A Guide to Agency Partnerships

According to a 2019 Impact study, over 50% of companies surveyed attributed 20% of their revenue to partnerships, while 76% say that partnerships are important in achieving business revenue goals.

While marketing is great for getting leads and acquiring new clients, agency partnerships allow you to leverage other agencies’ expertise and skills for a robust client base, improved value to current clients, faster agency growth, and increased revenue.

What do you need to know before venturing into agency partnerships? We’ll answer all of your questions in this guide.

Why You Should Look into Agency Partnerships

There are many reasons why your agency should invest in partnerships:

Wider Marketing Reach

When you market on your own, your audience is limited, but a partnership opens your agency to new audiences of prospects and customers that you may not be able to access without help.

Partnerships with already established agencies amplify your marketing efforts and increase the probability of converting leads. Also, the partner agency optimizes its marketing activities to include yours, with your success in mind. If you do the same for them, then everybody wins.

Referral Business

If you manage your partnerships well, the services you offer will be complementary to that of your partner agency. As a result, they will send referrals whenever they need the services you provide for their own client projects or even send clients to you directly for new projects.

Referral business is a great way to increase business revenue without spending more time, effort, and resources on marketing activities. Plus, it’s effective. Customers trust word-of-mouth; in fact, 90% of people are likely to trust a recommended brand or product. 

Service Specialization

Positioning yourself as an expert in your industry as an agency is tough. You need to be specialized and focused on the types of services you offer. Doing that means learning and acquiring every skill related to your service offering or hiring experts to take care of them. This all takes time and resources and may stretch you thin.

However, you might be able to become an expert in your space faster by partnering with other established agencies that offer the services and have the skills you need. By expanding your service specialization, you’ll be the one-stop shop for all your clients’ needs. And when you’re able to offer them tons of options and services, you’re able to make your agency indispensable. 

Types of Partnerships Agencies Should Consider

1. Influencer Collaboration

The power of social proof and recommendations is the fuel behind influencer marketing. People trust the reviews given by people more than the ones they have to read on websites. By collaborating with an influencer in your industry, you can access their audience and followership, providing you with leads for your agency.

Below are ideas you can use to maximize influencer collaborations:

• A social media post about your agency and its services. This could be a video that compiles the influencer’s experience with using your services so followers can see the process. 
• A guest-written article by the influencer that provides a round-up of various recommended agencies based on areas of expertise (yours included). 
• A guest blog that you provide and publish on their website that discusses a hot topic your agency specializes in, with a link back to your site or services page. 

Whatever you do, make sure the influencer you choose aligns with your industry and values and that their audience aligns with your target audience. There are definite mistakes you can make with your influencer partnership, and you don’t want that to be one of them. 

2. Channel Partnerships with Software Vendors

Channel partnership is a long-term partnership strategy that involves partnering with a different kind of business (for example, a software company in your industry) and growing together. This strategy requires a channel front like a podcast or video series where content is created continuously, and strategic business partners are interviewed.

These kinds of partnerships are great because since it’s cross-channel, there’s a decreased chance of partnering with any competing forces, and you’re able to tap into your key audience with a new approach. 

3. Agency Partnerships

As explained above, agency partnership involves partnering with other agencies that offer complementary services in your industry. You can leverage their clientele, earn referrals, and grow your agency business through the partnership.

For example, let’s say your agency specializes in graphic design and marketing strategy. It would make a ton of sense for you to look to partner with an agency that specializes in media buying and ad placement. 

Tips for Agency Partnership Success

Successful partnerships are great for scaling your agency quickly and growing revenue. However, if you do not consider some important factors before getting started, your agency partnership may set you up for failure.

Below are some tips for successful agency partnerships.

1. Choose an agency with complementary services. For example, if your agency is focused on search engine optimization (SEO), a web development agency or marketing agency would make a good partner.
2. Precheck your partner’s client base to ensure they match your ideal customer’s profile.
3. Align business goals with your partner agency and streamline the referral process.
4. Create and sign a partnership agreement, as well as a non-disclosure agreement, to ensure transparency and prevent undermining and sabotage.
5. Clearly define the roles and responsibilities of each agency in the partnership.
6. Pre-define an exit plan that spells out how each partner should act and pull out should the partnership not work out as expected. This prevents escalations, negative situations, and blame games.

A well-executed agency partnership could propel your agency business forward more quickly than doing it all alone. Implement these tips for successful agency partnerships, and start reaping the benefits for your business today.

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