What is partnership marketing?

Marketing Partnerships can be defined as two or more brands collaborating via strategic marketing campaigns to help each other achieve their objectives. 

Doing partnership marketing well can help grow the company to cut significant marketing costs. Small businesses especially face issues with running marketing campaigns due to having restrictions on time and money. 

With ​​71% of consumers enjoying co-branding partnerships, 57% of companies use partnerships to acquire new customers. Additionally, 44% of companies use partnership marketing to get new ideas, insights and innovation. This is clear that partnerships do drive great value for companies! 

We will further explore what partnership marketing is, and the type of strategies there are. I’ll also be sharing the benefits of partnership marketing, my personal experience in the role, and how you can land yourself in a partner marketing role!

What is a marketing partner?

A marketing partner is a company who is strategically aligned with the other business to increase sales and revenue. It is a party that is involved in the strategic marketing process.

Partnering with other companies can help to perform some tasks or achieve goals that a business alone is not able to. As one partner can complement the other, this would ensure the company delivers the marketing plan in full, ensuring that their customers are happy. 

What are the Types of Partnership Marketing Strategies?

Partnership Marketing is all around us and has proven to be successful for many brands. Some brands have even used partnerships to better sell some products. The act of partnership selling is sometimes called a partnership marketing strategy.

Here are 8 different Partnership Marketing Strategies that might be able to help your brand:

#1: White Label Marketing is similar to subcontracting or outsourcing the work. However, the difference is that the ‘subcontractors’, or the white-label marketing partners, are not allowed to claim credit for the work it has been doing. This is usually done when the company is unable to offer or carry the product but is required in the industry. White label marketing is a cost-effective way to scale a business. 

An example is having a White Label SEO partnership. Imagine you are a marketing agency and your existing client is so pleased with your services. They want to add on an additional service to manage their SEO. However, you do not have the resources to help out. Yet, you do not want to miss out on this opportunity. This is when you hire a White Label SEO partnership. When hired, the White Label SEO workers will deal with all the clients’ SEO operations. Your clients will view these workers as your agency’s employees.

#2: Affiliate Marketing is when a company provides monetary reward, or commission, for affiliate marketing partners to promote the brand. This marketing arrangement is focused on increasing traffic or sales, generated through the partners’ referrals. Groupon or Shopback is an example of this type of partnership marketing. 

Both sites have huge audiences that are eager to find good deals. The sites have done a good job of getting relevant merchants’ promotions that they know their audience will be interested in. Having your company’s product or service listed on their site will increase the site visits and awareness of your company. 

#3: Content Development is when companies A and B come together to develop content together, that later on would be shared with its target audience. Most of the time, the partnership or collaboration brings greater value to the customers. Such content can be podcasts, articles, and videos that include partnerships. 

An example is “The Looming Tower” by CNN and Hulu. This Hulu video series was about the Iraq war and the lead-up to the aftermath. This partnership showcased CNN’s editorial prowess. It also solidified Hulu’s investment in creating a series that has impact and is factually accurate. 

#4: Distribution Partnerships is when company A bundles their products or services with company B’s. This ‘bundling’ is usually in the form of discounts, coupons, in-store demonstrations, giveaways, or other types of promotions. This partnership is one of the most practised and widespread types of partnership marketing. 

For example, a supermarket chain would feature products from one of its suppliers in an advertising campaign. This partnership would then boost sales for both the supplier and the grocery chain.

#5: Retention Marketing is when the strategies are focused on keeping existing customers happy. Most of the time, loyalty programs are used. GrabRewards or Starbucks® Rewards are great marketing partnerships examples where you are rewarded based on your expenditure.

#6 Charitable Partnerships strategy is used by a company to align their brand and motto with a charitable organisation to give back to society. It is also used as a brand marketing tool to shape their brand image as an ethical organisation that cares for social causes. 

As consumers increasingly expect brands to support social causes, this is a great way to appeal to potential consumers who share the same value as the company. It can include organising exhibitions, public events, stories and more.

An example would be Barclays and Japan’s National Food Bank, Second Harvest. The partnership provided meals to 20,000 households in Okinawa, addressing the lack of food security — an issue heightened by the pandemic. This partnership showcased to Barclays’ stakeholders about their resolve and commitment to supporting their communities. To Barclays, they have the financial means and duty to help their customers and the most vulnerable during tough times.

#7 Product Placement is when you see products and their logos clearly in a TV show or movie. It can be subtle or just direct, like an introduction to the product or service. Celebrity endorsements are considered product placement partner marketing.

#8 Sponsor Partnerships or Events Sponsorship is a form of partnership marketing in which a company provides support for an event in exchange for value. How the company views ‘value’ is dependent on the company’s goals. It could be increased brand recognition, access to attendees data, or even speaking opportunities at an event. 

An example is a company sponsoring an event like Hubspot INBOUND marketing conference. The company provides financial support to Hubspot to create this event and has the opportunity to speak at a keynote, and use the platform to share its brand or product.

What are the benefits of partner marketing?

With increased competition, it is usually harder for businesses to stand out with an exciting message to acquire new customers. 

However, having increased competition means that there are many pre-existing trusted relationships your target audience has with other brands, and partnerships can help to provide these opportunities.

Increased Revenue

The return on ad spending (ROAS) for affiliate marketing was 12:1 according to a global analysis across 2000 global brands and verticals. This means for every $1 spend on affiliate marketing, the company is earning $12.

The increased revenue is boosted by the increased brand awareness from the partners, improved customer retention by providing a greater value proposition, greater market share and increased conversion rates due to driving highly relevant content to high-intent visitors.

Additionally, it opens opportunities to expand revenue channels with minimal risk. When partnering with another company with specific expertise, you already have a product that works. This makes it scalable and great support for a successful business in the future.

#2: Provides more value to customers

So far, you can tell partnership marketing is more than just brand promotions. It can involve advertising, merchandising and even product offering. 

This multi-marketing approach provides more value to customers via more beneficial content, complementary products, and a better customer experience altogether.

#3: Expand revenue channels

New partnerships can help you reinvent your business and discover areas you have never considered working on. You can also try out new promotion strategies in a safe environment. You can also use your partner’s recognizability to penetrate markets and audiences you haven’t targeted before.

#4: Increase audience reach and quality leads

When a company decides to partner with another, that company gets to enjoy the benefits of being associated with the partners’ reputation. 

An example would be the Chinese survival show, iQIYI’s Youth with You. They employed K-pop star BLACKPINK’s Lisa as a judge. It resulted in having more K-pop fans understand the Chinese entertainment and idol industry. iQIYI benefited from BLACKPINK’s quality audience.

What is working in partnership marketing like?

I personally had the experience of seeing what it was like to work in affiliate marketing and commercial partnerships during my internship stints.

A day in the life of a marketing partnership role includes looking out for potential strategic marketing partners to collaborate with (especially for special days or events such as Valentine’s Day), brainstorming ideas for partnership with brands, planning and execution of ongoing partnership mechanics, tracking and reporting of data. 

The planning of partnerships requires us to continuously liaise with partners and internal stakeholders. For instance, I had to communicate the creative and visual direction to the designers and which branding guideline should be followed. You would also have to speak to other stakeholders such as the Business Development team or event agencies if the partnership involves an offline event.

My affiliate marketing internship stint

I was interning at  ShopBack, which is a popular affiliate site where users can earn cashback when making purchases through their site. Basically, such affiliate sites help brands to refer customers and take a commission when a sale is made. 

For Shopback, as we are heavily on web and mobile, a lot of emphasis was placed on digital marketing partnerships. This is a win-win scenario for both parties – the affiliate site and the brand.

Working in a partnership marketing role was definitely thrilling. In my other marketing roles, I usually only had to care for my company’s goals. This time, I had to not only think of my company’s goals but also ensure that the partnership is attractive to my partners’. 

My commercial partnerships internship stint

As a Commercial Partnerships intern at Shopee, we sourced for potential partners that we identified would be complementary to our brand, brainstormed exciting partnership mechanics that could work, and pitched it to these partners. 

Once they were keen to come onboard, we discussed further with the partners to find out what their marketing objectives were and told them ours as well. It could be things like increasing the number of new customers/users or increasing basket size. 

Thereafter, we refined the partnership mechanics and once approved by the partner, we would proceed to execute the partnership. 

A simple partnership could be negotiating for an exclusive bundle promotion that is available only for our customers and vice versa. 

For instance, all Shopee users get to enjoy a standard Golden Village (GV) movie ticket at $2 only and all GV members get to enjoy a discount for their next purchase on Shopee (e.g. $5 off min. spend $60). A more exciting partnership could be co-branding a new flavoured bubble tea drink. Most of such partnerships are typically short-term such as during the campaign period or up to a month long.

Who would be the best fit for partnership marketing roles? 

Overall, I think this role would be a great fit for someone who is highly creative and strong in their soft skills, especially communication skills. 

One who enjoys meeting and communicating with various groups of people would also be a great fit for the role. 

Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed this role as it was a dynamic role and every other month we would be working on different partnerships and campaigns, making it an exciting experience. Furthermore, it is a great opportunity to further hone one’s communication and networking skills when meeting up with potential partners.

Aspiration skill set for any partnership marketing role

Here are some skills that I think would be extremely useful for someone who is looking to pursue a similar role in Marketing (Partnerships).

#1 Project/Campaign Management skills to execute partnership well as per the stipulated timeline. 

#2 Creativity or Ideation is crucial to come up with ideas to pitch to partners for meaningful partnerships. 

#3 Presentation skills as you would need to communicate effectively with internal and external stakeholders. As a lot of partner meetings are expected, it is good to be comfortable and confident in pitching partnership ideas and mechanics to partners.

#4 Email writing and Pitch decks creation skill-set is important. Given that this is more of an external-facing role, it is especially important for you to be able to craft clear and concise emails.

#5 An eye for design and preferably proficiency in design software such as Adobe Photoshop. This is not as crucial but it would be good to have, as you would need to curate visually pleasing artworks for the partnership.

How do I get started in applying?

To start finding partner marketing opportunities, a start would be to go to LinkedIn or any job portals and search for “partnerships”, “partner marketing”, or “partnerships marketing”. 

If you want to learn more about how other functions like Retail come into play with Partnerships, do check out this free marketing magazine here.