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joint venture marketing
Reaching out to potential customers through a joint venture marketing partner by hosting an educational seminar is an effective way to attract new clients. There are a couple of ways to set up and host a seminar in order to get in front of new customers, the most popular being a meeting in person or a webinar that is done over the web. It’s essential when preparing to host a seminar that the focus of the seminar is a topic that will be of interest to the audience and be educational about the topic versus a pure business pitch selling a product or service. Remember to capture the content created during the seminar in order to use it for future marketing activities. Work closely with partners to craft exciting and interesting topics that will strengthen both companies’ brands with the target audience and consider opening the events up to anyone that may be interested as another channel for attracting new clients for both companies in the partnership.
Meet Up or Webinar to Attract New Clients
The first major decision that needs to be made when considering to host an educational seminar with a joint venture partner is whether the event should be a real in-person meeting or done through the web in the form of a webinar. There are pros and cons for both and here are few of the most common differences and items to be aware of when making a decision.
A meeting in person is beneficial because a face-to-face interaction allows for a much different relationship to form with potential clients versus an online exchange. It also allows provides more structure for the seminar and can be planned around a breakfast, lunch, or dinner which is often appreciated by people attending. If setting up an in-person seminar, then it’s also important to have marketing collateral prepared and printed as well as product samples on site if relevant. Live seminars should be video recorded in order to be used online later for building a library of interesting information for other future potential customers that are also interested in learning about the topic of the seminar. The biggest drawback for a live meeting are the costs associated with hosting such an event, especially if a location needs to be rented to host the seminar and the seminar is restricted to only a specific geographic area. However, if a partner has a conference room or larger meeting space that can be utilized and the number of potential clients in a specific area warrants a seminar in person then it should be highly considered.
An online webinar is a very effective method to reach many potential customers very easily. This is the best method if the customer base is spread over a large region. Depending on the platform that is chosen for hosting the webinar, the host can still share marketing collateral, PowerPoint presentations, and links with the audience. A webinar is generally easier to record, share or publish to the web and many webinar platforms have this capability built into the product.
Utilize Social Media to Maximize Seminars
Maximize your decision to host a seminar for a joint venture marketing partner’s existing clients by opening the seminar up to the public and promoting it through both company’s social media accounts. An industry related educational seminar should always be looked at as a way for both companies to increase their presence with potential customers. If a live seminar is being recorded it can also be streamed live so anyone that is not able to attend in-person can still attend via the web. Services like Ustream and Justin.tv allow for anyone to easily live stream video from the event. If your event is open to the public you can promote it through sites like MeetUp.com or eventful.com. Make sure that all partners promote seminars through their Facebook and Twitter accounts as well as through more traditional means such as mailers, email, phone calls, and personal recommendations to attend.
Remember when hosting an educational seminar the focus should be on the topic at hand for the majority of the event and through providing interesting and relevant information. The goal is to be seen as an industry expert that can help the potential customers which will ultimately attract new clients. Spending too much time directly pitching a product or service can be a hindrance to developing relationships with potential customers and be a turn off, so go easy with the pitch and have fun educating people about a topic that can be presented with passion.
christian fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A joint venture marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.
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