It’s more important than ever for membership organisations to provide real value for money to their paying subscribers – and brand partnerships are key to achieving this.
Forming brand partnerships – where you team up with complementary brands to provide access to products or services beyond the core offering of your organisation – is one of the most efficient ways to provide real value for money to members at low cost to you as an organisation.
Done correctly, brand partnerships can boost member engagement and loyalty, expand your audience and even generate revenue.
What are the benefits of brand partnerships?
- Add value to your membership offering – exclusive discounts, content, products or access to events through brand partnerships means your members are getting more for their money.
- Aid member retention – if members feel they are getting a lot out of their membership, they are more likely to value your brand’s role in their life and renew their membership.
- Generate revenue – via membership renewals or by encouraging members to spend more with your brand (e.g. to buy an exclusive product or attend an event).
- Boost member engagement – offer members something new that interests them and give your brand a fresh story to tell outside of your usual brand messages.
- Expand reach – unlock access to a whole new audience who will already look favourably on you as you are being introduced to them via a brand they already associate with.
- You can read more benefits here. [https://www.dialogue.agency/blog/the-value-of-brand-partnerships-in-content]
How to create a brand partnership
Creating effective brand partnerships for membership organisations involves research, strategic planning, relationship-building, asset creation, promotion and management. And all of that equals time.
- Drawing on the services of a specialist agency to help facilitate this process can make brand partnerships more accessible and certainly more cost effective. Any approach should include:
- A strategy for the partnership – gauge the interests, preferences and needs of your members to identify what types of brand partnership would be most valuable to them and clearly define what your membership organisation can offer potential partners.
- Meeting potential partners and negotiating terms – your agency should research and identifies potential partners whose products or services align with the interests, needs and values of your members. Then develop a proposal and negotiate with partner brands to agree the scope of the partnership, including activities and terms to benefit both brands.
- Activation and assets creation – regardless of what the brand partnership looks like, there will be a lot of back and forth between parties to define what is happening and when. Any assets created should be utilised strategically for maximum engagement.
Dialogue has secured several brand partnerships for Harley-Davidson and, if members make use of the benefits from just three of them over a year, the savings equate to almost five times the cost of membership, making renewal a no-brainer.
Measurement and performance
At the negotiation stage, it’s important that all parties agree what success looks like for everyone. Set out some KPIs and make sure you have mechanisms in place to measure them in a tangible way, reporting back to both parties.
Brand partnerships benefit everyone involved. They give your members or subscribers more bang for their buck, and, with the help of a specialist agency to unlock additional benefits or even partnership revenue opportunities, they don’t cost the membership organisation itself time and money.
Dialogue Content Marketing is a full-service content marketing agency with a passion for connecting brands with consumers and nurturing brand communities by creating engaging visual and written content across all channels. Contact us to find out more!
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