Articles
Cross Collaboration
to Grow your brand's Reach
Cross collaboration can be an effective way for businesses to grow their reach and ultimately increase sales. By partnering with another brand, you can tap into their customer base and expose your brand to a whole new audience. In this post, we'll dive into the benefits of cross collaboration and provide a basic outline on how to approach another business about collaborating with them.
By partnering with another brand, you can leverage their existing customer base and increase exposure of your own brand. This can be a very effective strategy when partnering with a brand that shares a similar target audience, as it allows you to tap into a group of potential customers who may already be interested in your type of product or service.
When two reputable brands partner up, it sends a message to customers that they are both trustworthy and reliable. This can help to build trust with your own customers and increase loyalty, as they are more likely to continue to do business with a brand they trust.
By collaborating with another brand, you can offer joint promotions, bundle deals or create cross-selling opportunities that can drive sales for both brands. This can be particularly effective if you are targeting a new customer demographic or if you have complementary products or services.
Approaching another business to do a cross collaboration can seem like a daunting task, but with a clear plan in place, it can be an effective way to grow your business. Here are some simple steps to consider before approaching another business for a cross collaboration:
Research potential partner brands: Start by identifying businesses that align with your brand values and target audience. Look for businesses that offer complementary products or services and have a similar customer base.
Make an initial connection: Reach out to the potential partner brand with a friendly introduction, i lean more towards an in person introduction, but you can also reach out with a simple email or on social media. Introduce yourself and your brand and explain why you think a collaboration could be mutually beneficial.
Be clear about your proposal: Once you've established a connection, present a clear proposal outlining what you can offer the other brand and what you hope to achieve from the collaboration. This should include details on what you can bring to the table, such as social media exposure or access to your customer base.
Be open to suggestions: Remember that collaborations should be mutually beneficial for both parties. Be open to suggestions from the other brand, and be willing to compromise to find a solution that works for both parties.
Set clear expectations: Once you've agreed to collaborate, it's important to set clear expectations on what each brand will bring to the collaboration and what the desired outcomes are. This can include timelines, marketing plans, and goals for the collaboration.
Follow up: Once the collaboration is underway, be sure to follow up regularly to ensure that both parties are meeting their obligations and that the collaboration is meeting its goals. This can include regular check-ins and progress reports.
Growing your business reach doesn’t necessarily have to be something you do on your own. Finding another brand that can also benefit from a collaboration can be a great way to expand your reach. Are there any businesses you can see yourself partnering with? Send us a message on social media of your collaboration and let us know how both of your businesses are benefiting from the collaboration.
Local Visibility: Optimize Your Google Business Profile for Maximum Impact
Whether you’re just starting out or already established, optimizing your Google business profile is a crucial step to improving your local visibility and reaching new customers. With 95% of shoppers using the internet before making a purchase decision and 35% of searches being local in nature, having an accurate listing on Google can make all the difference. Here are some key tips for optimizing your Google business profile so that you can get more eyes on your business and take advantage of the power of Google.
Update your primary and secondary categories: Add all relevant categories to your profile, this will give you more of an opportunity to rank when customers are searching for specific services near them.
Update your contact options: Make sure all your contact information is correct and up to date. Phone number, Address, Website, Service area, Business Hours. The last thing you want is to be losing customers because your hours are not updated or because a link to your website is no longer working correctly.
Update your business descriptions: When writing your business description, consider the 750-character limit and try to front load the most important information you want customers to read in the first 160 to 250 characters. It’s okay to use the full 750 characters, just keep in mind that they will have to click on the read more button in order to get the full description. This makes it less likely that they will get your full message if you have the most important information towards the end of your description. The business description is also an opportunity to leverage SEO and Keywords, so take your time writing out your description. Lastly, review Google Business Description guidelines before you update your description. Now that you have created a great business description, the last thing you want is to have your profile suspended.
Add products and services:Here is another great way to help improve your opportunities to rank when customers are searching for products or services you offer. Did you know Google offers a free way to automatically upload your products? For those of you who have a brick and mortar location, you can take advantage of Google’s Pointy service. A Google study shows that 72% of customers are more likely to shop at a store where they can see if a product is available.
Fill out Q&A section: Although there currently isn’t any data that shows if there is or isn't a benefit from filling out the Q&A section of your Google Business Profile, we believe it doesn’t hurt to fill it out. As it is, Google has shown us that they reward businesses that consistently upload content. Create a list of your most commonly asked questions, this could be a short list of 4 or 5 questions or what ever you feel is appropriate. Need help with your list of questions? Start by looking at your competition's Google Business Profile and gather some inspiration. You can also use sites like Quora or Answer the public to get ideas of questions that are relevant to your business.
Upload photos: Create a weekly upload schedule and share the latest activity at your business. Share new products, or even encourage customers to upload a photo of their experience at your business. The name of the game here is to show activity at your business. From the customers' perspective, they will be interested in finding out what all the fuss is about.
Setup messaging function: It’s just a few clicks and the messaging functions is up and running. Make it as easy as possible for customers to reach you by activating the messaging function in your Google Business Profile. You can also set up an automatic response, informing customers you will reach out as soon as you are available. This is a great feature to help you capture more leads in between customers or after hours. Ideally though you will want to respond to these leads as quickly as possible as they tend to go cold quickly since they are actively looking for a solution to their problem.
Publish your first Google post: Create an upload schedule once a week or every other day to update customers with any new products or activities at your business. Make sure to take your time writing out the caption for your post and keep SEO and Keywords in mind. Uploading posts are a great way to create excitement and interest for both new and current customers. Keep them coming back for more.
Leverage reviews: Reviews bring the customers in. Encourage customers to leave a review and watch your ranking rise. Make sure to answer both positive and negative reviews. You can’t win them all, but you can sure show your next customer that you are trying. Copy and the review link in your GMB profile and send it to customers (text, email, or leverage Googles marketing kit)