Word of Mouth Marketing (Part 2)

Last post I talked to you about word of mouth marketing. If you haven’t read that article yet click here to read it first and come back to this one.

Mainly I was focused on how you can get referrals from your existing customers, but I also want to talk to you about one of the most profitable marketing strategies you can use. Creating strategic alliances with complementary businesses can literally make your business. One good strategic partner could provide 25-50% of your business.

What is a strategic partner? Sometimes it’s obvious… If you’re a mortgage person, you want to have partnerships with good real estate agents, a photographer wants to have partnerships with wedding planners, etc. You want to look around and see what other kinds of businesses share your same potential customers.

Once you identify potential alliances, you’ll need to ask an important question, “what can I do for them?” You are trying to make a sale, not just meet people. This is USP (Unique Selling Proposition) revisited. What’s unique about your business as far as how you can help a potential strategic partner.

I won’t go into great detail about the concepts of this kind of marketing. The idea here is to get you thinking about it. It’s probably one of the most under used marketing strategies.