Some of the best business decisions came about from strategic alliances. Picture this: a bride walks into a florist shop to purchase a floral arrangement for her wedding. While there, she sees an advertisement for a great deal on wedding cakes from a nearby bakery.
Meanwhile, another bride visits that bakery and discovers they can get a great deal on a floral arrangement from the florist. Since each business is not competing with each other, they have found it to their advantage to promote one another, referring customers back and forth to increase sales.
This is what we call Alliance Marketing. It occurs when companies cooperate to jointly promote and sell a product, service, or even a concept. It can take place on any scale as long as it provides a benefit to all involved. In the DJ industry, working with other vendors and forming an alliance where you can benefit each other is just as important as networking with other DJs. It drives growth, revenue, and trust between all vendors involved.
Fundamentally, it means committing to pool your resources, whether those resources are knowledge/expertise or brand recognition/reputation, to achieve a result that would be more costly to obtain independently. Your customers are frequently attracted to businesses employing alliance marketing strategies because there’s a trust element involved.
Alliance Marketing can involve the following:
• Advertising: This could be traditional print (posters, flyers, etc), radio, tv or digital marketing
• Causes: Supporting social or environmental causes with a joint initiative
• Press Releases: Information sent out to news organizations to highlight the shared initiative
• Social Media: Sharing content between channels (Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Tik Tok, etc)
• Virtual Meetings: Create public podcasts and virtual meetings with each alliance partner to discuss info that your clients would find valuable
As a DJ, it’s beneficial to you to visit venues, bakeries, photo studios, florists, etc. and put together a strong alliance and marketing strategy to build business between you and them collectively. The best strategic alliances are ones that offer clear benefits to the audiences of every single brand that is working together. Everything has to be conducted evenly because if one alliance partner is doing more than the others, it won’t work for the long term. Look for a partner with a similar audience and similar goals and be clear on what the partnership will offer to everyone that is involved with it.
When the strategic partnership appeals to all audiences, then the businesses are able to expand their reach and generate more sales. It’s a win-win strategy! See everyone at DJ Expo in August!
Joshua Volpe owns Kalifornia Entertainment in Rochester, N.Y.
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