So last week I drummed myself up a whole lot of new opportunities through joint ventures. A joint venture is an agreement between two or more companies to work together on a specific initiative. This is usually intended to be done in such a way that both sides get a significant boost from it. Generally this is done by your joint venture partner introducing you in some way to their audience and vouching for you.
Wanna know how I did it? Good cause I'm giving out details. I'll also throw in some past examples of other types of JV's and facilitate a way for you to get started with joint ventures too!
The "Spagetti" Method
I've been aware that many if not most of the people in my Freedom Flowers email list are practitioners/ healers of some sort. They also know me and evidently like me, having put up with me in their inbox for quite awhile now. So I sent out a short email asking them if they wanted to work with me on a deeper level. I'm calling it the "Spagetti" because you throw it at the wall and see what sticks.
Here's what I said, and you'll have to click the link to see exactly what I asked them. If you click the two "yes" boxes on the required questions, the form will expand and show you everything. Don't worry, you don't actually need to submit the form. Just check yes.
Hey << First Name >>!
You know, flower essences are great in and of themselves, but where they really shine is in tandem with other healing modalities. I'm wondering how I can best tweak my business to make that happen. If you are in some type of healing work, or coaching, I would really like to hear from you.
In addition, I'd like to connect with the health and personal development bloggers out there.
I've made up a survey with some ideas in it to gauge interest, and it could be a jumping off point for us to collaborate.
If you'd rather not be constrained by a form, feel free to just reply to this as well.
-Seneca
This accomplished two things:
- I got a lot of potential JV partners and guest blog opportunities for hardly any effort.
- I didn't waste time developing programs for things people weren't interested in.
I blocked out time the next day just for writing people back. So now I have lots of fun juicy things to keep me plenty busy and I get to put my light into some pretty dark places.
A JV Double Launch
Here's an example of a JV I did to help launch a student's business. It's actually a double launch because we launched a new product of mine with it so it would make sense to my audience. I've done this twice now.
(Email from Freedom Flowers, to mailing list.)
Got back/neck problems? My birthday gift to you is a frequency healing mp3 when you buy Align Flower Essence!
Today through 4/16 (that's my birthday!) when you order a bottle of Align, I'll buy you a download of instrumental music designed with specific frequencies for healing.
My friend Del has been researching frequencies of specific musical notes and has just released her first CDs. One of the songs "Life Restored" is quickly building a reputation for physical healing, especially in the area of back pain. You can listen to a 2 minute clip here.
I've decided I want to pair that up with my Align, which is also garnering rave reviews to give you a double whammy of healing. After all, when you're not feeling good, you want to hit the problem from all angles right?
Align Flower Essence may help you: (Here's where I proceed to go on and on about my product.) And then...
"Life Restored" is a 25 minute track, all of Del's songs are 20-30 minutes and the end comes back around to be like the beginning, so you can "loop it" and it won't be obvious that it's starting over. If you're a massage therapist or any other type of healer, this music is great to run in the background to amplify what you're already doing. Your clients will love the results they get from coming to you!
Del has lots of songs with other frequencies for other purposes and samples of everything are on her site.
Don't miss this this two-fer deal! Get Align now and I'll send you the download link when I process your order! -Seneca
Are you understanding yet that you need to be building an email list? Del didn't have a list when she started her business, she needed to use mine. You become a more advantageous JV partner when you have a list.
The breakdown of what happened above is this. I asked Del what she would want for a single song if she ever decided to sell them that way. She said $4. I decided I could live with that if I didn't discount my Align. (Note. She also gets exposure and I gave lots of links to her site.) I'm not big on discounting my stuff anyway unless it's for an initial launch and I can justify it by needing to generate some quick reviews. I don't want the "discount" perception on my product.
So Del and I hash it all out on the back end, figure out the logistics of how we fulfill all this and I write up an email to my list. I did an A/B split test on 2 different email subject lines, sent a percentage of the list each version and waited 24 hrs. The email subject line that got the highest open rate was then sent to the remaining 80% of my list. (Note; sounds hard, software does this for you. Always test if you have the time.)
Del made 5 times as much as I did on this deal. However, I'm getting a continual flow from her site, since the deal is still being offered.
Side note: We are talking behind the scenes since I somewhat know my clients and Holy Spirit tells me where to look to see who they are, and that tells me who's buying from Del independently of buying Align. That's why I can tell her she's selling to Jewish massage therapists.
If you can get this info from your jv partner, great, especially in a new biz, you really do need to know who likes you.
FYI, this is not our first rodeo, we launched her last business the same way. Actually it was a double launch of my flower essence for abuse and her class. If you bought the class, you got the essence free. New stuff all the way 'round.
The "Package Deal" Joint Venture
Another example of a joint venture is the Discovery Class here on this very website. It's a package deal, and you know who does the 30 minute prophecy MP3 that all the students get when they start? It's not me.
Melody Paasch offers this service on her website, and I negotiated a discount for the service in exchange for drumming her up some business. I win, she wins and the people who get the prophetic edge for their business certainly win! I stand out because what other business class offers that?
More Ways to Do Joint Ventures
A more natural way to do JV's comes through the Dream Ventures class, because for 6 months, you're working closely with your classmates, as iron sharpens iron, and so you naturally see ways to work together to build bigger. Obviously it's not the same as partnering up with Donald Trump, but you gotta start somewhere.
Sometimes it's leveraging each other's audience, sometimes it's selling someone else's product while they sell yours. Sometimes it's selling a package deal where you are not the sole provider of everything in the package. The only thing really required is that you trust one another and you have some audience overlap. That means you serve the same type of people without being direct competitors.
When you do something like this, don't enter into it lightly, because you are vouching for this other person and telling your audience who hopefully trusts you, that this person is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Integrity, professionalism and being confident in your JV partner are all necessary.
You'll most likely need to be pretty creative to see how you can fit with what other people are doing, and how you can facilitate a mutually beneficial relationship. There are times where you simply do favors as well.
One thing you'll notice in the above examples is that we worked with existing email lists. What if you don't have one of those?
That's where social media comes in. The only problem is that it's not as targeted interest-wise unless you can share in the right groups, and people's attention span tends to be less on social. So build an email list! Nevertheless, social media can definitely get you started.
If you are an active member of our Dream Ventures Facebook group, you may have already participated in a joint venture! If you have done SuperShare Wednesday with us, you've seen an easy low-key joint venture in action. If you're not in yet, there have been some really good reports with how effective those are, and the more people we have, the better it should be. It's a great way to get your feet wet with joint ventures, and I post instructions every Wednesday morning.
Another thing that I and some of the Dream Venture students have done are coupons and gift cards. Let's say that person #1 has a freebie that is good enough to charge for but they offer it to introduce people to their service. Person #2 can hand out coupons to their customers as a "bonus" or a "thank you." Person #1 then gets exposure and Person #2 either gets the same treatment from Person #1 or just some good will. This also works with discounts if free isn't a go. If you've ordered from me, you've no doubt gotten a brightly colored little envelop with coupons in them. 😉 These can be delivered in person, emailed, or in my case, snail mailed.
Leveraging someone else's audience through a joint venture is one of the most effective and fast ways to move your business forward. You just need a little creativity and a good offer for your potential partner. Have fun sizing everyone up!
Image credit © Can Stock Photo Inc. / edharcanstock