Everyday people partner with one another to help each other. Something as simple as watching a friend's children for a few hours or just referring your favorite restaurant. We all support each other in one way or another in our community and it's not labeled as partnering. We hear partnering in more formal ways like when organizations use it as a way to do business.
Well, today I want to introduce 'Smart Partnering' and share some of the same partnering principles that organizations use and apply them to individuals/creative entrepreneurs. Smart Partnering is consciously thinking about new ways to promote each other and benefit from one another. Recently, Chaitra Vedullapalli released a wonderfully smart book called # PARTNER tweet: 140 Bite-Sized Ideas for Succeeding in Your Partnerships
Commenting on Blogs
Yes! This is Smart Partnering. I am sure all of us read fantastic articles and posts online that help us and commenting is acknowledging the effort. Commenting helps the author build credibility and exposure in the community, it gives them more reasons to research and share good information, and it provides them with clear direction of what they should focus on. In turn you will be seen by many people and they will learn about you and your beliefs...that means you just added members to your community. This way the author benefits and you benefit: Smart Partnering. Check out these 5 tips on why you should comment.
Linking Your Blog Posts
This is another way to share good information with your readers and also showcase how much you appreciate other community leaders who take the time to research and share quality content that helps everyone. It’s all about connecting...by linking your blog posts, the search engines see you as valuable resource because there are external links to your site. This also helps you with your SEO and being found more easily. Check out this article on how to Supercharge your linking strategy.
Promoting Others with You
Find products that you can complement with your own. Teaming up with a partner to promote your products together will help you make your customers happy because you gave them a new option and you just saved them time. This also helps you build strong relationships, increase your revenue and you also get exposure to new customers. It is a WIN-WIN-WIN (You-Your Partner-Customer) solution.
Supporting a Cause
This is something we should all strive to do! Find a cause in your community that interests you and lend a helping hand...partnering with a cause you believe in will not only help the cause but also build awareness and interest from your customers to increase the support of the cause.
Organizing Events
This is not about creating a LARGE EXHIBITION. This is about organizing an event in your home, community center, school or farmers market with your community. Collectively, you will be able to attract more customers and by partnering with complimentary products and services, the customers will be happy (one stop shopping) and everyone who participated will be satisfied because the traffic generated is more than if you had the event by yourself.
So, make sure you investigate any partnership opportunities with one another and please share any Smart Partnering techniques that you have used to build your community and grow your business.
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4 Comments
Very true! You can’t do it alone!
Wonderful article and advice. Last year, I wanted to find a way to give back to my 2 favorite charities in my community of Appleton, WI. As a small business owner (I design a fresh holiday line of wreaths, etc.), I was not able to write a huge check to donate. Instead, I created a Holiday Preview Event and invited 30 local artists and shops to showcase their holiday goods at the event in October. I asked friends to volunteer to help promote and work the event. The artists and shops involved with the event were happy to promote the event as well. We sold tickets for $10 each and I hoped we would have at least 100 people come to the shopping event.
Over 400 women came to shop on Friday night and Saturday morning and we raised over $5,000 for 2 charities. A local news station even covered the event. (We hope to raise over $10,000 this year!). Every participant is excited for this years event and was pleased with the exposure to new shoppers they received right before the holiday season. Win-Win for all!
Partnering with other artists and shops in your community by having a shopping event is not only great exposure for you, but a wonderful way to support a cause without having to write a check.
I will be sharing this article with my Holiday Preview friends and all of the retailers and wholesalers at MyWares.com.
I, too, am a fan of Chaitra’s book.
One customer-attracting way to SmartPartner, as I mentioned in an eBook by that name is to co-create something, from an offer to a window display to an event. See other successful real life stories at HowWePartner
Thank you Amber for your kind words.
Thank You Sandra, for sharing such a wonderful story, it was very inspirational.
Thank You Kare for validating Smart Partnering as a way to build community.