Cross marketing is a great way to introduce your business to a new group of potential clients while keeping your marketing spending to a minimum.  By working together with other small businesses, you’re creating great partnerships to help build your professional referral circle and boost your word of mouth. Here are a few suggestions of ways to team up with other small businesses.

1. Offer a complimentary session – The best way to forge a new relationship and get someone to talk abut your business is to offer your services for them to experience! They’ll feel more comfortable passing along your name knowing that their clients will be in good hands.
2. Swap blog content – If the business you’re wanting to team up with has a blog, suggest swapping guest blog posts. It’ll give you a chance to get in front of a new audience and offer tips to hopefully drive business back to you.
3. Create a referral program – Offer a referral program that gives incentives not only to possible clients but to the business for referring your name!
4. Co host an event – Team up to host a public event together! Whether its a fundraiser for a cause you both believe in or something simple like a girls night out. It’s a great way to get a bunch of small businesses together to reach out to their community.
5. Print material – Offer to leave printed promotional material for their clients to check out and offer to keep some of theirs at your business location or on hand!

So how do you pick the right businesses to work with?

Be sure to carefully research the businesses that you want to team up with to ensure you are reaching a customer base that will connect with you. Choosing the wrong business to team up with can impact your business as much as the right one. The best way is to sit down and brainstorm a list of places that your ideal client would frequent. Then reach out to them to see what you can do for them and try to set up a time to talk. If you’re still stumped on businesses, contact a previous client that you worked well with, offer to take them to lunch and see what some of their favorite new businesses are! Before you know it you’ll be on your way to creating new connections and gaining new customers.

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