Impact.com

Impact.com, the world’s leading partnership management platform, is transforming the way businesses manage and optimise all types of partnerships—including traditional rewards affiliates, influencers, commerce content publishers, B2B, and more. The company’s powerful, purpose-built platform makes it easy for businesses to create, manage, and scale an ecosystem of partnerships with the brands and communities that customers trust to make purchases, get information, and entertain themselves at home, at work, or on the go. To learn more about how impact.com’s technology platform and partnerships marketplace is driving revenue growth for APAC enterprise brands such as Virgin Australia, Canva, Westpac, Booktopia, The PAS Group, True Protein, JS Health, Compare Club, Jabra, MyRepublic and Coles, visit www.impact.com.

Brand-to-brand partnerships: how brands can build relationships to add revenue channels

An estimated 81 percent of consumers do online research before making a significant purchasing decision. Cold social and display ads no longer appeal to audiences as they turn to trusted third-party resources to gather information before purchasing.    

It’s safe to say advertising as we know it is dead. Google eliminated third-party cookies. Apple released Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) — and other tech giants launched similar user protection to buffer against privacy. Concerns.

When combined with the competitive Adtech market, these improvements become problematic for advertisers as they lose sight of the customers’ journeys. As the advertising industry becomes more muddled, brands are turning to partnerships to establish a more extensive reach with audiences that align with their products or services.

Consumer protection changes the way brands engage with shoppers

Governments worldwide passed legislation to protect internet user privacy while requiring more transparency in advertising. The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Australia’s recent Privacy Act Review Discussion Paper, and many United States federal and state-wide laws in the United States set clear rules and regulations for consumer data collection.

An average consumer sees 4,000 to 10,000 ads daily — but they’ve learned to tune out promotional content and banner ads like white noise. Users say they’re willing to pay for ad-blocking services to avoid distractions.

Ads don’t simply annoy people; they also increase distrust in information delivered by brands they have no relationship with. Research suggests that trust is imperative in modern consumers’ purchase decisions. Brand-to-brand partnerships solve ad aversion by building trusted relationships with audiences through a collaborative effort.

How do brand-to-brand partnerships work?

Brand-to-brand partnerships allow brands to collaborate on strategic marketing campaigns. They tap into established audience trust and loyalty to grow reach, raise awareness around a campaign, and align with high-intent shoppers— which ultimately increases revenue.

Companies can allocate funds from traditional advertising into brand partnerships that build genuine, long-term relationships with their target audience. By forging reciprocal relationships with brands in similar or complementary industries, brands can:

  • Diversify the current marketing mix
  • Cofunction with the other channels
  • Establish or improve stature in the market

Brand partnerships in action

Consumers see brand-to-brand partnerships in action through everyday online engagement without knowing it. For example, Ticketmaster partnered with Spotify to offer listeners concert tickets to see their favourite performers. The “Get tickets” button became integral to the listening experience—this feature added value both to Spotify and Ticketmaster without feeling like an advertisement.

Kayo Sports, a dedicated sports channel in Australia, collaborated with corporate and commercial partners, sports associations, sporting clubs, grassroots clubs, athletes, and other partners. The brand crafted several creative partnership strategies and, as a result, gained almost 400K new subscribers within nine months.

Brand-to-brand partnerships don't have a strict formula, providing freedom to design partnerships that meet both parties' needs while achieving revenue goals. This format makes partnerships accessible to brands of any size and experience, no matter the budget. The only requirement is a solid strategy and the right technology.

Getting started with brand-to-brand partnerships

Partnering with brands that align with your audience helps spread your reach and establishes you as an influential brand in your industry. Here’s how to begin those conversations:

1. Identify your partnership goals and objectives

Before diving into your first partnership, consider what you want to achieve and align the strategy with your company’s overarching goals. How will your partnership results contribute to them? For example, if you use a partnership to reach a new audience, you can help your company expand its customer base.

2. Make your business case with your team

Once you understand the purpose of your partnership program, draft a strategy to present to your team. Crafting a strategic plan will help you secure a budget and resources to make your brand-to-brand partnership program come to life.

3. Consider a partnership platform

Finding the right tool can make or break your success in managing partnerships. Establishing relationships with partners takes time to communicate, process payments, and analyse performance. Explore partnership platforms focusing on automation, accommodation of multiple partnership types, and program scalability.

4. Discover and recruit your first partners

Explore Your customer journey to decide which partners can help you cover touch points during the buyer’s cycle. Then, use your platform’s discovery tool to search for specific brands and reach out to them. Try to look for different partners - diversification is crucial.

5. Measure success to drive growth

After launching your first campaigns, use the data to analyse your partners’ performance and calculate the results of your collaborations. Then, optimise your strategy to drive even more growth to your partnership program and brand.

Join the newsletter!

Or

Sign up to gain exclusive access to email subscriptions, event invitations, competitions, giveaways, and much more.

Membership is free, and your security and privacy remain protected. View our privacy policy before signing up.

Error: Please check your email address.
Show Comments

Latest Videos

More Videos

More Brand Posts

What are Chris Riddell's qualifications to talk about technology? What are the awards that Chris Riddell has won? I cannot seem to find ...

Tareq

Digital disruption isn’t disruption anymore: Why it’s time to refocus your business

Read more

Enterprisetalk

Mark

CMO's top 10 martech stories for the week - 9 June

Read more

Great e-commerce article!

Vadim Frost

CMO’s State of CX Leadership 2022 report finds the CX striving to align to business outcomes

Read more

Are you searching something related to Lottery and Lottery App then Agnito Technologies can be a help for you Agnito comes out as a true ...

jackson13

The Lottery Office CEO details journey into next-gen cross-channel campaign orchestration

Read more

Thorough testing and quality assurance are required for a bug-free Lottery Platform. I'm looking forward to dependability.

Ella Hall

The Lottery Office CEO details journey into next-gen cross-channel campaign orchestration

Read more

Blog Posts

Marketing prowess versus the enigma of the metaverse

Flash back to the classic film, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Television-obsessed Mike insists on becoming the first person to be ‘sent by Wonkavision’, dematerialising on one end, pixel by pixel, and materialising in another space. His cinematic dreams are realised thanks to rash decisions as he is shrunken down to fit the digital universe, followed by a trip to the taffy puller to return to normal size.

Liz Miller

VP, Constellation Research

Why Excellent Leadership Begins with Vertical Growth

Why is it there is no shortage of leadership development materials, yet outstanding leadership is so rare? Despite having access to so many leadership principles, tools, systems and processes, why is it so hard to develop and improve as a leader?

Michael Bunting

Author, leadership expert

More than money talks in sports sponsorship

As a nation united by sport, brands are beginning to learn money alone won’t talk without aligned values and action. If recent events with major leagues and their players have shown us anything, it’s the next generation of athletes are standing by what they believe in – and they won’t let their values be superseded by money.

Simone Waugh

Managing Director, Publicis Queensland

Sign in