An important part of running your business is to bring in new business. Consistently adding new customers who can buy your products or services ensures your profits stay up. A great way to expand your reach into the marketplace is to pair up with like-minded businesses to create a joint venture.
Pairing up with your competition might seem counterintuitive but trust me it’s not. A joint venture is a great way to couple up with other companies that have audiences who you know are interested in your product and/or service line.
In internet based businesses joint venturing involves one company sending an offer to another companies email list. These offers most often sell a product or offer a special bonus if you sign up for their free newsletter. When you do a joint venture with another company you generally work it one of two ways.
The first way is called a straight swap. That’s when both parties involved run their offers to each list and each one keeps the money their offer pulls in. You are swapping the opportunity to run to each other’s list. This has the potential to make one company more money than the other one. Some offers are better than others and this can cause some companies to do really well while others seem to flounder.
Joint venturing (JV) is all about relationship building and you want to always make sure your partner is happy with the deal. People like to work with people who are fair and helpful. Even if you are the company that made less money in the venture it is important to make sure the other company is happy. At some point you’ll want to run another offer to their list, right? You’ll want to retest your offer after you’ve made some adjustments or run another offer altogether. This is why it’s always important to make the other company you are working with happy, so you can continue to run your offers to their lists.
The second type of joint venture is called a 50/50 deal. Company A runs their offer to company B’s list and vice versa. No matter how much either company makes they split the money with each other 50/50, straight down the middle. This type of JV is most common when two companies work together for the first time. It keeps everything fair and ensures everyone’s happiness.
The biggest complaint I get from my students when I teach them about JV’s is that their list sizes aren’t large enough to entice other potential partners to do deals with them. That argument is ridiculous and weak. I tell my students to think outside of the box and imagine what you do have to offer them. If you are really good with designing graphics offer to create a new logo or webpage for them. If you know how to do something they don’t offer to do it for them or teach them how to do it for a chance to run your offer to their list. Offer to write articles they can run for free to their list or help them with a new product they are working on. This can be a great way to build up a budding relationship with another company in your industry.
If You Can’t Beat ‘Em Join ‘Em
If I’ve convinced you that doing a joint venture is right for your business your first step needs to be finding a company to partner up with. You need to find someone in your industry you’d like to run your offers to.
The first people you should approach are the companies that you see as your direct competitors. Look at the companies that sell products or services similar to yours. If your company sells earrings and necklaces approach other jewelry makers. You know their customers are jewelry buyers and might be interested in your stock as well.
It’s important to note that you don’t necessarily need to look for someone that sells products exactly like yours. A lot of times companies that sell products or services about finances and the markets have offers that work well to companies that sell supplements and health care information. Don’t limit yourself; your main focus is to build relationships within the email marketing community. The more contacts and relationships you build the more potential customers you can reach.
When approaching a potential JV partner it’s important to explain the benefits of the joint venture to them. Make sure to tell them every facet of the deal, especially when it comes to how they’ll benefit. Highlight the potential profit they could make from instant sales to backend income. Your pitch needs to be strong and most of all fair on all sides to win over potential partners.
One thing you might consider doing is sending your potential JV partner a copy of the product/service you intend to run to their list. Giving them a test drive will put them at ease and increase your chances of striking up a partnership. No list owner wants to run low quality products to their list, no matter how good the deal is. They want to insure they do not damage the relationship they have built up with their list.
If you want to learn more about how joint ventures are brokered I invite you to check out Instant Internet Income. My mentor James Sheridan put together a great educational DVD that covers all aspects of joint ventures. He will show you how to make money this way without a website, a product, seed money or much time. He will eliminate all the reasons why you think you can’t do this and tell you how you can make money legitimately with joint ventures.
Until next time…
Ethan Warrick
Editor & CEO
