Live Offers and 7 Co-Marketing Ideas and Examples

Last updated on Dec 01 2023

"Live offers" are ephemeral (expiring) valuable collaborations you want to invite top agencies in our ecosystem to.

What they do for you is allow you to get into conversations with top-tier experts you want to partner with.

Example: Michelle from Digitile:

Offer Objectives:
-Meet potential partners
-Drive relevant traffic to our blog offer.

Metrics:
-Asked for 8 contributors
-3 from PH
-2 sourced from eComm Slack channels

Content:
-See how I highlighted their contribution in the blog post.
-How I promoted their names and companies in a LinkedIn post.

Here's the explanation for your team:

There are typically 4 ways to source solutions partners:

Organically through your product users bringing in their agencies
Your marketing teams efforts drawing attention from partners
Integrations partners bringing you to their agencies
Cold outreach

(Just being in Partnerhub can be considered the 5th 😉)Where our Live Offers system comes in is to increase conversions of #4 - cold outreach.If you, me, or anyone reach out to a top-tier agency and say "Check out Syncari, it's killer, and they have a partner program.... and pay good commission..."We'd hear crickets. Or at least it wouldn't get a big response because these are very busy people.However, if we reach out and say:"We have a partner in the data space that integrates well with your stack and they are seeking experts in Revops to come into a featured article to share their experience with _____, and we believe you are a perfect fit. Would you mind if I introduced you to their partnerships team?" ^ That's what Live Offers provides us - a way to ensure we can connect you with top solutions partners in our network, or even outside our network.

Do they work to get partners?

Yes, on average, as of 8/2023, we see ~ 20-30 responses from solid offers.

"Solid offers" are offers of true value to the agency -

Thought leadership content
Backlinks
Their answers to pain points their clients (your customers) have published in your blog
Spots on panels or podcasts
Inclusion in a new GTM campaign that brings market development funds...

Here's the best way to execute a Live Offer:

Post a “Live offer” in Partnerhub® (a feature on the free account) for a feature in an “expert roundup article” - feature under the free account. [IF you are not using Partnerhub® - create a target list to send this offer to on LinkedIn / email]
Mention the visibility that article will get - traffic, social following, newsletter.
Explain only new participants who meet the criteria qualify.
As a CTA, link to a form (Typeform, Airtable form, CRM form…) - just make sure you are able to redirect people to a custom URL after they fill out the form.
The form asks for the expert's responses to a few questions + their picture + backlink of choice.
Those forms go to your content manager to get rolled up into an “expert tips on ____” article.
Those who submit the form are redirected to a landing page that mentions they can continue to be involved in valuable co-marketing if they join the partner program - and a calendar embed on that page so they can book an intro call. *Do not link directly to your affiliate platform (another form), or embed another form on that page.
After it goes live, the partnerships manager reaches back out to the participants with links to view/share, posts to social, tagging all the experts, and has one more chance to get on a call with a thankful partner prospect.

Admin will deny these types of submissions:

Simply stating your partner program incentives.
Discounts on your product.
Event promotions.
Anything that requires the service provider to sign up before getting.

What we typically approve:

Offer to fund the creation of a virtual course that includes tutorial/rec of your product.
Offer to host an agency on a podcast or a webinar.
Invite them to an "Experts" feature on your blog with a do-follow backlink (this could include multiple experts).
Offer to exchange guest posts - one for their blog written by your team, and one for your blog written by their team (with the keyword focus guidelines).
...more examples are below...

You can submit one for approval here: https://app.partnerhub.app/offers

Co-marketing is one of the easiest / best ways to (a) get new agencies to meet you, (b) establish instant value to encourage the agency to reciprocate, (c) align your brand with thought leaders in a space (top agency operators) so that others in the space see you as a trusted provider, and (d) get unbiased third party-sourced content into your blog.

Here are some of my favorite examples:

An article featuring "expert" opinions on a topic. Make sure to include a do-follow backlink and an image of the agency's choice next to their quote. Here's a perfect example of an agency expert highlight >
Help create and promote an agency-partners' use case of your product. Video, or, sometimes better, a documentation-style article with screenshots and real examples >
Enable the agency (financially or simply creating the assets and then promoting it) to create a course featuring your solution. Here are a few examples, one from Recart on how they enabled Socialite agency to create a course that features their app >>
Create a directory of use cases for your product, but each use case is developed with an agency partner. Here's an example from TextExpander where they allow partners to publish their snippet templates to this library >>
Expert webinar with an agency founder. Invite a thought leader from an agency to co-host a webinar for your audiences. Co-market that webinar, map accounts prior to its release, then convert that agency to a partnership track. Here's an example webinar landing page.
A column of your blog that is all agency-partner interviews that help your traffic understand a use case or overcome a pain point.
Create a library of ebooks or white papers on a topic that's relevant for your users, and allow agencies to submit their papers to it. Here's one from Hubspot as an example >>
Launch a directory using Airtable + Softr or APIdeck.com, then feature agency partners in that directory. Here's our APIdeck directory as an example >>
Launch a micro podcast - only 5-10 episodes, all on a specific topic (i.e. Website compliance or CRO for ecomm,...) and bring in agencies to each episode to chat about how they help their clients with that pain point. Here's an example of one on GDPR >>

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