On Thursday 26th May, Awin ThinkTank 2022 took place in London. It served as a hotbed for affiliate insight, innovation and the perfect place to form lasting partnerships.
Speaking of partnerships, one of the sessions I found most insightful was Lee Metters discussion of brand partnerships and why they should be included in brands’ digital marketing strategies.
Lee spoke of the mutually beneficial relationships, pointing out that there are three types of brand partnerships, in which your brand can:
- Be promoted
- Promote
- Have a reciprocal relationship in which both brands promote one another
Why are brand partnerships the answer to your problems?
It can be easy to become comfortable with your customer base. But, as the marketplace becomes increasingly crowded, it is important to attract new customers. Brand partnerships enable you to dive into a brand new pool of consumers, opening your options and bringing in new customer types.
Lee also stressed that brand partnerships are the perfect way to encourage customer loyalty and repeat purchases. If an individual is a long-term customer of a particular brand, and has shopped with said brand for years, they are more likely to build a trusting and loyal relationship with the brand partner too.
Brands should always strive to drive their digital growth, however, when they become well established and ‘settled’, they can, in turn, become comfortable. Brand partnerships are a great way to drive digital growth with, it seems, a minimal amount of effort.
Some more benefits:
- Improve existing customer experience
- Enhance customer loyalty with value-added rewards
- Establish a diverse partner mix
- Reach new and untouched audiences
- Engage customers at different stages of purchase lifestyle
- Enhance your brand image through complimentary association
- Drive inbound revenue through monetising your existing customer base
- Generate incremental sales and revenue
What are some other ways brands can promote one another?
- Onsite
- Order confirmation
- Customer login
- Email/CRM
- Social media
- Product packaging
The perfect example of what can be achieved…
When I spoke to Lee, he told me that one of the best examples of a brand partnership he has seen is that between Myprotein and SimplyCook.
Myprotein’s ultimate goal was to enhance customer loyalty. Using reward technology they achieved this, by rewarding customers with a free recipe box trial, courtesy of SimplyCook, on their shopping basket page.
When searching for a partner, the Myprotein team identified SimplyCook to be a non-competitive and complementary retailer for their brand.
Results:
- 56,000 customer referrals
- 26% conversion rate
- 32% new customer redemption
- +£9 increase in average order value
- +£150k in commission payments
I asked Lee for his best advice for brands interested in brand partnerships, and he wanted to stress the importance of a focus on authenticity. A brand partnership is simply not going to work if the brands aren’t aligned in their values, customer bases, or what they’re trying to achieve. There needs to be a clear synergy between the brands. Take the aforementioned partnership, for example. It took place between two brands who’s audiences are likely health-conscious and take an interest in nutrition.
Awin’s partnerships team, in which Lee is Client Partner, makes it their focus to facilitate brand-to-brand partnerships to drive inbound revenue streams for clients, whilst exposing them to new and unreached customer audiences.
We’d like to say a huge thank you to Awin for having us at ThinkTank – we can’t wait to see them in October at PI LIVE London!