No marketing budget? Here’s how to make the most out of digital collaborations instead

Think it’s impossible to grow your brand without a lofty marketing budget? Think again. Therese Tarlinton knows from experience that the most effective marketing strategies involve finding the right partnerships and collaborations to leverage your growing brand — often without even spending a cent.

In the following extract from SWAP: Marketing Without Money, Tarlinton explains the power of digital partnerships.

Digital partnerships help reach new audiences

Digital partnerships allow low-cost products and promotions to be developed to reach new audiences.

The first collaboration that usually comes to mind are competitions and giveaways with brands who are aligned or have similar-sized audiences, so they can leverage each other’s community. The key is to keep it selective and authentic, otherwise people follow to enter and then unfollow as soon as they don’t win.

This type of collaboration could include a hashtag challenge such as ‘choose which house you’d want to live in’, or ‘tell us in twenty-five words or less who you’d want to take on a weekend away’. The aim is to get the audience of another account to follow you and then grow to love your brand. Social media collaborations are the quickest way to dip your toe in the partnership water. 

Gyprock partnered with Soul Home to build their new holiday property, The Pause, on the South Coast of Sydney. Part of the deal was a three-night stay giveaway. This was an Instagram competition where homeowners had to follow @gyprockliving and @thepauseau to win. With these styles of collaborations, it is not unusual to increase your following by thousands during the promotional period.

Here are some other examples:

1. Being a guest on a podcast;

2. Teaming up to deliver a webinar with other brands;

3. Creating a downloadable available on a website other than your own;

4. Delivering a course to teach a skill, for a service or how to use a product;

5. Creating content, whether it’s a video or article that talks about both brands;

6. Creating images where both brands are represented (e.g. a dress with shoes);

7. Doing a social media post that includes another brand; and

8. Recommending another brand in your electronic direct mail (EDM).

Five steps to a great digital collaboration

1. 1. Define your goal — what do you want to get out of the collaboration?

   If your goal is to increase your Instagram following, then consider what action you will take with your new followers once you get them.

   For example, you could send them a direct message (DM) with a link to a video on your website or a code that offers them a discount on your products.

2. 2. Know your value. What is a fair trade with your partner?

   If your audience size is smaller or less engaged than your partner’s audience, you can add value to the deal by doing a video about the competition or sharing it on LinkedIn.

3. 3. Have an engaging idea and execute it well

   The idea needs to be engaging for your audience but you both need to achieve your objectives. Think about HelloFresh and Jimmy Brings — a win-win value exchange. The customer is interested in bringing food and wine to their home.

4. 4. Make sure it makes sense and does not look too staged

   You should have similar target markets or demographics, or complementary industry spaces so the collaboration makes sense. For example, a vet and a dog walker, or a stylist and a clothing brand.

   I often get emails from a known Linkedin expert who recommends others who teach strategies to grow on other channels like webinars, TikTok and guest podcasts.

5. 5. Ensure you leverage beyond social media

   Think about all the marketing channels in your ecosystem — email list, email signature, podcast, LinkedIn, Facebook live, retail stores, orders in boxes. It’s important to have an agreed and mutually promoted plan, but you can always do more than you have committed to doing.

Competitions are a simple first step into collaborations. Offer up something of value or contribute to a group campaign and ask your audience to follow another company. It is easy to do and creates a different conversation with your audience. 

My favourite types of digital collaborations are when you create something of value. Try-a-little-before-you-buy is a time-tested way to gain trust with customers before you get them to buy your full product.

This is an edited extract from Therese Tarlinton’s book, SWAP: Marketing Without Money.