Is Your Marketing Strategy Complete?

You're probably familiar with advertising and publicity, two sure-fire ways to get people to notice your business. But are you fully aware of another tool in the marketing box?

It's cross-promotion, or affinity marketing, a win-win effort whereby two businesses with related interests collaborate on mutually beneficial programs.

Get the most out of your marketing efforts. Add cross-promotion to the mix. Consider these examples:

A movie theater hands out discount coupons for a neighborhood restaurant, which in turn offers a reduced-admission movie ticket to patrons.

A health-food store prints a discount coupon for the recreation-equipment store down the street on its customer receipts. The outdoor store hands out free samples of new health-food products.

A painting business and an interior-design firm exchange ads to print at no cost in each other's newsletters.

A community newspaper includes a blow-in flyer for a dentist office, which agrees to stock the paper for its patrons to read.

An insurance sales office and an auto repair shop display each other's business cards.

Cross-promotion partnerships pay off. Make a deal with another business. You'll both be glad you did.