17

Its time to measure

u

The last step youre almost there!

Now its time to go back to your
goals.

As you review the goals you initially

set out to accomplish, ask yourself
this:

Setup

Have they been met?

Exceeded?

And, most importantly, why?

Determine
Your
Audience

Marketing
Outlets

Identify Goals

Marketing
Launch

Measurement

18

Conclusion
u

Setup

Hopefully this guide has given you a

practical guideline to getting your
partnership o the ground. Every
partnership is dierent, and
certainly many of these steps will be
customized to bring the most value
to you and your partnership.

Determine
Your
Audience

Marketing
Outlets

Identify Goals

Marketing
Launch

Measurement

19

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u

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