6 Ways to Use Email Partnerships to Increase Sales

Email marketing campaigns are typically limited to the people who subscribed to the company's messages. Partnering with non-competitive organizations increases exposure to offers and helps grow your email address database faster. Finding potential partners is easier than one might think. The need to provide fresh content on a regular basis opens the door for partnership development. The key to doing it well is to find organizations that cater to people who match your customer demographics. Conduct extensive research before reaching out to potential partners. When considering opportunities, clearly define your objectives, know what you have to offer, start small, and build from successful experiences. Choosing partners that have similar corporate values contributes to the trust level. Recipients who trust your partner tend to automatically trust your company and vice versa. Google OffersGoogle's promotions are designed to work with Google Plus Local. It uses email and an android app to deliver messages to the people who have joined the program. The app delivers messages to subscribers when they are close to the location of participating companies and when chosen offers are nearing expiration. Partnering with Offers is free at this time. There are minimal requirements for participation: Your business must have a physical location in the United States that serves customers, it must be verified using Google Places for Business, and the product line must be eligible. This partnership is easy to set up and cost effective. PinterestThe rich pins option for Pinterest has a new feature that sends emails to users when items they have pinned go on sale. The emails include good imagery and a simple marketing message that reads "Good news! Today your [item] pin from [company] is [discount]% less." The message is followed with a "See Pin" call to action button and "Happy Pinning!" Using rich pins is limited to movies, recipes, products and articles at this time. The products category is the only one that includes pricing making it eligible for the sale email notifications. Participation is free, but it requires oEmbed or semantic markup on your website for information collection purposes. Non-ProfitsHelping others is good for business. Non-profits have supporters that may not be familiar with your company. You have customers that may not be familiar with specific non-profits. Partnering with these organizations increases awareness of their cause and your company. When partnering with non-profits, create multichannel messages that benefit all participants. One approach is offering a discount coupon when someone donates a minimum amount to the non-profit. Make it appealing to supporters by offering savings greater than the amount donated. Your objective is to gain new customers that will stay with your company. Monitoring the activity of newly acquired customers after the initial purchase validates the partnership. If you are acquiring hit & run shoppers, a different non-profit may be a better choice. PublicationsKeeping up in a high demand for original content arena is challenging. Partnering with publications, online and off, works well for companies that offer informational products. Create mini-guides from your larger offerings that can be given to readers. Choose partners with content that matches your products well. Offering to host the distribution of the mini-guides gives you the opportunity to capture email addresses. (Test with and without gating to see which works best.) Educational OrganizationsCompanies offering products that appeal to students or parents can partner with campuses to increase exposure and capture new customers. Credit card companies have this process down to a science. Learn from their processes so you can appeal to the people participating. Choose to partner with campuses that offer degrees in the fields that match your product line. For example, if your company sells teacher supplies, choose a campus that teaches education. Giveaways, sweepstakes, and contests work well for students. Design them to appeal to the students and open the door for a long-term relationship. Non-Competitive BusinessesNo company offers everything people need to live their life. Test partnering with companies that offer complementary products. This introduces your company to people who are highly targeted. In return, your participation provides reciprocal information. Monitor all messaging to insure that your partner's communications are consistent with yours. Create an agreement that includes limits and the ability to verify accuracy in the information exchange. Choose partners carefully because you don't want to provide your customer information to a potential competitor.

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6 Ways to Use Email Partnerships to Increase Sales

Debra Ellis

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Debra Ellis