Seize the Power of Marketing Relationships

On a vacation in Costa Rica, I went on an expedition to a dry rain forest. The name is a misnomer as the forest is populated by a vast array of plants and animals. From the jungle floor to the huge canopy overhead, hundreds if not thousand of species surrounded me. In this rainforest I saw one of the world’s most unusual and amazing symbiotic relationships, that of the swollen-tho
acacia tree and the acacia ant. Most acacias have bitter alkaloids in their chemistry, which prevent insects and animals from eating their leaves and branches. However, many species of Central American swollen-tho
acacias lack the chemical defenses of the other acacias to deal with predators. Without these alkaloids, stiff competition would slow the growth of the acacias and allow fast-growing competitive plants to shade them out. Symbiotic ants have taken over this vital defensive role, protecting the acacia from hungry herbivores and pruning away competing plants. The ants get a place to live inside inflated thorns at the base of leaves and the acacia tree is protected and can grow. This is the proverbial win-win situation in the jungle.

All this brings me to my point. (Yes, I have a point; I just don’t want to talk about ants) There are opportunities for each of us in our businesses to create these types of relationships with others within and outside of our industry. From a marketing point of view, these associations can be extremely beneficial and cost effective. Following are some suggestions on how you can create your own symbiotic relations.

Distributors and Vendors

Are the companies you buy from doing everything they can to help you sell their products? If you are a manufacturer or vendors to smaller distributors, are you helping them market and sell? I doubt it. Companies will spend thousands of dollars to acquire distributors to sell their products but nothing to help the distributors ell them to the end user. In the printing industry, print manufacturers go to endless distributor trade shows, spending untold amounts of money on booths, travel, hotel rooms, food.

If they just took a small portion of that and created marketing materials and effective marketing programs the distributors could use in the field, their results would be astounding. Call your top vendors or distributors today and have a conversation on how you can help each other sell more. Give them the old Jerry Maguire, “Help me help you!

Industry Colleagues

There are excellent prospects for cross marketing in your own industry. I put together a group of other professional speakers to market as a collection of speakers. This allows us to double our individual footprints and brands in the marketplace while giving us the opportunity to use our combined funds to market at larger events that we would normally not attend as individuals.

I also have used customers to write me testimonial introduction letters and I do the same for them. Nothing works as well as a recommendation from someone who has nothing to gain by the plug. You can also send out direct mail as a combined marketing piece or even share customer lists. In the meeting and events industry, there are literally hundreds of companies you can work with that are not competitors. Think of the limitless ways you can pool funds and blow the competition out of the water!

Outside Industries and Customers

You’ve seen the cross marketing direct mail pieces come across your desk. The oil change business that has gives you a free pizza coupon while the pizza company gives you a free oil change coupon. These businesses are in completely different industries but have found a way to market together to a select target market. In my printing company, I used a referral system between graphic designers and myself. I would refer my customers to different designers for artwork and they would refer people to me for printing. I also worked on sharing mailing lists with compatible businesses. I sold laser labels so I worked with a laser toner re-charger to promote together to the same target market.

Start looking for these types of opportunities. When networking or speaking to vendors, distributors, customers or colleagues, bring up the subject of cop-op marketing. I know that you will achieve amazing results. Hey, if a tree and an ant can, you can! (Don’t you just love good poetry!)