The evolution of the creator economy into a booming industry has primarily influenced our society’s view of content creation as a whole. 

The number of digital creators in the past year went up 48 percent and may keep increasing exponentially over the years. 

This change has undoubtedly created a reasonable shift in content production and consumption while actively influencing people’s career paths. 

Those statistics show that there’s a lot of competition and pressure to create successful content online. Creative entrepreneurs would constantly need to come up with innovative revenue-generating ideas. 

Creating a digital product (e.g., images, ebooks, audiobooks, video lessons, scripts, etc.) can be pretty challenging because developing a good-quality product demands a lot of time and different skills. 

So, is there an easier way? This is where digital partnerships come into the picture. A digital partnership or brand partnership could be a great solution to optimize resources and build a product that could stand out in the market.

What are digital partnerships?

A digital partnership (or brand partnership) is a collaboration between creators and experts to build a digital product. These experts can be agencies or service providers that offer valuable skills and resources to help creators with their businesses. 

They are brand partners who’ll take on important tasks so you, as a creator, can focus on what you know best: creating content for your audience. Sounds good, right?

Keep reading to understand how partnering up can be a good strategy for your digital business!

And if you want, you can take a quick break to find out more about the habits of the most successful creators before reading on ;)

 

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Why brand partners are key to building better products

Brand partners can form symbiotic relationships that can boost your customer’s experience by helping you build better products. 

Besides the obvious opportunity for business growth, brand partners benefit your business in many ways. Some advantages of working with a partner include:

• Increased productivity and reduced risks: Strategic partnerships have productivity as their most significant measurable result. When you and your partner pool resources together, the cost is shared, and you can make for each other’s weaknesses. Also, when you pair up with a non-competing brand, you do not risk struggling for the same audience.
• Filling in the gaps: While you work hard at creating value and building up the standards of your digital product, you can rely on your partner to fill in the gaps. Your brand partners can quickly notice gaps in information and planning.
• Diversification: Co-branding deals can give you an opportunity to diversify your product portfolio. Taking suggestions and adding new products supplied by your partner can enrich your product portfolio. This partnership is beneficial, especially if your products are restricted to a specific demographic.
• Adding value to your digital products: As a digital creator, you would find it easier to build better products when you have a second opinion. No one is an island of knowledge. With your expertise and your partner’s expertise, there would be a broader set of viewpoints. This would ultimately take your product creation and performance to a whole new level.
• Brand perception: Your choice of brand partner is instrumental in controlling how your target customers perceive your brand. In simple terms, you should partner with a business with similar values that you would like to be known for. This brand perception would be carried on to your product and help them perform better. While you may be working hard to imprint your values on your brand, a good partnership would accelerate the process.
• Reaching a wider audience at a reduced cost: Joining forces through product partnerships helps you increase brand awareness and reach your target audience and then some. The best part is that you get to do this at a reduced price in a win-win context. It makes promoting your products more accessible and faster.

What types of services can brand partners offer?

Brand partners offer various services tailored to your needs as a creator. They provide services that readily cater to your business’s needs to grow and succeed. The following is a list of services that brand partners can offer digital content creators:

• Paid traffic management: Many product partnerships have paid traffic management as a service offered. It is vital to invest money in promoting your business across several platforms. This helps you attract customers that fall within your targeted profiles.
• Product launch: Your digital products will require a successful launch. With the right partners, you can build a solid and lasting relationship with your customers that goes further than the product launch and keep you in their good books.
• Social media strategy: Social media presence acts as a form of digital marketing. Many brand partnerships provide the service of engaging with your target audience and advertising your digital products. It is essential to have an effective social media strategy to keep your loyal and prospective customers interested.
• Market research: Adequate market research guides your business and helps you discover newer ways to maintain positive results with your customers. It is indispensable, and partners provide it to help you target the right customers and make advertisement efforts effective.
• Sales funnels: This helps you understand what your customer needs and is a powerful inbound marketing tool for any entrepreneur. This is because the sales funnels provide optimization of conversions.
• Brand strategy: Every brand needs a proper brand strategy to make their business memorable and elevate value for their customers. Good branding creates strong recognition and respect from everyone who comes in contact with your brand.
• Copywriting: The central idea of copywriting is creating content to generate sales. It could be in the form of an ebook, online course, newsletter, etc. It engages your audience and convinces them to purchase and interact with your products.
• Web design: A website for a digital creator needs to be attractive enough to get your customers’ attention and retain them. Good web design is essential to provide your visitors with the best browsing experience.
• CRM: Customer relationship management (CRM) is essential to building a strong relationship with prospective customers. Digitally, email marketing is the most efficient use of CRM tools. It can also help you stay on top of customer engagement and experience.
• SEO: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is necessary for all creators, since it affects all digital marketing strategies. If you don’t implement proper SEO, your target audience may never get a glimpse of your online marketing effort.

VIDEO: Marketing strategies: 15 killer strategies to promote your business and attract customers

How to choose a brand partner

A brand partnership offers creators many benefits, but if they do not take their time to make the proper considerations, it can also negatively impact their business. 

Understandably, you may be eager to enhance your reputation, audience, and brand message; however, it would be better if you pay close attention to the details of your partner-to-be. 

Here are a few things to look out for when choosing a brand partner:

• Complementary skills: What do your brand partners bring to the table? They should have skills that will add value to your business. They should have strengths where your business has weaknesses and vice versa.

The digital partnership should offer mutual benefits without creating a greater disadvantage. If you both have similar strengths, then they should, at least, combine to form something stronger and more efficient.

• Proven experience in the market: If you’re trying to venture into a new market through a partnership, your partner should have proven success in that niche. 

Experience is essential in marketing, and you would need all the help you can get. Your choice should be partly based on how well they’ve worked on their craft.

• Similar goals: Your goals, objectives, and targets should be similar. Your partnership should lead to a common goal, and the outcomes should align. 

Whether you’re looking to expand your reach, break into new markets, or boost sales, your brand partners should help you achieve that.

• Similar values: You would need to consider how well your values overlap. Do you share similar values or hope to have similar values with this brand? You may also aim to make similar products. Whatever the case may be, you should share a semblance of core beliefs and ethics.
• Relevance to customers: Your customers and their interest in your products. Your partners should be able to connect with your target audience and be relevant to them. 
• Trust and transparency: This can be classified as a gut feeling. If you don’t feel good about a brand partnership, you retain the right to call it off. 

You should feel safe with your partners and be readily transparent with one another on things vital to the process. 

There is no hard and fast rule to choosing an ideal brand(s) for your business. You can have as many partners as you’d like, so long as their interests do not clash.

What should be included in a partnership agreement, and what is the right compensation?

You’re probably considering a digital partnership or co-branding deal at this point. So, a partnership agreement is essential. It should spell out each party’s financial obligations, responsibilities or duties, legal liability, and deliverables. 

This way, nothing is left unsaid or unwritten, and you’re armed with legal documentation if anything goes wrong.

Another thing crucial to the agreement is defining compensation. How would you get your cut from profits made? A great way, especially for digital creators, is to pay commissions.

With commissions, everyone will put effort into the partnership to make it work. It ensures efficiency and reduces risks. 

Depending on the impact of the service provided, you should negotiate the compensation amount or percentage for your agreement.

Thankfully, these days, almost everything has a smart solution; hence there are platforms in the market that help creators manage partnerships and pay compensations automatically. A great example is Hotmart.

Brand partners can be strategic allies to help you grow your business

So, are you ready to start exploring the opportunities that digital partnerships offer?

It may seem a bit overwhelming to make the best choice for your brand. But sometimes, the most challenging decisions are the most important ones. 

Don’t forget how essential it is to choose the right partner with complementary skills and shared values and have a clear agreement to build a healthy partnership right from the start.

Did you know that it’s actually very easy to transform the brand partner you choose into a cocreator? Take a look at our post on coproduction and learn how to implement this strategy!