How To Work With Your “Competitors” To Cross and Co-Market
Cost effective ways to market cooperatively to compete with the “big boys”
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Do you view your competitors as companies over which you need to triumph? If so you are probably missing out on a key strategy for competing with large companies and corporations, AND a way to market that has virtually no direct cost: Cross and Co-Marketing.
What Are Cross and Co-Marketing?
For our purposes we need not start nitpicking the differences between cross and co-marketing, but here are some general definitions:
Cross Marketing: The process of marketing across product lines, whether you sell them or not. You may be more familiar with a similar process: upselling.
Co-Marketing: The process of working with one or more companies with the purpose of marketing different products offered by those different companies. In effect, this involves marketing by cooperating with competitors in areas where the services and products do not directly overlap.
Again for our purposes we’ll use the term co-marketing to refer to cooperation across product lines that aims to benefit several companies at once.
Background Information About Competitors and Co-Marketing
In any niche, there will be a number of companies that offer products or services that are related, but are not necessarily identical. The offerings from different companies often address slightly different needs on the part of potential clientele. For example, a small used car dealership may specialize in Volkswagens, while another in pickup trucks. Technically, they are competitors but they serve different markets. Someone interested in carrying stuff around is unlikely to be interested in a “Beetle”, and vice versa.
Another example: A small training company that specializes in teaching people to communicate effectively is in a similar market with another company that offers training in conflict resolution. At first glance, those companies are competitors, but what if they don’t actually offer training seminars that cover the same material? What if the goals of the seminars of each respective…
