With all the emerging media and new marketing trends developing, a lot of marketers seem to be forgetting about the good old fashioned ways of driving revenue and retaining customers. There tends to be a singular approach to advertising businesses – an ‘everyone fend for themselves’ way of thinking – at least, that’s what I’m seeing a lot of now. Whatever happened to small businesses linking arms with each other and creating a collective force within their community to drive new business and strengthen bonds with existing customers?

Well, I was happy to come across today’s Duct Tape Marketing blog post that reintroduced this concept as a way to offer value to the customer and grow new business. In his post, John Jantsch discusses the power of teaming up with other businesses that complement your product or services to optimize your marketing dollar and offer better value to your customers. He suggests a more personal affiliate marketing approach:

What if you went out there and looked at the other things your customers need and buy and you recruited a team of partners to give you high value samples or trial products to pair with your core offerings as a way to differentiate and sweeten the deal?

…There are hundreds of ways to approach this and, done well, a smart marketer can greatly enhance their own core offerings, create referral relationships and add passive revenue streams.

In addition to the ‘idea starters’ he notes in his post, I found another great example of what he’s talking about in terms of valuable affiliate marketing on Steve’s Blog:

For instance, imagine the possibilities of a cleaning service, gardener and real estate agent working together. Agents selling homes could recommend a thorough cleaning and adjustments to a home’s curb appeal while the property is on the market. The benefit to the cleaning service and landscaper is new business. The agent, in return for recommending a particular cleaning service and/or landscaper, can negotiate a discounted cleaning or free landscaping consultation for new homeowners. This extra touch offered by the agent to their client may help to build customer loyalty and word-of-mouth referrals.

In the end, it’s all about value and relevancy. As John Jantsch puts it:

The key is to focus on value not volume. Anyone can go out and sign up for a bunch of affiliate programs and start pumping those into the mix. Or, gather up promotional materials from other businesses to insert in the products you ship. While these approaches may offer some value, I think you can make this strategy a real winner with a little bit of creative thinking.

Fin. Have a productive day!