Today we’re going to let you in on our secret:

Rebel Office has used strategic partnerships many times to grow it to the level it’s at now, and we’ll continue to use them to help us grow! 

Honestly, no one has all the skills to grow their business themselves. Everyone needs help, and strategic partnerships are an excellent way to partner with another brand and get your name out there to a different audience. 

So now the question is: How do you find other brands to partner with? You need to make sure you’re partnering with someone that will benefit your business and introduce you to a new group of potential clients or customers.

This is going to require some research but we want to make sure we give you lots of great tips on what to look for in a great strategic partnership. The right partner will be different for everyone depending on what your business is and what you’re looking to accomplish with the partnership.

The first step is to think about what your purpose for partnering with someone is. Whether you’re just trying to gain more awareness, promote a new product, grow your email list, or whatever else.

Here’s how you’ll find your next partnership:

1. Search for brands that already have impactful marketing
2. Find someone with a similar but not the same audience because they’re already targeting who you’re looking for
3. Find another brand with a complimentary aesthetic so branding and graphics match. Trust me it will make it a lot easier! 
4. Make sure you’re benefiting each other, they should be getting as much out of the partnership as you are
5. Check for competitor overlap, there’s absolutely no point in partnering with your competition and it’s going to confuse your target audience
6. Check their social media to see if they’re consistently putting out new content and most importantly engaging with their audience!
7. You also want to check their following on social media, are they popular on the same platform that you are? If they mostly use Twitter and you mostly use Instagram then it might not be a good match
8. Look through their social media accounts and don’t just check their followers (because anyone can buy those) check their engagement! Do people -actually- like and comment on their posts?
9. Look for brands with similar keywords but not the same ones that you use or else you’ll be fighting for SEO
10.  Alexa.com or similarweb.com are great websites that show their web traffic and bounce rate. It also gives guidance on keywords and sources that people use to find them.
11.  Check for previous partnerships, it’s typically a good sign if they’re partnered with different brands before
12. It’s great if they have a blog and regularly post as that increases SEO and shows that they’re putting effort into marketing
13. Google them, see how quickly they come up, what people are saying about them, check the news section. Make sure that they’re a brand that you want to align yourself with
14. Sign up for their newsletter and read it. Do they consistently put out newsletters? What’s the content like? Do they have clear CTA’s? Are their newsletters too salesy and pushy?

I know that’s a lot to look through and figure out but taking the time to do your full research will make sure that this pays off for you and gives you the results that you’re looking for.

Reaching out

Once you’ve selected one or even a few people that you believe will be a great fit it’s time to reach out and contact them.

Start your email off with an attention-grabbing subject line. Next, you want to show them you know who they are, what they do, and why what they do matters (a little flattery goes a long way). Now you’re going to tell them who you are in one sentence and how you can help them. Be specific about your details, let them know how past partnerships went if you have any. In the next paragraph, you can give more details about who you are and sell yourself a bit more. The final paragraph is the offer and ask. Just do a short wrap-up. Then make sure you close with your selling statement. Don’t ask, tell (assume the sale)! 

Other additional tips are: to never send any attachments, as they increase the risk of your email getting marked as spam. You can track if your email has been opened and read using a tool like Hiver. Once you know that your emails were open, you can set a follow-up schedule. Following up is very important as people rarely respond to the first email!s

And do not forget to include your website, social media links, and any other contact you have so that they can stalk you too! Remember this is a partnership so they’re going to want to throw some research on you as well!