Tips for Building Solid Co-Marketing Partnerships: Picking the Right Partner

What to look for in a partner, where to find them, and how to ensure the relationship is fruitful for years to come

By expanding partnerships to include co-marketing activities, SaaS companies can earn more money by growing their customer base significantly. Co-marketing allows organizations to pool their resources to achieve this shared goal.

At PandaDoc, we are 100% confident that strong co-marketing partnerships can help your business grow, because we’ve grown considerably in a short period thanks in large part to our partner program. It has taken us a significant amount of time to develop and build this program, but we have learned a lot. And now I am passing our knowledge on to you.

In this post, I am going to give you the secret sauce to help you find the right partner(s), where to find them and how to ensure the relationship is fruitful for years to come. And with that in mind, I’ve outlined a few steps that you might want to consider taking.

Look for partners with similar customers, but not similar products

With thousands and thousands of potential companies to choose from, this task sounds far easier than it is. And it is even harder if you don’t already have a good grasp on who your target customers are. To increase sales, you need to know your primary audience, what they are looking for, and what their sources of friction are. If your target customer is “everyone,” your chance of finding the right partner is low.

Work hard to define your ideal customers and then look at other solutions that those companies are using. This will help you to develop a good list of potential partners. However, once you’ve identified some potential partners, you should make certain your offerings don’t directly compete.

If your company has developed a great sales enablement platform, it’s probably pointless to co-market with another similar provider. Your message will attract leads, but your companies will come into conflict over their ownership — because the leads are only going to go with one product.

It is also very important to identify partners that are a good fit. These can be other SaaS companies, or even businesses driven by something different. The key is that you share the same customer base and the same business objectives, without competing against each other.

Find partners that have the capacity to perform the work

A partnership will fail miserably if any of those involved lack the ability to do the work that needs to be done. Before a successful alliance can be forged, both parties need to be certain they have the staffing and resources to do the work.

This is why it is critical that goals, objectives, and expectations are set right from the beginning. And a candid conversation should take place to make certain both sides can deliver.

Find partners willing to share workload

Both partners should pull equal weight, and the effort needs to bring similar benefits for both parties.

It’s a good idea to set clear expectations for each partner well ahead of time. And, although the effort should be equal, you don’t have to split all responsibilities straight down the center. Each company will have its own set of unique assets. Wherever possible, make the most of these and assign tasks accordingly.

Find partners that you enjoy working with

Co-marketing is about building a book of business for both you and your partners. A huge part of that is achieving shared goals in a collaborative manner. As such, you should take time to get to know the people you are partnering with, the people behind the business.

Personal relationships can be stronger than business relationships. So if you are able to forge friendships with your co-marketing partners, you might develop a relationship that lasts well beyond your latest campaign — and keep you moving forward into bigger and better future projects.

In summary, co-marketing partnerships are business relationships that can help elevate you and your partners. However, like any good relationship, it takes lots of searching, time, commitment and excellent communication. And with that, I will leave you with this partnership love story, which highlights how amazing the right partnerships can be.

PandaDoc helps organizations win more business by accelerating the way they transact. Learn more at PandaDoc.com