Lesson 6: Finding the Right Partners
Welcome back, .
I’m so glad you’ve made it to week 6. This lesson’s is one of the keys to your list building success, because part of the way you’ll be growing your list is to use other people’s lists. (That’s why it was so important to review your target market before jumping to this point.)
Before we get started on finding your ideal joint venture partners, let’s take a step back for a minute. I want to tell you a story that happened to me.
I created my Be Heard holiday five years ago, and as part of it, I gave away a free fill-in press release. My goal was to get the day noticed and hopefully get some more people on my list. But here’s the thing. I sent it to holiday giveaway details to MY list and sent a press release out about it to the LOCAL media.
So what do you think happened? Yup, my list didn’t grow that much.
It wasn’t until I realized I had to find others who already were marketing to my target market: solo professionals, coaches, entrepreneurs, consultants and small business owners that my list grew by leaps and bounds (almost overnight).
But here’s the thing: the key is to find people who are reaching your target market.
Has anyone ever seen one of those big JV Giveaways?
They sound pretty exciting. As a matter of fact, one got me so excited I HAD to register. They promised their emails would hit more than 3 million people. Who wouldn’t want that kind of exposure for their business? I sure did.
And that was just plain dumb!
Here’s why: I registered and submitted my product. Turns out everyone and their mother did too!
And the problem with that:
Not everyone had the same target market I did. Some were doing law of attraction stuff, some were giving away graphics, some were presenting free ebooks on dog biscuits (I’m not kidding!).
So the list they were sending to probably weren’t the people who were interested in learning about me and what I have to offer.
The second problem was some of these people were just plain sleazy, showing visuals of scantly clad women to entice. These weren’t people I would be proud to call my joint venture partners.
And finally, the biggest problem:
Since so many people were joining the giveaway there was too much information given away. This giveaway put the hundreds of freebies on 30 webpages. I landed somewhere in the middle, which meant most people gave up finding me.
The lesson here is:
Create a giveaway with only a handful of targeted joint venture partners who truly provide quality stuff.
Let me say that again, because it’s extremely important.
Create a giveaway with only a handful of targeted joint venture partners who truly provide quality stuff.
So how do you find quality, targeted JV partners?
This is where it gets tricky. You can’t very well go searching the yellow pages calling other companies asking “do you want to be my partner?”
Even though stranger things have been known to happen, here are a some methods to finding that dream joint venture partner we all need.
There are several ways to do this. Here are the ones I used:
1) Start with the low- hanging fruit. What people do you know already online or offline who already serve your target market? Perhaps you get his or her ezine, or perhaps you’ve worked with them in the past. What I do is keep what I call a swipe file of people who I admire, who target the same market I do.
There’s a lot of ways to do this. For me, once I sign up for their ezine and get their free report (or whatever they give). I review the stuff immediately. If I like it, then I stick the emails in a folder for possible partners.
But of course, you can have a physical file as well. Whatever works for you. The key is to have a folder where you can keep your possible JV people all in one place.
2) Look at testimonials on web pages. This is a rarely used, but quite effective method I used to find some JV partners on my holiday. Once you’ve found some of those low-hanging fruit as mentioned above. Check out their websites. Often you’ll find people who offered a testimonial also have the same target market. After all, these people are partly giving the testimonial in order to attract the same target market to them that are visiting the website.
3) Social Networks. Sites like Twitter and Facebook are fantastic at letting you connect with others who maybe interested in the holiday promotion. There’s even a group on Facebook called Joint Ventures which lets you connect with hundreds of joint venture partners for your promotions.
4) Newsletter Directories. Why? The answer is simple. This is where you will find all the newsletter owners with Opt-In lists with thousands of subscribers waiting to read your offer and buy your products and/or services.
You will find newsletter owners that target ANY niche you are looking to do a Joint Venture with and at the same time all their contact information.
To find these directories simply go to your favorite search engine and type “newsletter directories” in the search form.
As a bonus, I’ve given you a spreadsheet to use to keep track of the possible JV partners.
Let’s do some brainstorming…
Can you name someone who you think already has access to your target market?
Write them down on that bonus spreadsheet. I suggest creating a list of about 100 people.
Why 100? Surely 100 is too many. Well, yes, we’ve already discussed why. But remember, for whatever reason, not everyone on this list is going to jump up and say yes to your holiday proposal. To get 10 -15 quality people, you will need that many possibles to narrow it down to the probables.
How do you contact these people? That’s the easy part. I’ve included an additional bonus of the exact letter I used (which was sent out by an intern, who coordinated the entire holiday giveaway). Please feel free to use this letter as a template for your own.
Once they say yes (and some will!), you’ll need to get the following information from them:
1) Their Name
2) Contact email
3) The # of people on their list
4) The name of their giveaway
5) A brief promo (ad) about the giveaway. I limit it to 200 words – and make sure they include a value.
6) Directions on how to get the giveaway
7) A picture of the product or person
I’ve included another bonus worksheet that you can use to keep track of it all.
ASSIGNMENT!
- Start searching for 100 possible JV partners. Use the bonus spreadsheet to keep track of it.
- Send them a letter to ask them to get involved. Use the bonus sample letter as a guide for your own.
- Once they say yes, add them to your bonus JV worksheet.
Click Here to Download Bonus Spreadsheet and Samples
Also, be on the lookout in a few days for an additional unadvertised bonus: an eBook to help you create good joint ventures.
