Information partnership as an integral part of outbound marketing

The market for multidisciplinary, specialized conferences, events and professional get-togethers is growing every year. Not only the scale of specialized events has expanded, but also their formats – not only offline, but also online.

How can a marketer effectively and correctly use this trend?

Look into the theory of modern marketing, or rather one of its areas – outbound marketing (outbound-marketing). An integral part of outbound-marketing is information partnership.

Infopartnership is a marketing method, the essence of which is that you partner with someone within the framework of events, conferences, webinars and mutually advertise the product or service of infopartners on your resources. Another media partnership is called double branding.

I will tell you my experience on the example of search and interaction within the framework of specialized conferences. Most of the stages are universal and applicable in other types of information partnership.

Stages of the task “Information partnership”

The following stages of the implementation of the information partnership tasks can be distinguished:

1. Find what your strength, resource. After all, the rule of effective communication says: “First give, and then ask.” A resource for a partnership can be the popularity of your product or personal brand, a popular blog or social media accounts, an active and high-quality email database, etc.

Think about what will be interesting and useful to your future media partners.

2. Search for conferences. For ourselves, we set the task of participating in various conferences. We were looking for narrow topics, both relevant to our services, and broader ones – business, team management, HR, etc.

Here is a list of resources to look for:

Another good way to find conferences is to look at the major themed events in your area, which often take place every year.

Facebook feed, your colleagues – can also become sources of information about events.

Be sure to enter information in a separate table or other document convenient for you.

3. Compiling a letter template. Prepare the text of the letter. In addition to the standard blocks – a greeting, a message about who you are and what company you represent – indicate clearly in the letter what conditions you are ready to provide and what you expect from the organizers.
4. Negotiation. At the stage of agreeing on the terms of information cooperation, specify all the details of participation. Since it happens that one concept or condition, but may have different meanings for each of the parties. Be sure to record the final version of the agreements in writing.

Another important rule is that if you are not satisfied with the conditions, the culture of communication and negotiation, then give yourself the right not to continue negotiations. Information partnership is about mutual exchange and the desire to jointly solve problems, and not a one-sided game.

5. Control is our everything! At this stage, fulfill the conditions for the fulfillment of your obligations. Send in time the necessary materials, and links to partner publications. Here it is important to reduce the unrest of the other side, and show in practice that you are a reliable media partner. And, of course, carefully control the other side as well.

Invest systemic efforts in the information partnership, and you will return the investment in the form of: