How to Cross Promote Your Product

A cross promotion is a collaborative marketing effort between two or more businesses. Learning how to cross promote is an essential skill for finding new customers, reducing ad costs, and edging out strong competitors.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Printed materials (coupons, brochures, fliers, posters) to hand out to your partner
• Ad software to track expenses and measure profits
• Free gifts to help cross promote.
• Legal contract (for big cross promotion deals)
• Yellow Pages, internet directory, industry recommendations (to find partners)

1. Budget. There’s no set standard for determining what percentage of your ad money should go towards cross promotion. In general, start conservatively. Some experts recommend delegating 5 to 10 percent of your overall ad budget, then add more funds later if you find success.

2. Search for a partner. Look for a business with a solid reputation, friendly management, and a similar need for cross promotion. Ideally, your ally should serve a similar consumer niche. For instance, a city baseball team may join forces with a local hot dog vendor to feed/entertain fans. Remember, your arrangement should serve the interests of both parties.

3. You can use local Yellow Pages, internet groups/forums, industry web sites, and personal references to find partners in your area. Don’t limit yourself geographically. The Web can lead you to potential partners from anywhere in the world using local search sites, such as SuperPages and Yahoo! Local.

4. Brainstorm creative ways to cross promote products. For instance: host a charity event or “pay for play” instructional dinner with your partner, hand out free goodies at your store or service or offer mutual employee discounts. Encourage your partner to brainstorm as well.

5. Test your cross promotion concepts either through small pilot programs or through inexpensive first efforts and measure your results. Make sure to keep track so that you know whether the cross promotion is working. For instance, use a coupon that says something like “Donna sent me” so you can see who your cross promotion customers are.

6. If your results show the partnership is more one-sided, then consider reorganizing your mutual budget so that costs and benefits are more equitably distributed.

7. Keep an eye out for other cross promotional partners. As your company gets a good reputation as an engaging solicitor of cross platform business, you will likely receive many partner requests with high potential.

8. Keep your cross marketing strategies on track by tethering them to your long-terms goals and your company's mission statement.

Tips & Warnings

• Share advertising costs locally. Hang posters, bulletin boards, or other advertorials in your shop.
• Offer free gifts or big discounts for customers who shop with your partner.
• Write testimonials for your partner and link to your partner’s Web site to create more e-commerce credibility for both of you.
• Never neglect your favorite customers. Cross promote using "frequent customer" cards to drive business mutually.
• Never enter into a business relationship on just a spoken agreement. Get it in writing and have a lawyer review agreements. The more articulate you are about spelling out your mutual obligations, the less likelihood there will be of fallout down the line.