What is Reciprocal Marketing?

Reciprocal marketing includes every tactic in which two businesses promote each other’s products or content, gaining a mutual benefit of new sales. Other terms used to describe this are co-marketing, joint marketing, or co-promotion.

One of the most profitable ways we accomplish this is on a CPA (pay per sale) basis. We pay a set fee per core product sales. In turn, our partners pay us a set fee per sale.

We are convinced that Reciprocal Marketing is a mandatory tactic for any small business aiming to conquer the online industry. Your email list, once used by you to sell your customers every product you have, is a gold mine most people just sit on. We teach our clients to monetize those lists and get payouts from partners, while those same partners are also driving traffic for our clients.

If you’ve got social ads and media buying down, reciprocal mailing can increase revenue by several hundred thousand dollars monthly both in incoming sales and CPA payouts.

Principles

These guiding principles should be applied by all parties participating in any reciprocal marketing initiative:

1. Only promote if the quality standards are met. Any content that does not fit what we have set as standards will not be promoted. Do their products align with our core focus and beliefs, does it fulfill a need, and do they provide customer support if the purchaser has an issue? Think about it this way: Would you recommend this product to a family member? The answer will let you know if it’s worth promoting.
2. Only promote if there is a match with the target audience. For Travis and I, our primary target audience is digital marketers. A secondary target audience is companies that offer digital marketers support services. Wouldn’t you find it strange if you received an email from us promoting a skin care line? It doesn’t make sense for our brand.
3. Give first, then try to achieve a balance between the give and take. First, we try to give something valuable to the person or company we (want to) work with, such as a mention in an article, a social promotion, or a free software subscription. In the long run, we work towards a mutually beneficial relationship. 
4. No paid promotions. There are no fees to join our reciprocal marketing program, nor are we going to pay for partnerships. We payout at CPA on sales received and vice versa.
5. Focus on developing relationships. Last but not least, we believe human relationships are more important than ever in an online world. While one-off marketing initiatives are possible, developing long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with other marketers is much more valuable. 

If you found this blog post interesting, please listen to our PodCast, where Travis and I discuss how to build an affiliate program with Anna Gita this Thursday! 

Author: Emma Rainville