As marketers, salespeople, entrepreneurs and businessmen, we all have to form creative partnerships if we want to develop our businesses. No matter how good we are at what we do, there’s always a point at which we need some help from a specialist. That applies across the board, from research and development to prototyping and record keeping, but it’s particularly true when it comes to sales and marketing.
Creative partnerships are at the root of modern marketing, which is why we’re so used to copywriters and graphic designers teaming up at marketing agencies. Two heads are better than one, and it enables different, complimentary skillsets to work together. This is true at the micro level, but it also applies when it comes to marketing as a whole.
That’s why creative partnerships between brands and influencers are increasingly common, because both parties bring their own unique kind of value to the table. Brands can benefit from forming creative partnerships with other brands, too. Entire campaigns can be run together, or two brands can simply swap blogs for a day or go halves on some advertising space. There’s no right way or wrong way to go about it.
Creating a creative partnership
As with most things in business, a good creative partnership usually comes about as a result of networking. You can try approaching brands and influencers out of the blue if you think that you could make good partners, but it can be difficult to break through the noise and to get noticed. It’s much easier to strike up a partnership with someone that you already know.
The key to a good partnership is a good match of brands. For example, it makes sense for Red Bull and Go Pro to work together because both brands embrace extreme sports and like to showcase their commitment to it through their marketing. That’s why when brands work with influencers, they tend to work with influencers in their niche.
Making partnerships with people in your niche is a good idea because it makes sure that you’re reaching your target audience. And when you get the partnership just right, you’ll find that it keeps on paying dividends over time. It’s more like a relationship than a one night stand. That’s why you’ll want to find partners who are a good fit for what your company stands for and who are in it for the long haul.
Conclusion
Finding partners is a great way for you to take your company to places that it could never go on its own, but it also exposes you to new ideas and new approaches that might not otherwise have occurred to you. John Donne famously wrote that no man is an island, but the same could be said for businesses. We all have to work with suppliers, service providers and other third parties, so why not extend those partnerships to our creativity, too?
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Dane
Dane Cobain is a published author, freelance writer, book blogger, poet and (occasional) musician from High Wycombe, UK. Before going freelance, he worked as a social media marker, now specialising in writing about publishing, technology and marketing.