Using Joint Venture Partnerships To Grow Your Business

Are you familiar with joint venture partnerships?

In the course of a month, it’s not uncommon for me to receive several emails from people who are launching a book, product, or program with an invitation to participate in “getting the word out” to people in my network. The invitation includes offering a free high value bonus to purchasers of that book, product or program. If the bonus is accepted, each partner is supplied with the promotional emails to send out to their list on a specific day or time frame.

It’s a cost effective way to reach hundreds, thousands, and millions of people all over the world to build your email list and generate income.

This practice has been around for years. You’ve probably received tons of emails either inviting you to participate as a JV partner or make a purchase based on the trusted recommendation of the email list you’re on. Once the purchase is made, people have access to all the free bonuses submitted.

In the last few years, I have invited folks to partner with me as well as agreeing to promote select campaigns because I cannot say yes to every invitation that comes my way.

Some of the criteria I use to make my choices to say yes:

* I have partnered with that person previously and trust in their material and reputation
* The invitation is a referral from someone I know and trust
* There is an opportunity to generate affiliate income from referral registrations
* I have reviewed or experienced the book, product or program in advance to assess it is a good fit for my list, complements my own business focus, and is of high value
* The author of the material is available to be interviewed in my Compelling Conversations Series if I want to book them as part of the promotion to introduce them to my network
* The information has a fresh perspective on material that might not be new (what really is new?)
* I have a good feel for it, intuitively

On the whole, I have found JV partnerships to be a great way to introduce my business to new markets, build my reputation and brand, and generate income. Having folks promote my products and programs to their network has been a tremendous support in marketing my business. So it has been disappointing in the last few years to see that some people have dropped the ball in their agreements to promote the campaigns to their list.

I’ve had this happen on at least two occasions. They’ve given me different reasons for not following through and I believe it becomes even more important to be selective about commitments Today, people are inundated with so many invitations they are saying yes to more things than they can manage. To me it’s about integrity and ethics. If I say I will promote something, barring an emergency, you can count on me to do what I say I will do, period. If I need to change my mind, I will let people know as far in advance as possible.

So, if you are using JV promotions to build your business, be sure you are saying yes for the right reasons:

* It’s a good fit for your market
* You can honestly recommend the product
* You have the time, energy, and space to add another commitment to your plate
* You have the systems in place to follow through on your promotion agreements
* You send out the promo mailing when you say you will

When folks are looking for additional JV partners, they will look at prior campaigns for ideas on who to contact. The web is a small place and people talk. You can either foster a positive or negative reputation.