Things You'll Need:
- A list of businesses that sell products or services related to but not directly competing with your business.
- The willingness to form a strategic partnership with those businesses in cross promotion and endorsed mailings and marketing.
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Step 1
Develop a list of businesses that sell related products or services but are not in direct competition with you selling the same identical item. You should put together a list of a minimum of 10 such businesses before moving to step two. HINT: Look inside your own customer list first to develop such a list. These people already have a formed relationship with you.
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Step 2
Contact the business owners on that list to form strategic alliances. You will be mutually benefiting each other's business, because you are promoting added value to each other's customers. What you will be talking about is endorsed marketing to each other's customer lists...letters, email marketing, cross promotion coupons and ads etc...
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Step 3
Mutually beneficial is the key phrase with this marketing strategy. You want to promote each other's business to each other's customer lists. Then, you can expand this strategy to "cold-marketing" and helping to build each other's customer lists. This small business marketing strategy will duplicate your marketing efforts for little cost...and ensure the success of all businesses involved.
