Partners in Profits
Simone Novello believes we are powerful whole individuals who thrive when we align with the right people, causes, businesses and communities; that we always do better together. 
“I have always loved networking and connecting people for win/win outcomes and business to business marketing was my best subject at University, so it seems I had a calling in life,” says Simone.
This calling has led to the creation of PartnerUp, a business that makes it easier and more cost effective for businesses of all sizes to enjoy the benefits of partnership marketing programs. PartnerUp creates the strategy, builds the program and sources partners from scratch.
At its basic level partnership marketing is simply about relationships. It's aligning with another business who in most cases shares your values and target market – and they are complementary to your product/service/brand.
They have something you want and you have something they want – the sum of the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Your business is successful in its own right, but you know you will do better together.
They might have a credible brand, large database of clients and existing marketing channels you want to leverage and you might have an innovative value added service that goes perfectly with what they sell which either increases the perceived value of their offering and/or creates a new or enhanced revenue stream for them (i.e. It increases sales or you offer a commission). You are working towards common goals together.
It could be as simple as a local pizza shop and video store doing a special offer together and sharing the costs of a flyer and letterbox drop to promote it in the area, or you could partner with a large scale loyalty program like Qantas Frequent Flyer and offer bonus points to their members when they spend with you.
While PartnerUp is growing apace, like all businesses it has faced its share of challenges.
“Most clients want to skip to the 'fun part', that is, finding partners, but there are critical steps that need to be taken first in order to maximise conversion and the prospect of sustainable success of your partnership marketing program,” explains Simone.
“Otherwise you can spend a lot of wasted time and energy chasing the wrong partners and never getting anywhere. At its basic level partnership marketing is very simple, however there is a success formula and that's what we insist on following – because we know it works.
“So we needed to position ourselves as thought leaders and show our clients why the preceding steps are so important. These include defining your partnership profile and engagement strategy, and ensuring your program design is considerate of your available resources and partner needs.
“We also look at a client's existing assets and come up with innovative ways of leveraging these so we can negotiate fully leveraged partnerships.”
Simone says that traditionally professional partnership marketing support hasn't been available to SME's because it's too expensive to hire someone like her, but that PartnerUp is changing that.
“Since we're extensively networked and we have clear systems that work, we frequently see opportunities that businesses otherwise wouldn't know about. So we decided to focus on areas of our business that would enable us to deliver this powerful marketing strategy to businesses of all stages and sizes, such as free content, broadcasting opportunities to our network, and a world first e-course in Partnership Marketing Fundamentals,” she says.
Simone’s Top Three Business Tips
- If you're like 99 per cent of businesses. you are sitting on under-utilised assets that prospective marketing partners would love to get their hands on! If you can't recognise your assets, ask people in your network or hire a professional.
- If you can't see a genuine win/win in the partnership don't get involved. Even if the win is all on your side don't do it – business karma will come back to bite you and it won't be sustainable so it might do your business more damage than good.
- Put it in writing! Even if it's a very simple agreement, be sure to put something in writing as you don't want a simple misunderstanding to undermine an otherwise great partnership. Be clear on the offer, the term of the offer, the get out clause, and the respective responsibilities and obligations of each party (at a minimum).
