Episode 189: How To Grow Your Business Online Through Partnerships with Marion Wagner

Marion Wagner is the Business Mindset Coach every entrepreneur needs. In her career, Marion has specialized in helping online entrepreneurs create six-figure game plans without a large following on social media. In the online space, there are a lot of opportunities to improve or create a new business. Marion teaches a combination of psychological and strategic approaches to transform her clients’ approach toward online growth. Marion also runs Marion Wagner Coaching and hosts the Get Out of Your Head & Grow Your Online Business Podcast. In this episode, we talk about online business deals, the psychology behind these types of moves, and how and why to seek strategic partnerships and collaborations to grow your audience and income.   Know How To Make Online Deals And Partnerships Many think that when we talk about online deals, we are talking about influencer deals—in which a public person negotiates the exposure of a product or service with a brand; this is certainly one type of deal, but it’s not the only one. Many types of strategic alliances take place in the online environment, and you can explore all of them with your business. For starters, Marion gives some tips for building partnerships: Figure out what your target audience consumes, put yourself in front of these other companies, and make partnerships. For example: if you are an email marketer, you should not approach another email marketer. Look for social media experts, a funnel expert on Pinterest or LinkedIn, or maybe a media advertising business coach. Strategic alliances with people outside your niche who serve your clients in a different capacity are priceless. After choosing your partner, get to know them and pitch an angle for a partnership. If it’s a good fit, they’ll jump on that. Always remember to communicate what the benefit to their audience will be from your company.  Understand money is not always involved. In Marion’s career helping her clients to develop online deals, often there’s no money exchanged. For example, to be a part of a summit. It might make sense for you to deliver your content and expertise in exchange for  the exposure your company will get and the access to new prospective customers that it provides you.  How To Recognize A Good Partnership  A good strategic partnership provides three things: 1- You form a strong—and maybe long-lasting—beneficial relationship. Relationships are essential in business. By partnering with someone in the same or a different niche, you are expanding your online possibilities. 2- You speed up your audience's growth. Through a good partnership, you can leverage someone else’s already built audience. The partner company has spent years and years building a loyal, engaged audience and getting access to them is precious—you can spend $30,000 on Facebook ads and not get that same ROI. 3- You align and tether to a top performer in your industry. Having that shared credibility and that recommendation is priceless. You can’t buy credibility, but you can partner with people who already have it.   How To Make Partnerships If Your Company is Small A common question: why would big companies want to do deals with a small company? Marion explains this kind of mindset holds back many small business owners when negotiating. If you are an expert in your field, it does not matter the size of your following if you can add value to someone’s audience in a unique way that they are unable to fulfill without you or someone like you. You can bring in a new market, a new geographic target, your contacts, or your specific expertise.   Launching A New Product Through Partnerships If you are launching a new service or a new product, it’s very intelligent to bring in strategic partnerships to gain access to their audiences. How does one do this? In this type of deal, there is usually a commission or affiliate fee/share that the partner gets paid. Choose the partners wisely and give them an affiliate link with marketing materials targeted to their audience. These partners share through their avenues, maybe launching your product with their email list or on social media platforms. In the social media market, it is common to have a 30% to 50% commission for this alliance. Tip: You have to figure out to whom you’re pitching a partnership. If you’re pitching to someone who makes seven figures to be an affiliate partner, and you’re only offering them 10% or 15%, that may not be worth their time.   The Mindset Behind Growth If you are trying to get someone to close a deal with you, they can tell if you believe in what you are offering or if you do not believe in the pricing you are charging people. Nobody is going to pay you more than you think of your work. That’s why it’s so important to believe in your value. Marion works with her clients to help them develop this mindset and have them develop strong belief until nothing gets them down and they just keep stepping forward. She advises that you want to turn yourself into a magnet where good things are attracted to you.   Authenticity Takes You Far Online From her own experience, Marion shares that believing in herself led to success. For one year and a half, she blogged for less than five readers. Marion then realized that with all the content she produced, she was trying to copy all the other bloggers. From there, she drove 100% authentically into herself and started using her distinct voice, not caring about rejection. Within a matter of months, she reached a quarter million page views, just by being in alignment with her real energy.   Reaching People As An Exercise If you are an entrepreneur building an income, or if you already have your business and are looking for ways to expand it, Marion advises starting with the impact at the forefront of your mind, and then the income will come as you find your way; however, you can not find your way just by reading it in a book or watching someone else doing it. All successful entrepreneurs did not get to where they are by operating in isolation. The best way to start a relationship with anyone online is to reach out and tell them how great their work is. You want to build true relationships and connections over time.   Connect with Marion for more: Website https://marionwagnercoaching.com/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/marionwagnercoaching/  Masterclass https://view.flodesk.com/pages/6262db3aec93244248594f0f  Podcast https://marionwagnercoaching.com/podcast/  Corey Kupfer is an expert strategist, negotiator, and dealmaker. He has more than 35 years of professional deal-making and negotiating experience. Corey is a successful entrepreneur, attorney, consultant, author, and professional speaker. He is deeply passionate about deal-driven growth. He is also the creator and host of the DealQuest Podcast.   If you want to find out how deal-ready you are, take the Deal-Ready Assessment today!