Table of Contents
Reading Time: 4 minutes
Tired of spinning the same content to the same target audience day in and day out? Struggling to market to a broader audience with your creative juices drying up? It's normal to feel like you've blogged about every topic worth blogging about when you've been in the business for years.
To reach a broader audience and grow your business, you must be creative in approaching content creation. Let other influencers join your marketing efforts to promote your content to people you might not otherwise reach on your own!
What is Content Collaboration?
Content collaboration is a partnership among content creators to boost promotions. The collab could be a one-time project or an ongoing partnership to generate branded content. There are different types of content collaborations, but the most popular are:
- Marketing a collaborative product, service, or event
- Hosting a masterclass or a webinar featuring each other's expertise to a shared audience
- Hosting a sit-down interview, a video series, or a podcast
- Developing a branded online course, an ebook, or visuals
- Featuring or taking over each other's social media to educate or entertain each other's audience
- Guest posting
- Partnership deals and discounts
- Joint ads
Benefits of Content Collaboration
Target a fresh audience
Through cross-promotions, you can promote your business to people you might not otherwise reach on your own. A collab enables you to double or even triple your audience size and reach highly targeted customers.
Reduced marketing costs
Content collaboration sounds fancy or complicated but don't worry – you won't spend a small fortune by teaming up with other partners. It's the opposite; you can split costs between brand partners, so you're spending less on content creation and marketing!
Improve your brand
Credibility is everything when trying to make a name for yourself online. By teaming up with established collaborators, you can boost your brand's credibility, give the perception of trustworthiness, and become popular by association.
New ideas and fresh perspective
Working with other people leads to fresh ideas because of the new energy! If you've been having writer's block or struggling to find new ideas to entertain your audience, working with like-minded people might inspire you to get creative again!
Boost productivity
Working on your own can take its toll. When teaming up with collaborators, tasks are divided among yourselves, so you are never overloaded with work and feeling burned out. And when problems crop up, you can count on your partners to work through every issue.
What to Look for in a Collaborator
Similar Audience/Personas
When looking for a collaboration partner, you must find personalities with similar target markets or buyer personas. You don't want to partner with a radically different brand because your target audience might not be interested in their business and vice versa.
Similar or Complementing Branding
A successful collaborative project usually consists of two complementing brands. There has to be a mutual ground between the two brands to spark interest among their shared audiences.
For example, GoPro x Red Bull's collaborative partnership was a commercial success because both brands are popular among thrill-seekers and travellers. The same thing can be said for the BMW x Louis Vuitton collab. Both brands are some of the most coveted luxury brands, and naturally, brand-conscious consumers want a piece of their branded products.
Shared or Similar Promotional Goals
Collabs are mutually beneficial, and for them to work, you have to seek a partner that shares the same marketing goals as you have. When you share the same goal, you and your partner will work harder to achieve it together.
Where to Find Collaborators for Your Business
Where to find potential partners for a collaborative project? You can seek market leaders, popular personalities, influencers, and complementing brands below:
Online groups and industry orgs
Go online and check out online forums, Facebook groups, and other industry organisations to share ideas and strategies to achieve your goals. By joining online groups, you'll meet industry pros and get expert advice from market leaders and group members.
Search for complementing businesses online
- Look for and team up with complementary brands online.
- Create an attractive collab proposal.
- Find ways to market each other on various platforms.
You can offer referrals, discounts, or other incentives to cross-promote a collab product or service with your partner. You can also offer to host in-person or online social events to educate/entertain your respective audiences while marketing the joint project.
Go local
Seek out local business owners and propose a joint project to attract local customers and, ultimately, extend your reach. The key here is to find complementary businesses in your local area and find ways to promote each other on various platforms, especially on social media. You can propose a short course, a mentorship program, or branded visuals as part of the project.
Scour social media for potential partnerships
Social media sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram offers a wealth of collab opportunities. Start by checking out complementing brands your followers follow or joining online groups. You can also ask your own followers what brands they want you to collab with. You'd be surprised how vocal your followers are regarding the brands they want to see you work with!
Referrals from your personal network
While seeking potential partnerships online is the easiest way to do it; you can leverage your private network to find new partners to collaborate with. Connect with old colleagues, mentors, and entrepreneurial friends and see how you can work together on a project. Even if these people aren't interested in a collab, they can give their insights or offer their services to boost your business.
Your next big thing could start with a simple collab project. You will gain new audiences by going out there and actively seeking collaboration opportunities while staying on top of your current customers' minds. Give content collaboration a try and discover how it takes your marketing results to a different level!
