Why partnerships boost retail businesses
Key takeaways:
Partnerships are essential for brick and mortar business to generate more sales.
Buyers fatigue is common, and tapping into another business’ audience an help.
If you’re considering partnerships as a growth channel, you’re in the right spot. Partnership marketing is an invaluable tool, especially in a physical community where people are looking to their peers or trusted businesses to make purchasing decisions.
If you own a brick and mortar business and want to generate more sales in your city, here are six reasons you should consider partnerships.
To demonstrate an example, I’m sharing a real local brand I love - LINK x LOU - and a hypothetical jewelry experience they’re hosting. For reference LINKxLOU offers permanent jewelry that’s welded together so there’s no clasp.
1. Partnerships expand your audience
When you work with other brands, you have the ability to reach their audience. Let’s say your brick and mortar shop hosts a LINK x LOU jewelry experience like Royal Flooring did.
They will post about the experience to their email list, social followers and/or on their website and strategically tag your location and brand. That content will reach an audience that may have never heard of you, or people who haven’t made it to your shop yet. Whether it’s 200 or 20,000 followers, you are now in front of all of those individuals who have the opportunity to learn about you, visit your shop, get a bracelet and likely purchase an item (or several!) at your shop.
2. social proof is built through Partnerships
According to Sprout Social, “social proof is the psychological concept that people are influenced in their decision making by others.” Most of social proof is subtle, but as consumers, we are constantly looking for validation to make a purchase or follow a brand. Let’s go back to the LINK x LOU example. When they post about a brand, consumers may subconsciously think “I like LINK x LOU and LINK x LOU is doing an event at Marnē, therefore I will probably like Marnē.” Maybe you only get two customers to the event, but you gained 50 followers who now instantly trust you because LINK x LOU posted about you.
3. working with other brands can increase your revenue
So you got two people to your LINK x LOU experience – while that may feel like a “miss,” those two customers may have never heard about you until LINK x LOU’s post! Let’s say one made a $300 purchase, and the other bought a $20 candle. If they love their products, they will likely come back and continue to buy from you for years in the future. You can now add them to your email list and continue to add value for them.
4. Partnerships add value for your own customers
Hosting a jewelry experience like LINK x LOU is a great way for existing customers to have an excuse to come in! They were maybe eyeing some of the new arrivals you posted on Instagram but now the LINK x LOU experience tipped a few of them over the edge. They booked their appointment and now they’re in, getting their bracelet and the items that caught their eye.
5. sharing audiences can grow your social following
As mentioned before, if you only look at revenue achieved from one visit, you’re missing the long-tail benefits that come from partnerships, like growing your social following. Take the time to see who is newly following you! You could send them a DM with 10% off your first order if they stop in within 2-3 weeks. This way, they’ll see your stuff and could be a customer in 2 weeks, 2 months or 2 years just because they saw the partnership come from LINK x LOU.
6. improve your social ad performance with an extended audience
If you’re running paid social ads as part of your strategy, you’ll now be able to retarget the individuals that visit your Instagram Page from the post LINK x LOU made about your upcoming partnership. As targeting gets harder and it’s easier to fatigue existing audiences, partnerships give you a whole new audience to capture.
Local partnership example
Doll Distributing is a third-generation beverage distributor that serves Iowa and Minnesota. They partnered with Big Grove Brewery on a campaign where hyperlocal influencers were invited to the brewery for a yoga class taught by Power Life. Participants received a $20 gift card to Big Grove Brewery and a 6 pack to take home! After, the influencers posted about their experience on social media so their entire local network could hear about it.
