If you want this to be a big part of your marketing, you have to do it right. It’s especially hard to make contact with someone again if things go really bad the first time around. Although all is not lost when you get denied, it sure makes things more problematic in the long run. Get it right and you’ll have great ammunition for future promotions, a massive flow of all important customers that are interested in buying your product and, of course, wads of cash which we all love.
So without further ado, let’s start from the very beginning looking at some solid and blatantly proven effective joint venture methods. We’re primarily talking about getting your ads to these special lists we’re familiar with previous sections, although there’s many other types which we’ll get into a little later too.
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Who Are We Contacting?
Who are we contacting here? The answer is pretty straightforward really. Anyone that has access, owns a newsletter, e-zine, private list or any other form of contacts that will get the word out about your business. People with access to highly targeted customers.
Simply put, people that can send information about your product to lots of other people. Easy enough right? Well, it’s not all that straightforward. Without trying to put you off, I’ve personally had some hysterical moments when I’ve been approached for joint ventures. Don’t be worried yet, though, these were very extreme, and I’ll tell you a little about some amusing ‘That’s definitely how not to do it’ encounters a little further down this section. First though lets get down the facts.
How To Find An Endless Supply Of Prospects
Your first thought reading the prior sections of this course may have been something along the lines of “Great, it’s all well and good that these things are powerful, but where exactly do I find these people?”
Well, there’s a pretty straight forward answer to this one, too. Contrary to a lot of people’s beliefs, it doesn’t involve waiting for someone to see your website and your offer. Nor does it involve spamming, bulk mailing or any useless stuff like that.
You want to be on THEIR lists. These are the valuable lists made of pure gold that you want to be contacting. You want to be on them. It really is easy to do too. It’s not exactly a challenge to get yourself on some lists. Take your existing e-zines, take well known marketers and get on their lists. Ask your friends and any contacts you may have already made what do they subscribe to? It doesn’t take long to do and if your own contacts are recommending them, there’s already some likely candidates to start out with.
Now you may not necessarily be contacting all these people or every e-zine owner or private marketers list you’re on with JV offers. But, this way, all you’ll be left with is an organized list of e-zines and personal list mailings being sent to your inbox weekly. What I’ve found seems to happen, too, is that through these lists you’re hear about some other reputable people. So you get yourself on their lists too, and so, after the initial boost and well rounded subscriptions to trusted people, the ball starts rolling and your list of possible JV prospects grows and grows.
Simple really, so simple that I get the feeling that’s why people seem to overlook it. Where do I find joint venture offers? Everywhere is your answer. Start getting yourself on people’s lists.
This does a lot for you when it comes to relating to the sales of your product, future contacts and new lists to get on. This is why it’s important to keep them organized. You’ll likely be looking through them a lot.
Your New Found Information Network
So lets look specifically at what you’re achieving through your new subscriptions.
- You’re getting more subscriptions. By reading the emails coming in from these various lists, you will find yet more marketers out there you may not have known about. This will lead to you finding even more potential contacts and partners.
- By reading the emails that they send, you can get an idea of what type of marketer they are. Do they market only their own products? Do they also market other people’s products? What kinds of products do they usually like to promote to their list? By observing this information, it makes you better able to tailor a JV offer to them that maximizes the chances they will accept.
Tailoring Your Deal & Signals
Just like we’re always told as online marketers, you have to target your customers. No good trying to sell your golf clubs to an athlete enthusiasts list. The same rings true for joint ventures. They must be targeted. Always keep this in mind, and always ask yourself, for the sake of your business and the list owners time “If I mail this person with a joint venture offer, and they were guaranteed to say yes, would my ad be going to my target market?”. If your answer is yes, see how the first hurdle is jumped already? If it’s no, move on and look elsewhere. It’s not worth your valuable time.
How To Make Your Prospects Immediately Familiar With You
Here’s an example of the power of this for you. Imagine for a moment you have a list of say, fifty thousand highly responsive and valuable customers that you know people want to get their hands on. Which would you be more responsive to? Someone who approached you that you’d never heard of, and didn’t make any effort to form any kind of bond with you, or someone who mentioned one of the products you’ve recently created, or one of the ads and joint ventures you’ve sent out to your list already?
See how just this little addition here starts to create an empathy with your JV prospect and lets this concept begin to fall into place? The fact is, no matter how busy they are, people like to talk about themselves. The effect you get when a response or some sort of reaction to something you’ve done comes from someone is similar. You’ve been acknowledged, and suddenly this random person you don’t know isn’t such a stranger after all.
They’ve been buying your products, reading your list, taking your word, and you’re one of their valuable customers. Instant ice breaker, and a really soft change from the cold call or mail or the “Hi you don’t know me but..” approach. Don’t go overboard and declare you’re their biggest fan or anything like that. No sucking up is needed either, but a simple acknowledgment of what they do demonstrates to them that you yourself know why you’re there. That is important. Don’t Forget to mention at the start of your introduction something about them and their product, or their e-zine. Remember it, and do it. You’ll see that people are far more receptive to you.
How To Know What They Want
When working out JV’s, put yourself in the shoes of the person you’re contacting. What kind of reservations would your customers have about your product? What kind of thoughts will stop them form buying? The same is true for joint ventures.
You’re still selling here, and even though it’s not a hard sell, you’re still trying to get someone to say yes to giving you something in exchange for something else in return. What would you say to your offer? If it’s “get lost”, that’s more than likely the response you’ll get from them, too. Never forget to look at it from the other person’s point of view. You’ll find yourself pulling in more responses than ever. That goes for sales letters, ad copy, and any ads you run and pretty much any deal you’re striking that relates to marketing.
You don’t have to be the best salesman in the world at all. I suck at sales, especially hard selling or pushy tactics (which I absolutely hate if you hadn’t guessed already), but if you can do this and sort out people’s problems, and get their reservations thrown out before they even think of them, you’ll reap the rewards. And that’s a mighty fine introduction to the next section coming up.
Alright, we now know what to expect when joint venturing, and I hope I’ve managed to inspire you. By now you should have all sorts of possibilities roaming around in your head. That’s great. That was my aim. I wanted to wake you up and stir your brain to recognize the possibilities. Now we know why, who and when to approach, and how to find the people to approach in the first place. It’s time to look at the real nitty gritty. And that’s how to approach to maximize your chances of success and to build on something for the future.
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