Need Support? Form Marketing Alliances
In our previous post, we discussed the importance of forming marketing partnerships with friends, colleagues and partners. One of the defining attributes of entrepreneurship is independence – as entrepreneurs, freelancers or small business manager, you have considerably more influence and control over your own personal success and the success of your business than professionals who work for larger businesses and corporations. However, the grass is always greener on the other side, because while there are certainly positives to having such independence and control over both your career and your business, you also lack the infrastructure and support system that many professionals take for granted. You are on your own, and it can sometimes feel like you’re isolated, especially when you lack the money, resources or time to match the marketing efforts of a larger competitor. Teaming up with other entrepreneurs or business professionals and forming marketing partnerships can not only give your marketing efforts a boost, but can also provide a moral and emotional boost, helping reinforce the fact that you and your business are not isolated or alone.
We previously discussed the right way to form a marketing partnership and a few best practices to follow. While it’s important for both you and your partner be on the same page when it comes to your partnership and the marketing content you post, you don’t need to produce a whole new campaign’s worth of content to support your partnership – in fact, a large component can simply be reposting existing posts and content, exposing your online audience to your partner’s brand. However, there is a subtle but very important difference between reposting content with your own context or comment and reposting content without a personal touch.
Adding Context To A Repost
It’s incredibly easy to repost or share content on most blogging platforms and social media services – in fact, it often requires just one click to accomplish. As with many aspects of social media, the convenience of certain actions can lead to problems, as your audience may not understand why you are reposting the content. Each time you repost, include a short statement explaining why you are sharing your partner’s content, why their products or services are relevant to you and your audience and why you believe it’s important for your audience to take an interest in your brand. This context should be mostly informative.
Adding A Comment To A Repost
In addition to adding context to a repost, and sometimes in place of context, you can also add a personal comment explaining why you have chosen to form a marketing partnership with a particular brand. Personal comments or testimonials can be powerful and persuasive, but it is important to ensure that your audience has the proper context for personal statements that you include. If you are posting under a company or business account, you may want to add a byline to ensure that your audience knows that you’re the one composing the included comment. Also, any comments or testimonials should also fit within your own brand voice, as inserting a personal testimonial into an otherwise impersonal or formal brand or marketing campaign may be jarring to your audience and target market.