Finding the perfect partner for a joint venture marketing campaign is crucial, especially when you're dealing with niche markets. As an artisan, you're perfectly set up to take advantage of joint venture marketing opportunities: more so than traditional businesses. The market base for artisan products is more selective, prone to trusting a business they have pre-existing relationships with, and, because of simple economics, more likely to be affluent.
Are you aware of any businesses that might have a similar customer base, a base that you haven't been able to tap into using traditional marketing methods? If you want to gain access to that base, you have to answer the question what do you have to offer your potential partner?
Don't bother approaching a competitor. Find a company with a vision and product that are complimentary to your own, and you have the basis for a winning partnership immediately. It's also important to ensure that the market you'll be reaching out to is compatible with your client base. Selling free-range chickens to customers of a textured vegetable protein (TVP) producer probably won't result in a lot of sales. But if your company produces a fine chevre cheese, it would be a natural fit to align yourself with a local producer of cranberry preserves.
Don't always trust the numbers - if the company's mailing list is small but loyal and receptive, a joint venture marketing campaign can bring in more sales than a mailing list that's regularly inundated with proposals and immune.
Contact the owner of the company you'd like to work with, preferably by telephone or by mail with an introduction letter.
Let the owner know that you share a similar customer base, tell them about your business vision, and lay out your initial marketing offer, making it clear that you're open to negotiation. A cordial attitude and a little eloquence will go a long way into establishing a rapport with potential partners.
Your Proposal Should Include:
1. The initial terms you're offering your potential partner, to open negotiations - whether it's a percentage of the sales made from their customer list, access to your own customer list, or some of your products.
2. Client Testimonials. Do you deliver your promises, and on time?
3. Endorsements from past partners, customers and suppliers. If your company produces organic products, don't get endorsements from other organic producers - it seems shady, has the appearance of cronyism about it, and will cast a disreputable shadow over your business. As a legitimate business owner, you should ensure that your business is not only free from disreputable practices, but also free from the perception that you engage in disreputable practices.
4. Press Kit. Send a press kit. Press coverage from charitable work you might done, product releases, an interesting story, anything that shows you have a public identity that extends beyond marketing campaigns.
5. A List of Past Successes. Put together a small one-sheet detailing previous marketing campaigns that were successful in the past. If you're just starting out and don't have a lengthy chart, you could write a small text that speaks to your organizational ambition and enthusiasm, or the
6. A Sample. It's not necessary to curry favor, but offering your potential partner a sample of the product that you offer is a mensch-thing to do.
And finally, as in so many situations in life, make sure you consult your lawyers to look over the argument, draft it, and have you sign it!
