Sales Driven Marketing Hub

How can you take your content marketing efforts to the next level? One great way is through content marketing partnerships. The only thing better than learning from one great mind is learning from two.

Before You Partner Up

Before you reach out to relevant businesses about partnerships, it’s important that you are willing to contribute real value.

Eric Enge, the CEO of Stone Temple Consulting and an influential content marketer, believes you need to bring the following goods to the table:

1. Your own audience
2. A great concept for the content piece
3. Unique data or research
4. A willingness to do the work you commit to
5. Credible proof that you can do your part

Even if you can’t bring all of these to the partnership, you need to be able to provide some of them to be worth partnering with in the first place.

3 Types of Collaborations

Without further ado, here are three ways you can create beneficial content marketing partnerships:

1. Guest Posting

Although this tactic has recently waned in popularity, if you do it right, guest posting can still be beneficial to you and your partner. The key to successful guest blogging partnerships is this: well-written, SEO-friendly, and value-rich pieces of content.

Don’t offer to contribute the same article to multiple blogs, and never leave content creation half baked. A good rule of thumb is if you wouldn’t publish it on your own blog, don’t publish it on other sites.

2. eBook Collaborations

If you read the ‘about the author’ sections of many eBooks, you’ll notice that some of the best are co-authored. Not only does co-authoring an eBook make the actual writing process a lot easier and less time-consuming, it brings different perspectives on the same issue to one resource.

Remember, you’re engaging in content marketing to provide value to your audience, and the more points of view you bring to one topic, the more value you provide. 

3. Repurposing Others’ Content

Another great way to create a content marketing partnership is by repurposing others’ stellar content.

Say you find an awesome article on top tips on influencer marketing from influential marketers. Why not ask the author if you can turn it into an infographic? Not only will you be able to promote your infographic and their article, they’ll most likely share your creation with their audience.

Benefits of Content Marketing Partnerships

Ultimately, you can accelerate your content marketing progress by partnering with third parties on content projects. Not only will you gain access to a whole new audience, you’ll build a relationship primed for future collaboration, as well as generate new backlinks to your site.

Keep in mind that depending on your reputation and visibility versus your partner’s, the workload may not be equally shared. Here’s a great chart illustrating this point from Eric Enge:

Chart via Search Engine Land

Remember that even if you’re doing most of the work, the pay off is still worth it. This is especially true if your partner’s audience is sizably larger than your own. 

Conclusion

At the end of the day, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain from content marketing partnerships. Draw up a list of potential partners, check out their audience and current reach, and see if they’d be a good fit for you and your business. Once you’ve landed on a lucky few, interact with them on social media and see if they’d be interested in collaborating. The sky is the limit!