Collaborative Marketing
Gina Meador
Account Manager
As I was scrolling through my Instagram feed, I noticed that one of my favorite clothing brands has a new partnership. We see a lot of brands joining forces these days in beauty, home goods, electronics …the list goes on. This is known as collaborative marketing. This marketing strategy involves two or more companies coming together for mutual benefit. Collabs are a great way to drive engagement, increase sales, gain new customers and more. You can see many of these efforts just by scrolling through your social media feed. This approach is known as Influencer Collaborative Marketing.
Let’s define what an Influencer is. An Influencer is a social personality that can affect the purchasing decisions of others because of their authority or relationship with their audience. I know I’m not the only one who has been influenced to buy something because of an online endorsement. Let’s go over a few examples of collaborative marketing.
Sponsored Content
This is the most common type of influencer marketing collaboration. Essentially, a company will partner with the influencer in exchange for sponsored social media content. They’ll creates content that targets the brand’s core audience on their personal accounts.
Gifting
The company gifts their product to a carefully selected group of influencers who share photos and opinions about their product with their followers.
Sponsored Blog Posts
A blog owner will publish sponsored posts on behalf of the company. This helps to get the product in front of a targeted audience or group of readers.
Guest Blogging
Writers compose articles that are posted on other websites in order to promote their brand. Again, the content is related to their industry and targets like-minded readers/audiences.
Takeovers
The influencer temporarily “takes over” the brand’s social media account. They can create and share engaging content on the company’s behalf.
Brand Ambassadors
An influencer whose appearance, values and ethics align with the company’s brand is employed to represent it. A brand ambassador uses the sponsored products on an ongoing basis and continuously promotes them online.
Overall, collaborative marketing functions best between companies with complementary products, similar target markets, and complementary marketing goals.
Related Resources
Read more about how to approach collaboration and influencer marketing here.
Listen to the First Flight team chat with one of our frequent collaborators on the Flight Plan Podcast.
