Each month in the Irresistible Marketing Club, I lead a live training on an essential topic to grow your lucrative online business. This month we covered the first part of finding and connecting with influential Joint Venture partners (aka referral partners) to promote your offer. Here’s a sneak peek at a few golden nuggets from our training. JV partners are the fastest, most effective way to grow your email list and attract highly qualified potential clients. They’re based on the time-tested strategy of word-of-mouth referrals, only with way bigger results.

Partners typically promote you with word-of-email, sending you hundreds (or thousands) of new leads very quickly. These leads are far more qualified and likely to invest in your offer because they’re coming to you based on a trusted recommendation. This is a much “warmer” approach than using online ads to attract leads who have no trust built with you yet. You also don’t have to pay for new leads on the front-end as you would have to do with social media ads.

For example, you could easily put $1,000’s into Facebook ads and not get a single paying client. With referral partnerships, you pay commissions only after you get paying clients. So there’s much less risk and a far greater chance for rewards. There are 5 key elements to collaborate with JV partners successfully: 

1. Finding Right-Fit Partners – Look for business owners who build their email lists (they should have a compelling opt-in form and incentive on their website). Their list should include a majority of people who qualify as your ideal clients. Get on their mailing list to see how they nurture their subscribers. They should be giving free, valuable content regularly in the form of blogs, email newsletters, podcasts or other educational resources. People who build and nurture their email lists can be the best referral partners because their subscribers are more responsive. 

2. Partner Outreach – how do you get noticed by those influencers who can rapidly grow your visibility? Well the very BEST way to start is to get a personal introduction from someone they know and trust. They’re far more likely to give you a few minutes on the phone to hear about your opportunity if you’ve been recommended. So ask your friends and colleagues if they know any business owners who serve your ideal clients.

See if they’re willing to introduce you (write the email for your friend to send so it’s easy for them). Also, be sure to lead with a very brief hint at the value of the opportunity for your potential JV partner. Don’t include a lot of information in the email or make it long. It will just get ignored if you. 

3. Enrolling Partners – So let’s say you get a potential partner on the phone – congratulations! You now have the chance to get them excited about your vision and interested in collaborating with you. JV partnerships can take many different forms and partners are motivated by many different reasons. I’m not able to cover all of those possibilities here. The biggest question many people have is, “How do I inspire a partner to promote me if my own email list is small?”

Well the simple answer is, not all referral partners require reciprocal promotion. Some will be interested in promoting your offer if they think it will sell well in their community, and they’ll earn passive income through sales commissions. It makes a huge difference to make your offer irresistible with high-converting copy – you’ll attract more great promotional partners when you have this. 

4. Partner Agreements – So many people just getting into Joint Ventures will have an exciting conversation with a potential partner…only to end up disappointed with it goes no further. You need to propose a clear agreement to your partner and work together to make it a win-win, based on the value they want and the value you want. Be specific about exactly how each partner will participate and when. Follow up in writing. To help my clients feel prepared and knowledgeable around creating JV agreements, I teach them all the ins and outs of this in the Irresistible Marketing Club. 

5. Motivating JV Partners – So you got a partner enrolled – yay! What’s next? Make it easy for them to promote you. Give them enticing emails pre-written as if they’re coming from your partner to their subscribers. Give them pre-written social media posts and images to share about you. Then make sure they have incentives to play full out – which means they’ll go above and beyond to send you more leads and sales.

One way to incentivize them is to tier your commissions. For example, if they get 40% for each group program sale they refer, bump their commission to 50% when they reach a certain number of opt-ins or sales. Bump it higher when they reach the next goal if they’re willing to keep promoting. 

There many more fun ways to motivate partners that I will share in next month’s live training for the Irresistible Marketing Club (part 2 of our Joint Ventures module). If you’d like to learn more about joining us, your best next step is to reserve your Irresistible Marketing Assessment with me. 

This is no-risk conversation where I take a close look at your offer, website and marketing plan (or ideas for these things if they’re still being developed). I help you see what’s working and what’s not so you can get bigger results – faster. Getting expert feedback on your marketing is the most leveraged way to grow a profitable online business without a lot of expensive, time-sucking trial and error. I would love to support you with the express pass to success! 

Let’s talk more – just reserve your spot here while they’re still available. My calendar is limited and fills up fast.