Some business owners are used to doing things on their own, but as the African proverb goes “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” Entering into strategic partnerships or collaborations can result in success in industries or customer bases you never thought possible. Let’s further investigate some of the benefits of strategic partnerships.
1. Attract New Customers
The most obvious and popular benefit is that you gain access to a whole new customer base. With customers having a seemingly endless range of options, you want to ensure that your business is visible to as many relevant people as possible. With a strategic partnership, you can achieve that.
A great example of attracting new customers through partnerships would be a locally produced perfume company partnering up with an online beauty supply store. Not only can this type of partnership result in the broadening of the perfume company’s customer base, but it also broadens the range of products that the online beauty supply store offers their customers.
Along with an extended reach into a wider variety of customers, your brand could now expand its horizons in areas previously unexplored. Who would have ever imagined Exclusive Books and UberEats partnering up to offer their best-selling books on what was a platform mainly for food?
2. Brand Awareness
A great result of a partnership is further brand awareness. When you partner with other businesses or influencers, there are more chances for people to be exposed to your logo and other branding, creating an organic curiosity.
It is this curiosity that leads potential customers to your website and social media pages, therefore creating more opportunities for you to use your website to create new marketing or sales leads for your business. Some business owners underestimate how powerful this can be, but this can result in your business being top-of-mind when a customer needs services or products that your company offers.
3. Broadening Your Products or Services Offering
Partnering up with a business with complementary services to yours is a great way to collaborate without having to invest in a new set of products, service providers, suppliers, or systems. You and your new partner are able to pool together your resources to cross-train your staff members (if needed) and offer your customers an enhanced shopping experience.
Giving your customers a better shopping experience can encourage one of the most powerful marketing tools: word of mouth. Customers who hear or read positive comments about your business are most likely going to tell their friends about it. You want happy customers who promote your services. By establishing roots with other businesses, you increase the chance that you will get this free advertisement.
4. Building Brand Trust
When people are introduced to a new brand, they’re initially sceptical about whether they can trust the brand to deliver or not. One way to build brand trust among new customers is to align yourself with a business that enjoys a credible brand perception. Your new customers may not know you, but they may trust you because you’ve partnered up with a brand that already has their trust.
To give a practical example, you’re more likely to trust that your broker knows what they’re talking about when they introduce you to a company that provides working capital solutions for small businesses like yours when your business needs working capital for a growth-enhancing project like upgrading your equipment.
The Bottom Line
As a business owner, you know your business offering, your company’s strengths, and areas of improvement. So, you’ll need to identify a partner that will enable your business to grow. A partner that also wants to grow and complements your offering without compromising your business and your current client base.
