What is cross promotion? 11 ideas to boost your campaign

How does it sound?

A marketing strategy that:

Increase your brand reach cost-effectively (even if you're on a tight budget). Helps you build relationships with the biggest names in your industry (even if no one knows you yet). You get tons of PR and brand mentions almost overnight (without the extra budget for ads).

Do you think it's too good to be true? Well, this strategy exists. This is called cross-promotion.

What is cross promotion?

Cross promotion is a marketing strategy of establishing strategic partnerships with other brands to increase awareness and drive sales while reducing advertising costs. Both brands promote each other's products and achieve mutual benefits.

Brands can use sales tools such as partner management software to manage and track their cross-promotional partnerships, collaborations and results.

In this guide, you'll learn the importance of cross-promotion, how to create your cross-promotion marketing campaign, and get a list of 11 actionable ideas to implement in your own business. Let's start with the basics.

Importance of Cross Promotion

Cross-promotion helps you connect with other businesses and “cross-promote” each other’s products and services. By partnering with other brands, you can significantly reduce marketing costs and improve your value chain strategy.

“Due to the incredibly competitive world we live in, where manufacturing products is easier than ever, high-quality, relevant and timely sales and marketing can be make-or-break,” says Kathryn Kosmides.

And the right cross-promotion campaign can give you the competitive edge you need in the hypercompetitive world we live in.

For example, take a look at this photo:

Source

This is cross-promotion in its purest form.

By introducing Shrek with its products, McDonald's attracted more customers (e.g., parents and "movie buffs"), while DreamWorks (the company behind the Shrek franchise) increased visibility and marketing. waiting for the film.

Now, does this mean you need a lot of money to operate this strategy? Of course not.

No matter the scale of your business, you can implement cross-promotion effectively. Let's see how.

How to Create a Cross Promotional Marketing Campaign

Cross promotion is a bit like fishing: to catch something, you need the right lure.

How do you like this bait? You start by knowing and understanding who your potential partners are and what they want.

Many companies approach cross-promotion as if they are entitled to the attention. But if you want other businesses to partner with you, you need to answer the question: what’s in it for them? This may seem obvious at first, but you'd be surprised how many people ignore this simple fact.

Before you start the process, you should research the industry and create a list of all the potential partners you can find. Then, think about creative ways you can benefit them.

For example, if you own a restaurant, you can partner with local butcher shops. You use their meat for your dishes while they promote your restaurant. The point is, you need to look for leaks in your partner's strategy and figure out how to plug them.

To get started, here's a list of cross-promotion tips and examples to inspire ideas.

11 cross-promotion ideas (+examples)

Keep in mind that this is not an exhaustive list of cross-promotion strategies. It does, however, include some of the most creative ways to get started on the right foot.

1. Run a co-branded contest (and boost it with payments)