On a recent vacation I was shopping downtown and made a purchase at a retail store. When I checked out the owner gave me a coupon for 10 % off several other downtown businesses and suggested why they were great places to visit. It worked! I went right next door and enjoyed a great lunch for 10% off and visited a gallery I hadn't planned to visit! This practice of businesses sending customers to each other is called Fusion marketing.
Here are tips for making fusion marketing work for you…
One - Identify businesses that share the same customers as you but who aren't in the same business as you. Examples include stores, restaurants and museums partnering, landscapers with builders, wedding photographers with florists and so on.
Two - Determine what each participating business will offer the customers.
Three - Write up a simple agreement between the partnering businesses that states what role each will play and what they will offer.
Four - Develop marketing materials to promote the program benefits to customers.
Five - Combine customer mailing lists with your partners and get the word out via email, the web, word of mouth and flyers.
In today's economy fusion marketing is a great way to work collaboratively with other businesses to bring business to both your doors at little or no cost.
Try it and see what happens!
I'm Deb Neuman for WABI TV5 News
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