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Get the best partners to promote your brand in 7 steps

Get the best partners to promote your brand in 7 steps

The best partners are those who have a genuine interest in promoting your offerings. In most cases, they have a set of outreach strategies and a defined audience that is also interesting to your brand and has a high potential to become future customers. But the big question many companies are asking is: where do I find the right partners?

At first glance, we can assume they are everywhere online, and, nowadays, we can say that influencers are most sought after by brands. In a survey from Hubspot, influencer marketing was pointed by marketers as the most popular and effective trend with the biggest ROI. However, if they are in many places online, does that mean it’s easy to find them? Not quite.

Finding the perfect match requires specific knowledge of the market and the company’s goals. You need to know which one is the best fit for your brand and how they can create connections that are beneficial for long-term business growth.

Undoubtedly, a brand wants to work with a partner who effectively and strategically promotes the brand’s services and, from there, builds a mutually beneficial relationship. So it’s not just about finding partners but finding the best ones that bring actual results. If that’s what you are looking for, read on to learn our tips.

Finding the best partners to promote your brand

Step 1. Analyze the profile of your future partners

To start with, your partner needs to have a similar target audience and goals and values that fit your company. However, this is only one of the various criteria to consider. Let’s understand better what is essential for a beneficial and mutual collaboration:

Make sure that your partners have strong marketing potential to reach the local audience, which will enable the development of your business in other places and markets.

Get a clear picture of who could become a partner of your business and how they could align with your goals. Try partnerships with social media influencers, traditional content publishers, and other industry brands. Those can provide a notable contribution and increase the number of directions for the further development of your company.

Consider choosing partners who are a fan of your products or who could become one by getting to know you. That way, it will be much easier for them to insert your offers into the content they spread smoothly. This also helps the audience connect with the offer.

Step 2. Identify influencers to team up

Influencers are a gateway for attracting different potential audiences while constantly testing and experimenting with new formats on various social networks, increasing the visibility of partner brands.

Influencers not only sell your products but reach and inspire people who can become customers of your brand, and this way, the influencer marketing industry is growing every day. In line with surveys, the global influencer marketing platform market is expected to reach $84.89 billion by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 30.3% during the forecast period.

Image source: Research and Markets

Brands that have a presence on various social networks are much more likely to show up in their target audience’s search queries, which is amplified when they work with influencers. Additionally, influencers can provide more accurate results based on demographic and audience data collected from the networking platforms where they are most prevalent.

Another point is to analyze the influencer’s message and image, the nature of their audience, and how they can add real value to your brand. Remember that it’s not just about the numbers, in this case, influencers with the most followers are not always the ones that convert the most. It requires a deeper analysis and research about the people who engage with that influencer.

Step 3. Be a partner with customers

Undoubtedly, your customers have great potential to promote your brand. So, have you ever thought that you could turn your best customers into potential partners? This way, you can increase your brand awareness and reach out to other potential partners.

Your customers already know your products, know your strengths, promote your brand, and attract new partners. In addition, they are part of your target audience, which makes it easier to insert your brand in the right niche and attract new partners.

Image source: Freepik

Step 4. Encourage your partners to talk about the company

Encouraging your partners to talk about your brand is excellent for increasing your brand awareness and attracting new partners. A perfect way to do this is through an effective communication plan.

As communication is an essential part of partner engagement, the process of monitoring your partners’ progress includes finding ways to encourage them further to promote your products or services. To do this is crucial to plan an ongoing conversation.

There are many reasons to start a conversation with your partners, for instance, offering a way to help, informing, making a suggestion, or even praising them for an excellent job. Thinking about constant contact to promote engagement and get close to your partners demonstrates that you are interested in helping them achieve their goals, which usually leads to better results.

Many business owners refrain from doing this because they think it takes too much time, and if this is your case, an excellent way to improve engagement and communication is to make a video call or go live.

Consider organizing webinars, monthly or quarterly, to answer the most common questions from your partners. To do this easily, find a platform that best suits you, and there are many of them, such as YouTube, Instagram, or Zoom. These events can be an opportunity to foster the relationship between your partners and your brand.

Image source: Freepik

Step 5. Create a Motivation Strategy for Top Partners

When a performance has exceeded expectations, rewarding your partner is an incentive to keep them motivated and willing to deliver good results. Let’s take a look at some examples of rewards:

Tier-based commissions: Choosing this system means that your partner will be rewarded based on the driven results, and every time one of them increases their sales, a tier will be unlocked, and they will receive a bonus, which can be commissions, special codes, or products.

Public discount code: By adopting that, you’ll provide a code that your partners can share with their audience and promote on social media or use other strategies they find most appealing. Every time someone uses the code, the partner receives a commission.

Recognition: Everyone likes to be rewarded for good work, and your partner is no different. By rewarding your partners with the best performance, you motivate them to keep doing a good job. Thus, it increases your partner’s engagement and motivation with your program, often by getting them involved in your communities.

While incentive and motivation systems work very well to bring engagement to your program, keep in mind that it goes beyond when discussing strategic brand partnering. It’s not just about setting up a bonus system to motivate your partners to drive more results, but it’s about strategically determining the value both parties receive from this cooperation.

Step 6. Identify and avoid fraud

Fraud is one of the problems that can hinder the success of your partner program, besides causing financial loss. Moreover, fraud doesn’t allow you to see the actual results and understand a partner’s reach during a campaign. As an effect, fraud also causes other partners to lose trust in your brand.

So how can you protect your brand? First of all, it’s important to know your partners’ behavior patterns and watch out for suspicious actions or unusual behavior in partner leads. Here are some of the signs that can help you spot fraud:

A rapid increase in clicks;
Lots of clicks, but low conversion rates;
Higher than usual rate of abandoned shopping carts;
Low session duration.

With a good fraud-prevention solution, you can identify and not only eliminate these problems but also ensure that good partners keep coming back and staying to promote your offers.

Step 7: Consider multiple channels to find your partners

These days, you can find several channels and tactics to implement in your strategy. So do not stick to just one. Instead, consider using multiple channels to find your ideal partners:

Social media: These platforms are already widely used to build brand awareness, interact and engage with consumers, and more. In addition, they can also be a source for recruiting other potential partners, especially influencers, who will undoubtedly use them to interact with their audience.

Niche bloggers: Blogs are one of the most important sources of visitors. Like influencers, in most cases, bloggers have a niche that relies on the support of their community of subscribers. By working with articles, they can explain certain topics quite well and have more chances to appear in searches for potential customers that are looking for your business.

Word of mouth: yes, this method still works and bears good fruit for businesses. One of them is finding new partners, but encouraging word of mouth also increases leads and acquisition rates. We recommend learning more about a referral program, which allows existing customers or partners who promote your business and receive benefits, to expand your company lead and customer acquisition.

Industry forums or communities: many partners participate in online forums and communities related to their industry for various reasons, including having a channel for questions, helping others and establishing themselves as an authority, offering your products at strategic times, and more. Groups make online communities come alive and grow stronger, so consider finding your great partners at online communities.

Image source: Freepik

Use the right software to reach your partners

More and more companies understand the value of working with partners, especially influencers. The segment is expected to witness the fastest growth over the next few years. Brands also observed the challenges, especially when discussing how best to find partners and create lasting partnerships.

Affise’s systems already help many businesses to take the next step and manage their partner marketing program. Now, our Reach platform is ready to tackle today’s needs and deliver the results that businesses have waited so long for. Aimed at recruiting influencers and expanding new brand partnerships efficiently, Reach was built to help brands and agencies manage a brand’s partner program effectively. Here are the opportunities that Reach can provide:

Discover new partners and influencers to grow your business;
Leverage new traffic sources;
Manage campaigns, nurture relationships, and automate payments;
Discover and reward top publishers for promoting your products and services;
Test new market channels with a minimal initial investment.

Thus, the platform will help agencies, business owners, and marketers who need to find partners globally and plan their campaigns in minutes, using a friendly interface without struggling.

> Want to start to reach your future partners? Start by requesting a free trial.

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Written by

Andressa Lara

Andressa is a Content Marketer passionate about art and technology. She is curious, ambitious, creative, and motivated to learn new skills. She wants to write good stories that inspire businesses and also people. When she's not writing, she loves to travel and discover cultures from around the world.

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