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Eager to implement impactful and memorable marketing campaigns? Learn how to craft a strategic marketing campaign plan that aligns stakeholders and optimizes channel distribution, ensuring goal achievement. Without a plan supported by a content calendar, marketing...
Jan 10, 2025
Collaborative marketing helps you (and others) win through joint promotions, co-branded products, and creative partnerships. Marketing teams that bring their ideas together have more resources to be creative and memorable, among other key benefits.
This involves identifying and managing worthwhile partnerships. But don’t worry, I’ll walk you through strategies and best practices to do this efficiently and discuss content collaboration tools for streamlining and maximizing teamwork.
Collaborative marketing is a strategy where two or more brands join forces to promote a product, service, or campaign. It involves pooling resources, audiences, and expertise to achieve shared gains. Marketing collaboration includes co-branded content, social media cross-promotions, shared events, and affiliate campaigns. This collaborative approach allows businesses to reach larger audiences, increase awareness, boost credibility, and stimulate innovative thinking.
Author John Maxwell popularized the saying “Teamwork makes the dream work.” It’s become a platitude, but there’s truth in truisms.
We know intuitively in everyday life that it’s easier to do things together. Joining forces with a friend or partner to do the housework can save you time, and even save you from failure on more difficult tasks.
However, collaboration is not so intuitive in business. It’s an environment where people can think in more adversarial terms. For example, marketing strategies often start with a competitive analysis and the goal to outsmart industry leaders.
Time to change the framework and pivot! Let’s look at the benefits of collaborative marketing.
No matter how much expertise you have within your marketing team, things can get stale after a while. Creative paths get stuck, and campaigns lack the spark they once had.
Here’s where a strategic alliance can help hugely. A good collaboration partner can come up with innovative ideas or expose you to marketing techniques and tools that you hadn’t considered.
Your team gets access to fresh perspectives, insights, and tactics that make your marketing strategy more dynamic and impactful.
Instead of running in circles, you can expand your marketing initiatives and reach potential customers in new markets.
One of the most powerful benefits of collaborative marketing is its ability to expand your brand’s reach.
Think about how resource-intensive it is to get a wider reach through social media marketing, for example. Expensive ad campaigns sometimes only marginally improve your reach because there’s so much competition.
Partnership marketing means you gain access to other creators’ established audiences, sometimes multiplying your reach across social media platforms. Your message gets across to new demographics and markets instantly as your partner talks about your brand.
When two brands cross-promote each other’s products or services, both benefit from increased visibility and reach fresh audiences in a cost-effective way — more on that below.
Not only do partnerships with like-minded brands help you increase brand awareness, but they also come with the added layer of trust and engagement.
Successful collaborations are created between brands whose audiences are similar or complementary, thus open to interacting with relevant yet fresh content.
Whether through co-hosted webinars, joint social media campaigns, or influencer collaborations, these partnerships can make your online campaigns feel more interactive and exciting, encouraging your audience to take action.
This one’s for the marketing managers and entrepreneurs struggling to make budgets work. Yes, I’m talking to all of you.
Competing can quickly eat away at resources. There will always be a bigger brand with more money to spend, so standing out is a race to an empty marketing wallet.
Collaborative marketing once again saves the day by allowing brands to bring their resources together and split the costs. This means you can execute campaigns and get results that might have otherwise been out of budget.
Brands collaborate to reduce their financial burden by sharing expenses for content creation, paid ads, event hosting, or collaborative marketing tools.
Better results at lower costs? Who doesn’t want a piece of that pie?
Effective collaborative marketing can greatly benefit your brand but it does require careful planning and coordination.
I’ll walk you through the most important aspects of successful marketing campaign management, from setting goals to pitching partners and making sure you’re on the same page — with a few expert insights sprinkled along the way.
Before walking down the rewarding path of collaborative marketing, it’s essential to define what your own brand hopes to achieve.
Does your company need to penetrate new markets, generate more leads, drive sales, or successfully launch a product?
Setting clear goals from the onset will help you choose partners strategically, set realistic expectations, approve the right ideas, and measure KPIs down the road. Different goals might also require reaching out to various partners and multiple target audiences, so this step helps create a collaboration roadmap.
It also sets the stage for defining mutual goals, ensuring the collaboration is in line with your business strategy.
Finding the right partner is crucial for a successful collaboration, and it starts with compatible company cultures.
As Emina Demiri-Watson, Head of Digital Marketing at Vixen Digital, explains:
The most important thing is the cultural fit and value alignment. This is what we look at first. A partner can have amazing reach and the right audience but if their brand is not in line with ours it will never work. After this, the second most important element is being clear on your own objectives. What do you want to get out of the collaboration? It’s not always clear cut and you might miss great partnerships if you only focus on vanity metrics to decide. For example, someone might have very limited reach but the audience is of high quality. Sometimes you collaborate because you share a passion for a cause or you want to learn something. It’s not all about generating leads.
Here are a few things to prioritize when researching partners for your marketing efforts:
Georgia Tan, Co-founder and Head of Search at Switch Key Digital, also highlights the importance of quality and fit:
We don’t chase every shiny object. Identifying collaboration partners starts with aligned target markets and complementary offerings. Then, we dig deeper. We analyze their audience engagement, content style, and brand values. A good fit means amplifying reach without diluting our message.
You know you found a good match when a partner can help you achieve your goals while preserving or even enhancing your brand’s integrity and content standards.
You did your homework and made a list of great potential partners. It’s time to get them on board with a convincing pitch.
To be compelling, start with “why”. Channel your inner Simon Sinek, and list the reasons why the partnership is mutually beneficial.
Your potential partner should clearly understand the following:
Approach all potential partners, big or small, with the same professionalism. Get them excited about the collaboration by showing value.
Don’t cut corners. To increase the likelihood of a positive response, tailor each pitch to fit the needs and goals of every specific brand you’re approaching.
Once you get partners on board, it’s essential to clearly outline the terms of the collaboration. This will set the ground rules for a successful partnership and prevent any confusion along the way.
At this step, all parties involved should establish shared goals, choose how to measure success, and agree on timelines. Emina Demiri-Watson advises:
Define your common objectives, KPIs, and deadlines and ensure everyone understands their roles from the get-go. This is true for any type of marketing but is even more important in collaborations. The more stakeholders you have on a project, the more difficult it becomes if you don’t set the groundwork first.
Set clear expectations early so both teams have a shared understanding of what needs to be done. This helps streamline the process and create a unified collaborative team.
Georgia Tan reinforces the importance of clear communication:
Don’t underestimate the power of clear expectations and communication. The first time around, we assumed goals were aligned. Turns out, success meant different things to each team. Now we iron out key metrics and deliverables upfront. Transparency builds trust and avoids campaigns becoming chaotic.
Taking the time to establish clear objectives and responsibilities helps prevent misunderstandings and ensures the collaboration runs smoothly, with everyone working toward the same outcomes.
Marketing collaboration is difficult because it involves many moving parts.
Without the right tools, managing multiple team members and decision-makers can quickly become chaotic. You don’t want your partnerships to be plagued by missed deadlines, confused responsibilities, and communication breakdowns.
That’s why effective campaign management software is crucial to ensure that everyone across teams can easily participate in the planning, creation, and approval processes.
Setting roles and permissions in a Planable workspace
For example, content collaboration platforms like Planable are great for drafting and editing documents in real time, setting up approval workflows, and creating a shared content calendar.
Collaboration on a newsletter in Planable
The right tool not only streamlines workflows but also fosters transparency and alignment throughout the campaign, establishing the basis for great success in the long run.
Creating a successful collaborative campaign requires close coordination and seamless teamwork with your partner throughout all the creative phases.
The process begins with brainstorming sessions, where both parties bring their unique perspectives and ideas to the table.
As you move into the planning stage, maintain open communication channels with regular check-ins and updates. This way, you ensure both partners stay informed and can address issues promptly.
Real-time feedback is also invaluable, allowing for quick adjustments and preventing misunderstandings that could derail the project.
Georgia Tan emphasizes the importance of structured collaboration:
Shared calendars and project boards have been the best for collaborative marketing. We block out time for brainstorming sessions with partner teams across content, sales, and design. Weekly sprint meetings keep everyone on the same page and momentum high. This jumpstarts cross-pollination of ideas and keeps everyone accountable for their piece of the puzzle.
Content calendar view in Planable
By implementing similar strategies, you, too, can create an efficient workflow.
As you move into the execution phase, streamlined approvals are critical. The last thing you want is for everyone’s hard work to fall behind schedule during the final stages due to bottlenecks.
Consider using collaboration tools like Planable that allow for quick reviews and sign-offs, keeping the project moving forward smoothly.
Approval, collaboration and scheduling features in Planable
It’s time to make the collaboration public and show the world your great ideas.
Going live with a joint campaign is no small feat and can make or break your marketing efforts.
The process involves merging PR tactics, coordinating media outreach, and planning social media interactions between the brands. A shared PR calendar helps keep teams aligned on key dates, press releases, and outreach efforts, ensuring that everyone is aware of their responsibilities.
Additionally, coordinating content distribution is vital for amplifying your message. Schedule social media posts that highlight both brands and encourage audience engagement to create a buzz around the partnership.
Scheduling a Facebook post in Planable
Focus on messages that resonate with both target markets so you maximize reach and also build a sense of excitement around the launch.
The beauty of collaborative marketing is that it can be as diverse as the brands that come together.
Let’s explore a few effective examples that can leverage the strengths of multiple brands.
Content collaboration is typically the first that comes to mind when different brands and creators come together.
This collaborative marketing strategy is versatile and can include co-authored articles, a joint report or research, a series of videos, a podcast, etc.
A successful example is the collaboration between HubSpot and Shopify, where they created a comprehensive guide on eCommerce marketing, complementing the integration of their tools.
This content partnership provided value to the brands’ audiences with useful information and examples while increasing their reach and promoting the usage of both platforms.
Event collaboration involves two or more brands joining forces to host a shared event, such as a webinar, conference, or workshop.
Events are known for their high organization costs and the difficulty of drawing enough participants. All this can be draining for one brand. Also, with a single organizer, the event can become too one-note.
That’s why collaborative marketing is a great fit for events.
An example of a successful event collaboration is the Adobe and The Marketing Society partnership.
The Marketing Society organizes events that bring useful content and networking opportunities to marketing professionals backed by an industry leader. At the same time, Adobe maintains its thought-leadership status and has the chance to showcase its products to a targeted and interested audience.
Integration partnerships involve collaboration between brands to enhance their products or services by combining technical capabilities or resources.
These partnerships are designed to create a seamless user experience, allowing customers to benefit from both brands’ offerings in a unified manner.
Such collaborations often result in improved product functionality, increased user satisfaction, and expanded market reach.
A great example of a successful integration partnership is Planable’s collaboration with Canva. This collaboration allows users to design eye-catching graphics in Canva and seamlessly publish them through Planable’s social media management platform.
Both companies have enhanced their product value, and the best part is that users win the most. They can now create an efficient workflow that combines design and scheduling — which I know first-hand is extremely valuable for content creators.
As Emina Demiri-Watson explains:
When I was in-house for SaaS products, one of the common areas I worked on a lot was integration partnerships. Those campaigns were usually the most successful in many ways – from getting new users into the product to awareness raising. After all, you are essentially improving your product, not just running a marketing campaign.
Emina’s experience highlights how integration partnerships can drive growth and boost sales rather than less efficient, standalone marketing efforts.
Co-marketing campaigns involve brands teaming up to promote a shared product, service, or initiative — or several of them.
A famous collaborative marketing partnership is the one between Red Bull and GoPro. Despite their different industries, these two companies formed a successful alliance in 2016. Red Bull invested in GoPro, and GoPro became the exclusive provider of action cameras for Red Bull’s media productions and events.
The two companies constantly launch co-marketing campaigns, from creating series together to promoting mountain bike events.
Maybe your partnerships don’t take it as far as this last example, but it shows that anything is possible, even between seemingly different brands.
Collaborative marketing offers brands a great opportunity to combine strengths, access new perspectives, and reach larger audiences. It’s a strategic way to optimize marketing strategies not by competing but by working together.
If you’re looking for an excellent tool for managing collaborative content projects and online campaigns, Planable is the answer. Try it now and get 50 free posts upon signing up.
Sabina is a freelance writer with 15+ years of experience in the MarCom industry. Her to-do list includes helping people write better and businesses sell more through content. She is the host of Zest, a podcast that brings writing within listeners’ reach.
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