Digital marketing is a cost-effective technique of advertising your company that has greatly impacted the current business environment. Although most ventures use a wide-ranging collection of digital channels to promote their brands, it is apparent that dozens of niches have not yet been fully engaged.

If you are looking forward to taking your online campaigns to a whole new level, cross-promotion is an exceptional channel to consider. Generally, cross-promotion helps you in building a strong online presence by focusing on attracting customers by allowing them to view products they may be interested in.

To help you capitalize on this rewarding online marketing channel, we’ll give you a full introduction to cross-promotion. Our definitive guide will capture key aspects of cross-promotion, including:

  • What is cross-promotion?
  • Key cross-promotion features
  • Advantages of cross-promotion
  • How to get started with cross-promotion

Without any further ado, let’s get going!

What Is Cross-Promotion?

In basic terms, cross-promotion is an advertising technique that focuses on creating awareness among shoppers of other products available other than the ones they originally looked for. Applicable for both established companies and upcoming ones, cross-promotion takes two main approaches, which are:

  • Suggesting complementing products to your shoppers
  • Suggesting similar products that offer additional features and functionalities

Simply the main concept behind cross-promotion is to market complementing products simultaneously. As a result, this technique has gained significant traction in the advertising industry, especially when creating awareness of newly launched brands. While cross-promotion features in different but complementing businesses, at the end of the day, both parties ultimately benefit.

Features of Cross-Promotion

Cross-promotion is a cost-effective method of looping customers, and it nurtures a win-win scenario for all the players. To attain a beneficial situation, cross-promotion employs two main features. They are:

1. Customer touch points

Just like any other advertisement strategy, cross-promotion heavily relies on points of interaction where potential customers can experience your brand at various levels. Generally, there are various avenues where shoppers can encounter your products. Cross-promotion focuses on inserting links on partnering products, thus allowing customers to view your products as probable options.

2. Related products

Obviously, companies partaking in cross-promotion vend items with related functionalities. For marketing platforms like Amazon, this helps create an extensive options list, ultimately improving the overall customer experience.

If you already offer your own related products, use a cross-sell or related product app to show customers their best options.

Why You Should Care About Cross-Promotion

Undeniably, cross promotion is one of the cheapest techniques for creating an online presence and boosting overall brand sales. Actually, there are dozens of benefits of integrating cross-promotion in your marketing strategy, including the following:

  • Offers an avenue to quickly implement a sturdy online presence
  • Allows you to partner with trusted brands which helps illuminate your brand as equally prestigious
  • Enhances remarketing operations by allowing you to follow up on shoppers who viewed your products but did make an order

How To Get Started With Cross-Promotion

With more ventures fiercely rivaling for market dominance, futuristic organizations have embarked on cross-promotion campaigns to gain an edge over their competitors. While this is indeed an ingenious marketing strategy to boost product loyalty and drive sales, as an upcoming entrepreneur you may find yourself struggling to kick start your cross-promotion advertisement.

As much as it may sound intimidating, cross-promotion is arguably one of the most beneficial and simplest marketing strategies you can ever dream of.  There are multiple aspects involved in launching and successfully running this advertising technique. Some of the most essential requirements include:

1. Establishing a target audience

Just like all advertising strategies, to create a thriving cross-promotion campaign, it is imperative to first identify the customers you are targeting. First and foremost, you should establish the culture, age, and interests of your target audience so as to be able to devise the best avenue to reach them.

For example, if your audience ranges between age 25 and 50, your cross-promotion campaign should focus on products targeting shoppers within the same age bracket. Additionally, establishing your target audience will also give you critical insights on platforms best fit for your business. Typically, social media sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are some of the best platforms to successfully cross-promote your brand.

Defining your audience necessitates massive research where you will establish other relevant brands potential customers are interested in, as well as influencers they have subscribed to.

2. Choose a non-competing partner

Having perfectly understood your target audience and established all the relevant brands they are interested in, the next and arguably the core stage of starting a cross-promotion campaign is selecting a non-competing partner to collaborate with.

If you’re dealing with a virgin business, you may like to consider partnering with a powerful organization that receives thousands of views on a daily basis. Some of the best partners to consider include:

  • Non-competing businesses within your local area
  • Non-profit organizations
  • Influencers
  • Companies operating outside your niche

Tip

Before committing to an agreement, it is important to first discuss with your partner the terms of your collaboration. Most important of all, establish a partnership that offers mutual benefits.

Tips For A Successful Cross-promotion Campaign

1. Develop a joint newsletter

Tie your brand to your partner’s in an organic and compelling way. Typically this can be achieved through developing a joint newsletter where each of you will be obligated to send it to your customers.

2. Extend your cross-campaigns to social media sites

Essentially, cross-promotion is an ingenious marketing scenario where two relevant brands help each by reciprocating business opportunities. Having understood that, an ideal cross-marketing strategy not only involves mobilizing your clients to purchase complementing items from your partner through emails, but also getting involved in active promotion, especially on social media. Incorporate your partner’s website links that suggest the best places your customers can find complementing items.

3. Pledge incentives for cross-orders

Another incredible technique of boosting sales with cross-promotion is offering discounts or gift cards, among other incentives, to customers who place an order of complementing items from both parties.

Conclusion

Cross-promotion is a great method that enables you to thrive in already established avenues and expand your target audience. Through incorporating cross-promotion in your digital marketing strategy, you will have a chance to significantly narrow your campaign and focus on potential customers in a cost-effective approach. It is a vibrant technique that improves the efficiency of digital marketing ultimately increasing sales.