Develop Strategic Partnerships
1. Look for ads in publications that cover your market and that appear to target the same demographics as you do. A review of these ads should tell you if these companies meet your criteria for developing an alliance (see “The Art of the Deal,” below, for more on setting criteria). If you sell apparel, look for shoe and accessory marketers. If you sell sheets, look for bed manufacturers. If the marketer includes a call to action, Web address, toll-free number and/or catalog request mechanism in its ads, assume it has a customer database.
Jim Gilbert has had a storied career in direct and digital marketing resulting in a burning desire to tell stories that educate, inform, and inspire marketers to new heights of success.
After years of marketing consulting, Jim decided it was time to “put his money where his mouth was" and build his own e-commerce company, Premo Natural Products, with its flagship product, Premo Guard Bed Bug & Mite Sprays. Premo in its second year is poised to eclipse 100 percent growth.
Jim has been writing for Target Marketing Group since 2006, first on the pages of Catalog Success Magazine, then as the first blogger for its online division. Jim continues to write for Total Retail.
Along the way, Jim has led the Florida Direct Marketing Association as their Marketing Chair and then three-term President, been an Adjunct Professor of Direct and Digital marketing for Miami International University, and created a lecture series, “The 9 Immutable Laws of Social Media Marketing,” which he has presented across the country at conferences and universities.
