How Building Partnerships Improves Brand Awareness

Have you ever considered how a partnership could impact your business? Facilitating collaboration with another company and your clientele can greatly benefit a business in various ways. Some of the most successful organizations in the world have found ways to partner with other companies within the community and around the world to improve brand awareness. How can you use your relationships to build your company?

Branding Takes Relationship Building

Branding is everything. Consider some of the most recognizable brands like Nike and Starbucks. Their branding often focuses on many of the best ways that branding can grow their businesses. Customer recognition is often high on this list, as a company’s logo and its associations are easily identifiable. While branding does include logo and design, it also includes building and cultivating relationships with others. Having a successful brand means you’ve built successful relationships with other companies and your client base.

These connections can make or break your company. Consider your day-to-day interactions with your clientele. If they aren’t happy with the services you’re providing, you no longer have customers. You have to build relationships with them by communicating, providing excellent customer service, and offering an authentic, genuine experience.

By partnering with other companies in these three aspects (community, outsourcing, and social media), you can expand your brand’s reach. Here is how.

Community

Conscious capitalism is a way of thinking about your business that takes the state of the current world into consideration. Then, based on your knowledge, you make decisions to offer a positive impact on the world. It’s a great philosophy that features the community at its core.

Some of the better examples of this are companies like Whole Foods and Starbucks. Both companies attempt to create equality between the planet’s needs, customer needs, and profit. While both of these brands are huge, they still make impacts locally.

At Starbucks, the company invests time and resources into providing farmers in coffee-growing regions with resources and learning materials to help lower the overall cost of production. In turn, Starbucks is able to purchase the coffee for use in its stores. The company also offers alternative loans to farmers. This type of partnership provides value to Starbucks while also giving something back to the farming community. All of this, on top of Starbucks’ fantastic service, creates an incredible brand.

Similarly, Whole Foods buys local produce for its stores, partnering with local farmers to negotiate fair prices. Additionally, each Whole Foods typically carries other local items from small businesses you wouldn’t find elsewhere. On top of that, the company has made strides to provide funding for school programs, nutrition education, and supports local programs. Not to mention, it helps provide up to $25 million in small business loans to local farmers.

The conscious decision to make changes has given both Starbucks and Whole Foods the upper hand. They got involved in the community and offered help to small businesses and farmers. Customers who patronize these companies are typically loyal and know the brand well. How do businesses like this communicate their initiatives to customers?

Social Media

There are really two ways to get eyes on your content online: social media and search engine optimization (SEO). Social media is where you want to provide visibility to your day-to-day business. You’ll want to share how you are getting involved in the community. Whole Foods, for example, would share a story on social media about a small business it’s been assisting in getting their products on the shelf. Starbucks may share an anecdote regarding a farmer it’s helped become successful in the coffee business.

Social media also gives companies a unique opportunity to directly interact with their fans. If someone comments, likes, sends a message or tags your business in something, you’ll get notified. You can then comment back or write them a message.

In the event someone tags your business in a photo or post, it also gives you the opportunity to respond. You can thank them for visiting your store or respond to feedback, positive or negative. The goal of social branding is to create an engaging experience that builds customer loyalty and trust while serving the business’ needs. Every time you interact with your customers in this way, it boosts your brand and people’s opinion of your business.

With best practices in place, these types of stories give people an idea of what your company is really about and how you’re making a difference in the world. SEO, on the other hand, is providing information about your company in an effective way.

When people search a question on the internet about your industry or your brand, good SEO practices can land you within the first results on Google. This helps with brand awareness because each time they search for something like “coffee in my area” a Starbucks will almost always pop up. If the company’s website and online presence haven’t been optimized, they may not even show up on the first page of Google’s search results.

Outsourcing

In the case of SEO practices, it can often be better to outsource. While you are focused on building relationships that improve your brand and public perception, an SEO company can help establish your presence online. Plus, this gives both your business and the SEO company the opportunity to foster a partnership that will boost brand awareness.  For both of you.

Both are equally as important, but as we’ve discussed above, brand awareness and a company’s success heavily relies on its relationships. Investing more time and money into nourishing your relationships and outsourcing something like SEO will only help your business’ brand reach grow.

When done right, outsourcing can help you make meaningful business connections that may continue to serve your company and brand and its partners long into the future. It is important to partner with a brand that shares the same values as your company does and foster that relationship.

All in all, building relationships with other companies and your customer base is key to growth. The two mentioned above, Starbucks and Whole Foods, have been able to get involved in the community, partner with others, and have two of the most well-known brands in the world because of it. What is stopping your business from doing the same?