How many strategic alliances do you have?

Strategic alliances are an excellent way to build brand awareness and generate leads.

I read about an excellent three-way strategic alliance in The Age newspaper last week. Did you see it?

I learnt that builder Porter Davis is offering free Tesla batteries and solar panels for 50 knockdown & rebuild new homes* as part of a deal with power company, Bradford Energy.

How clever is this? It’s a win/win/win for all three companies.

As I’m sure you know, a strategic alliance is when two or more businesses work together on a shared strategy or project to create a win/win outcome for both companies.

In my book, Brand Engagement, Brenda Thomson (who runs Smart-Connect) wrote a chapter about strategic alliances and how they can help to grow businesses.

When you think about it, big businesses have been doing it for a long time so why shouldn’t SMEs do it also?

Brenda says it doesn’t matter what kind of business you’re in, alliance strategies are only limited by how creative you can be. They can be used to generate new leads, increase conversions, boost average dollar sales, get your customers coming back more often, refer more clients to you and even reduce your costs.

Here are three thought-starters that may spark some ideas for your business:

1. Collaborate with another business that shares your target market so you can reduce marketing costs and maximise reach with a range of shared marketing and cross promotion strategies. Think about sharing an expo stand, doing a shared letterbox drop, providing articles for each other’s newsletters, doing a joint presentation or workshop, even implementing a shared newspaper or radio campaign.

2. Work with other businesses to support each other by sharing attractive and affordable or even free add-ons and bonuses to create irresistible offers and improve sales conversions. Working with other related businesses can help each brand increase credibility and awareness. This is what Porter Davis has done. Other ways to help and support another business where you will also benefit includes endorsements, reviews, recommendations, sharing articles, co-hosting events and even co-authoring a book.

3. The benefits of strategic alliances don’t stop with increasing leads and making more sales. They are a powerful way to reduce costs as well. For example, forming buying groups, sharing costs and resources, minimising advertising spend and even reducing staff idle time.

Strategic alliances really are one of the most powerful business growth strategies available for small business owners. Spend time thinking about it. How can you generate more leads, more customers and more profits in your business by working collaboratively with other business owners?

I’ve posted another (short) video PR tip on YouTube so if you pop over there, could you please subscribe to WMC PR’s channel. Here’s the link:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx-HibAm_MfQshN6JSbRtLw

* http://www.porterdavis.com.au/special-offers/telsa

Please leave a comment and let me know about your strategic alliance/s and how they are helping you.