There’s an old saying, “No man is an island.” It means that human beings cannot thrive when isolated from others. While marketing doesn’t often veer toward such philosophical thinking, this quote rings true for creating, and effectively marketing, a quality business. Utilizing services or vendors to enhance quality and then communicating about the ensuing increase in quality is creative marketing. Thinking outside the traditional silos of business and marketing will turn a business relationship into a marketing opportunity and can propel your brand further in today’s crowded aging care market.

What Is a Marketing Partnership?

In our last six-part webcast series, we discussed the importance of creating strategic marketing partnerships with operational and support vendors in the home care industry. If you missed any of those webcasts, you can view them here. But what does “marketing partnership” really mean?

A marketing partnership is a mutually beneficial business arrangement where two companies join forces in pursuit of new business, new clients, or new markets. Working with other businesses within your industry can enhance your marketing in many ways, including:

• Increasing marketing exposure
• Broadening the scope of your marketing strategy, allowing you to market your agency in new ways
• Expanding your knowledge base of the industry while also extending your influence and expertise to a broader audience

If you’ve never been a part of a marketing partnership before, you may be wondering how to know which marketing partnerships will be most beneficial to you and how to find these opportunities.

What Should You Look for when Partnering with a Marketing Firm?

In a truly successful marketing partnership, both parties must bring something of worth to the table, and both parties must stand to gain something from the relationship. In a home care agency/marketing company partnership, for example, home care agencies have expertise in providing in-home care, hiring caregiving staff, dealing with emergencies. The job of a home care agency is 24/7/365, leaving little to no time for agency owners and staff to learn the nuances of effective home care marketing or implement an ongoing marketing strategy in today’s ever-changing marketing environment. Partnering with an experienced home care marketing firm is a key decision that can boost an agency’s brand recognition and help attract more clients and referrals, allowing the agency to focus on its clients. In turn, the marketing company can showcase positive results for an agency, increasing their potential to sign on more clients.

Forming a partnership with just any marketing or design firm won’t cut it, however. There must be a strategy behind your choice for a marketing agency, a strategy that makes choosing the agency more of a partnership in order to achieve maximum success. Some things to consider when looking for a home care marketing partner include:

1. Aligned strategic priorities: When considering a partnership with a marketing agency, ask yourself: Does that agency have clients in similar markets? Do we have a similar vision of the type of customers that we want to attract? You need to ensure that your marketing agency can work together with you to achieve mutually beneficial goals. After all, marketing partnerships are about win-win solutions for both parties. Working with a marketing agency that specializes in home care will provide you with a more targeted marketing plan that will attract more clients, thus the more business the marketing agency will get.
2. Strengths and weaknesses: A truly honest partnership will work best for both parties, and both should be honest about their own strengths and weaknesses. This way, you will know how you can best complement each other within your partnership. If you have an energetic and talented writer on staff, then let the agency focus on strategy and design, and use your staff member for content. Similarly, if your SEO is struggling or your SEO manager appears to be using black hat or questionable tactics to get your website to rank higher, consider letting your marketing agency take over your SEO for a more strategic, Google-friendly approach.
3. Credibility: What sort of presence does the home care marketing agency with which you hope to partner have within the industry already? Does their client mix match or complement your own? Does their focus on quality match yours? Remember, in the marketing world, you pay for what you get. Some marketing companies compete on price alone, but cannot match the quality product that you need in order to be positioned as a top home care agency within the industry.

Attempting to implement your own marketing plan, or partnering with a marketing agency that does not know home care, can feel like a shout into the void, but it doesn’t have to be like that. In today’s world of web-based and digital content marketing, selecting a marketing partner with deep industry experience and an understanding of what it takes to succeed is the way to go. The home care marketing experts at corecubed and MOST can be your strategic marketing partners and get your home care agency on the right track. Contact us today to learn more.