A joint venture is a fantastic way to reach new audiences, connect with peers or influencers in your space, and grow your brand awareness.
In general, a joint venture is considered a “partnership” or relationship with another business.
Different from an affiliate program, a joint venture usually involves you sharing your expertise or solutions with someone’s audience.
Of course, joint ventures can look different for your business. You might want to co-host a webinar with someone in your space, or you might want to guest-speak inside someone’s monthly coaching program.
While joint ventures are great if you’re a service provider looking to get your name out there more, they can be especially beneficial if you’re launching something new or have a specific goal in mind.
Creating partnerships and connections in your industry or the online business space, in general, can be invaluable to your business.
However, just “offering a joint venture” to someone you admire isn’t the best way to get results. Instead, keep reading to hear about how to find the right partner and leverage that partnership to grow your business!
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1 | Set very clear goals
The first thing to do when considering a joint venture is to consider your business goals. Are you trying to reach a wider audience online or geographically? Maybe a new product is launching and you’d like to get more eyes on your offer. Maybe you want to create a pipeline of potential clients!
Whatever your goals are, get clear on them before you start to pitch a joint venture. A joint venture should not be the last resort solution to keep your business afloat, but an option that will help you reach your goals to grow and expand your business. Knowing your business goals clearly will help with selecting a joint venture partner!
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2 | Choose a great joint venture partner
Now that your business goals are solid, you’re ready to choose your joint venture partner. Your JV partner should be a person or brand that complements your business’s goals.
Maybe you have a new product to sell to a specific audience, and your joint venture partner already has the audience you’re hoping to reach. Maybe there’s someone who has a complementary service to your own that would make it easier to get referrals in the future.
Once you’ve identified a person, influencer, or brand you think is a perfect partner, you’ll need to do some homework.
Are you able to work well with this person? Does this person or brand share your business’s core values? Do they have a good reputation and collaborate often with others? What is the reach of this brand, i.e. how many followers do they have, do they have connections with others you know or admire?
We’d recommend creating a list of 3 to 5 potential joint venture partners before you start doing any outreach.
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3 | Outline ideas for the joint venture
It helps to start with your business goals and the right potential partners in mind before moving to this next step. Why? Because it’s actually very hard to decide what a great presentation or relationship would look like if you don’t know how a partner’s audience, expertise, or products can complement your own.
Once you’ve got your 3 to 5 potential partners, start to brainstorm how you can work together. Would you offer an Instagram marketing intensive to their audience for free? Would you want to attend a coaching call inside their membership? Do you want to co-host a live Q&A? Decide how your two brands could serve both audiences well.
From there, you can outline the benefits of doing a joint venture with you. Are you offering a referral fee for anyone who books your services after your presentation? Are you offering a commission on products sold? Are you both going to create a pipeline of referrals for each other? The other business owners or influencers will need to hear how they’ll benefit before they decide to join up with you!
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4 | Start pitching!
With your goals, potential partners, and JV offer outlined, it’s time to create a pitch for your joint venture. Draft up a brief introduction email or direct message that:
- Introduces your brand
- Explains how you’ve come to know their brand
- Directly asks if they’d be interested in a joint venture
- Outlines the benefits to their business
- Highlights your thoughts on what a JV could look like
- Leaves space for them to share their ideas
- Lets them know the timeline you were thinking
- Shares other relevant information
Depending on the person or business, you may need to follow up a few times before you get a response. It also helps to follow the person on their social media, interact with them in DMs, or generally support their business before you “cold pitch” them into a JV.
If you’re not getting any responses, you may need to rethink your potential JV partner list or ask your current network if they know of anyone you could partner with. It’s easier to partner with people who know you, or have at least heard about you!
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5 | Make sure you have a written agreement
Have you found your JV partner? Great! Now, make sure you have a JV contract or written agreement. This is so important because it defines the scope of your joint venture, as well as each company’s responsibilities.
Communication is crucial throughout a joint venture webinar or partnership, and a contract is the first step of that. A JV contract should clearly state your levels of involvement in every role of the joint venture, and the work and resources should be distributed between you and your partner.
If it isn’t, you could run into disagreements along the way or there could be issues with reaping the benefits of the JV (commission payments, referral quotas, and so on).
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Final Thoughts
A joint venture is a perfect way to increase your brand’s reach and make a bigger impact. However, you want to approach a joint venture with the right strategy in mind. That’s why you should always start out with your “Why,” or your goals for the joint venture. From there, you can decide what you’d like to offer as part of a joint venture and how it benefits a potential partner.
Only then should you start reaching out and asking for people or brands to partner with you. They’ll be impressed by the time and thought you’ve put into this JV, and be much more willing to partner up with you!
Of course, you want your JV pitch to look as professional as possible. If you want design templates that help you showcase a joint venture project you’re working on or an affiliate program, check out our Add-On Templates Kits, created for businesses just like yours.
Bluchic’s themes and templates help you show off all that your services and products can offer, so your joint venture looks super enticing to potential partners!