May 16, 2009

Establishing Alliances to Grow Your Business

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This is something I’ve wanted to touch on for a little while. In fact, I had to create a new category to host this (and future topics) of business management and growing your business. This is not related necessarily just to internet marketers, but really can be applied to any business.

The concept of building strategic alliances with similarly aligned business models will be vital to the long term success of your business. Having grown my business from the ground up, and learning much about entrepreneurship along the way – I can say this is one area that I have been rather successful. I will use my business as an example, and then give some other examples with people I have had encounters with.

As a company that focuses on internet marketing, I brought in a business partner to help lay the foundation for a more national approach. We spent several months developing our plan, and a large part of that plan was to start building relationships that catered to our offerings. So, naturally, as an internet marketing company we wanted to establish relationships with web designers. We then looked at other avenues such as video production, tradeshow display companies, graphic designers, and believe it or not, other SEO firms. We knew our price points are rather lower compared to other firms, and we saw us being a quality outsourcing partner for those bigger firms. We’ve built relationships with IT people, branding experts, and more. My point being, they were going to be able to help bring in direct clients because they were people that already had established relationships (trust) with their customers.

I have found that I often times spend time helping business owners build their business by being a consultant and giving advice on things that have absolutely nothing to do with internet marketing. I always look for ways in which you can build relationships with other businesses. I happen to have a great offering, that I can exchange services with just about every company. Some businesses are very niche specific and don’t have that luxury, so it will be a little harder to penetrate. Chances are though, you have something that fellow businesses can appreciate (or else why are you in business?). So, let me just give a couple other examples outside of internet marketing.

One client of ours deals with building restoration. So if there’s a flood, fire, etc, they will come in and take care of the mess. So then you start to look at what customers they are targeting and build a customer profile. This business typically works with homeowners, and sometimes business owners if their building experiences damage. If you have a toilet that overflows, pipe leaks, etc…the customer will call a Plumber most of the time. So I suggested that they build relationships with plumbers. Even landscapers would be a good partner to have because they are in front of potential customers already. You just have to figure out what you’re willing to do in order to build relationships. Maybe some plumbers will just give referrals for nothing, but typically they will probably want some sort of finders fee. It’s worth it – you wouldn’t have gotten that business without them.

Another entrepreneur I met is an interior designer. She was doing it all herself and really had not looked at building partnerships. Well, her ideal customer is one that is remodeling, or else a new home owner. So, you  think about who those ideal customers will be talking to. Realtors? Painters? Contractors? These are all ideal partnerships that need to be explored.

So now the next question after you decide you need to build more alliances is; “How do I find/establish relationships with these people?” Well, you can start by joining social networking sites like LinkedIn and finding people/groups in that fashion. Another option you want to explore is finding networking events in your city. This can be done by joining your city’s Chamber of Commerce. If you’re lucky enough to be in the Phoenix area, there is  also an amazing website that has a great calendar of various networking events over at www.networkingphoenix.com. If you have not done a networking event, it can be a bit overwhelming at first. You just have to remember these are people that have the same goal as you – to establish relationships and build connections. Be approachable, smile, and be yourself.

So, start building those relationships. It’s a win-win!

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Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients.

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