Cross promotions for small businesses

You can grow your business through effective community-based cross-promotions. Leverage your strengths with those of others and keep marketing costs under control.

Patricia Fripp and Susan Roane are friends, and professional speaker. Both live in Northern California. When you attend an event together, network and cross-promote at the same time giving them a glowing support.

First, introduce Roane Fripp has not met someone saying: "She's (Roane) too modest to tell you, but ..." Then Fripp goes crazy realizations of Roane. Roane then says: "She (Fripp) is too modest to tell you ..." It also boasts of Roane Fripp.

The beauty of this idea is that in a network situation, someone else tells people how wonderful you are and what you did. Boast is not necessary. This cross-promotion network is fairly simple, as are most of the other cross-promotion strategies.

Cross-promotion strategies can vary from very sophisticated with formal contracts, as with most major airlines and some long distance telephone carriers, promotions random as filling your bags with flyers or coupons from another dealer in your community and make them do the same for you. Or, perhaps putting promotional messages on another registry entries?

An insurance agent in my community cross-promoted with a local restaurateur. The restaurant owner paid for the printing of business cards insurance agent. The cards doubled as a 20% discount coupon for the restaurant and even had a map to the restaurant at the back. The insurance agent gave out many of his papers on each farm on which he calls cold. The finished cards sitting in many of the companies for a long period. This is because the cards were seen as a discount coupon valid business card, rather than another seller.

They call themselves the Sonoma County Fine Furniture Association (SCFFA). Eight Northern California for furniture retailers, all competitors, banded together to survive the recession of the early 1990 through the cross-promotion and purchasing power. They have developed combined events where customers will visit some of the stores in order to win prizes. They promoted each other for their customers in the store, especially if the dealer did not have specific exactly what the customer wanted. They also printed a booklet combined, including the address and location on a map of each member. The front of the brochure said: "People you can trust." They bought advertising with local radio and local newspaper. They also dictated the local paper on which pages their advertising would be located. They have received the results and impact.

Taking the idea of ​​cross promoting one-step at a time, consider using the tactics listed below for advertising, in collaboration with another dealer in your community to cross-promote, through advertising. Six events together, and when ever possible, use the Fripp / Roane idea glowing approval.

1. Distributing free brochures or reports.

2. Author of a book.

3. Publish a newsletter.

4. Send press releases.

5. Write a newspaper column or a normal magazine.

6. Do your radio program.

7. Get on popular radio and television talk shows.

8. Become an expert resource for journalists.

9. Welcome new people in your town.

10. Congratulate the people writing when you read about their results.

11. Giving public speeches.

12. Sponsor seminars open to the public.

13. Host power breakfasts.

14. Sponsor a local charity or service club events.

The ideas are great, the implementation is better. You want to implement a good cross promotion. To achieve a successful cross-promotions, you must develop your process or road map. I suggest these steps:

1. Be clear about what you want to create for yourself.

2. Check out the "What's In It For Me" for the promotion of your partner (s).

3. Develop a plan for who does what, particularly in the areas of costs and contributions.

4. Explain to your partner promotion (s) who will receive the value. Help them to also have emotional ownership (commitment) for the promotion.

5. Develop a method to measure the results.

6. Run the cross-promotion.

7. Debriefing on the value of all the participants received.

8. Plan your next promotion.

Use this simple checklist cross-promotion:

1. Who does what?

2. Develop a theme.

3. Explore print advertising.

4. Explore radio advertising.

5. Explore cable television advertising.

6. Explore direct mail advertising.

7. Explore E-mail advertising.

8. Divide the work evenly.

9. It 's all going to receive similar value?

The owner of several local Dominos pizza suggested this to me. "When you cross-promote with nonprofit groups, consider the following:

1. They always tell you what they want.

2. They usually have their hands without giving much in return.

3. Be sure to tell them what you need.

4. Ask them to do more for you than just take your money.

5. Always use coupons to assist in measuring results. "

List of clients based cross promotions are usually quite successful and inexpensive. Generally each merchant expands the scope of their targeted customers twice, at a cost of about 40% to 60% less than is usually spent on a similar promotion conducted solo. Moreover, each has the credibility. Common strategies are direct mail flyers, postcards, coupons and calendars. Flyers can be printed on both sides for a promotion or two shares more flyers can be sent in the same envelope.

Cross-promotion is simply the common denominator marketing. You can find another dealer or company that has similar or overlapping markets and customers. Then he discovers a way to work together to do what you already do more efficiently and effectively and in cooperation with doing something promotional that none of you could not just pull out .......