Let's speak about forming smart alliances that will help you extend your reach while also providing significant SEO value.
Strategic partners may be a tremendous tailwind for your corporate SEO programme, whether you're a brand powerhouse like Red Bull or a mid-sized business. Collaborate with other businesses, brands, websites, magazines, and influencers to boost your SEO rankings and expand your reach.
That may appear to be counterintuitive. After all, you put in a lot of effort to build your brand. You painstakingly generated interesting content that benefits your audience and constructed a website that reinforces your brand's reputation.
So, why do companies develop strategic alliances with other businesses, groups, and organisations?
In this article, I'll explain the importance of partnerships as well as how they may help you boost your SEO results.
- Partnerships with third-party companies, magazines, influencers, and other entities assist brands of all sizes.
- You may use other people's audiences to grow your reach, generate buzz, and acquire backlinks by forming strategic alliances.
- You can develop a variety of unique, shareable, and innovative material for your audience by forming strategic relationships.
- Partner with people who are related to but not in direct rivalry with your brand for optimal efficiency.
What is the definition of a strategic partnership?
Strategic Collaboration
A strategic partnership is a win-win relationship between two or more brands, organisations, groups, or individuals.
But don't be fooled by the definition's simplicity. Brand awareness and SEO performance can both benefit from strategic relationships. This is why...
Strategic partnership advantages
Here's a breakdown of the major benefits of strategic collaborations, from media exposure to backlinks.
Increase the size of your audience
You've built a loyal following that knows and trusts you over the years. They regard you as an expert in the field. When you create content, they devour it and share it with their friends. They're the first ones in line when new products are released.
The same is true for your associates. They, too, have developed a distinct fan base that turns to them for products, services, advice, recommendations, and insights.
Strategic relationships allow you to gain access to the audience of another company and vice versa. As a result, you'll have access to a large number of new customers.
Do you want to see an excellent example of a strategic partnership? GoPro and Redbull are two of the most well-known brands in the world. Both companies established their identities around an active lifestyle, and they've collaborated on a number of notable marketing initiatives.
When Felix Baumgartner leaped from a platform more than 24 miles above Earth's surface while wearing a GoPro, it was one of their most strategic brand partnerships. Needless to say, it drew a lot of attention, with over 100 million video views across multiple accounts.
Gain media attention by using the hashtag.
This kind of buzz not only gets your brand in front of more people, but it also produces a slew of media mentions and links, all of which assist your SEO. Those backlinks are quite valuable, but there's a lot more to it...
Google sees trustworthy media mentions as "implied links," according to US Patent 8,682,892, invented by Navneet Panda and Vladimir Ofitserov, which means that even without a connection, you earn confidence and authority (note: a patent does not indicate usage).
This patent indicates that not just inbound links, but also simple brand mentions, are taken into account by Google when determining authority.
Yes, jumping out of a plane 24 miles above the ground is sensational, but you don't have to go to that extreme. Simply find the greatest strategic brand collaborations, put on your public relations hat, and come up with something exciting.
Generate shareable content and acquire useful backlinks
When you collaborate with another business or influencer to come up with content ideas, you can expect an increase in traffic as well as a significant number of high-quality backlinks.
Backlinks from reputable sites are one of the most important elements in deciding where a page ranks for specific searches, according to Google. A link from another site to yours is an indicator of reliability and value in Google's eyes.
When it comes to backlinks, authority is really important. High-quality backlinks from reputable and authoritative websites are valued highly by Google. Forbes, The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, and other sites with strong domain authority are examples. Links from high-authority websites are far more useful to Google than links from low-authority sites.
Examples of strategic partnerships
LucasFilm and CoverGirl teamed up to create limited edition Star Wars makeup in connection with the release of The Force Awakens, in a startling strategic alliance development. As you can expect, photographs like the ones below generated a lot of attention, social shares, and links.
Isolating oneself, no matter how big or well-established your brand is, is risky in our more collaborative environment. Fortune 1000 companies who understand the benefits of relationships are capitalising on it.
Another excellent example of strategic alliances is Apple's relationship with Mastercard. When Apple launched the ApplePay app, they realised they'd need credit card issuers on board to make it work.
Mastercard identified an opportunity to gain a competitive advantage by becoming the first credit card to support ApplePay. As a result, both companies were able to reach new audiences that they would not have otherwise.
Where do you look for strategic alliances?
What makes a strategic alliance successful? For starters, it's critical to form alliances with businesses and individuals who are linked to yours. Remember that collaborations are two-way streets, as planable points out in their sports marketing guide.
Assume you're in charge of marketing for a sporting goods retailer. Sports bloggers, sports journals, sports documentarians, athletes, retired athletes, coaches, fitness influencers, health influencers, gyms, yoga studios, weight reduction services, peak performance organisations, vitamin manufacturers, and so on are all possible partners.
The finest strategic partnerships include a value exchange that benefits both parties. You give them something, and they give you something.
Your approach to forming strategic alliances will be shaped by the differences in each business. Nonetheless, some perspectives to consider are:
- Events
- Webinars held in collaboration
- Infographics
- Podcasts
- Interviews
- Articles and Guest Posts
- Special Research and Surveys
- Video Series
If you work in sales consulting, you could write a blog post that compiles key tips from a variety of people who have made large amounts of revenue. The post could then be shared with their audiences by those "sales influencers."
Guest post on tech blogs that cover your business if you're a big data SaaS company.
You can also be very creative and link up with an organisation that is completely unrelated to your sector, as LucasFilm and CoverGirl did.
Your only limitation is your imagination. Are you able to add value to another brand or influencer, and do they have the ability to add value to you? That's the beginning of a collaboration.
It's better to have two than one.
Even well-known firms can no longer rely solely on their online reputations to keep up with the competition.
Companies that form strategic relationships are significantly more likely to expand their audience quickly, gain media mentions and inbound links, see an increase in organic search traffic, and stay ahead of the competition.
In order to obtain compounded effects, look outside. Form the kinds of strategic alliances that will boost your internet visibility to new heights.