If you are like most small business owners, it can be a challenge to grow your business with little to no marketing budget. A technique we have found to be successful is to partner with companies that have a similar audience demographic and ones where their audience could benefit from the dlvr.it service. In many cases, the partnership may simply be an email promotion to our respective audiences. Forming partnerships to grow a small business takes a bit of creativity and time. We’ve outlined steps below that have worked for us.

1. How a Smart Small Business Grows without a Big Marketing
Budget
blog.dlvr.it /2014/02/how-a-smart-small-business-grows-without-a-big-marketing-budget/
Bill Flitter
If you are like most small business owners, it can be a challenge to grow your business with little to no marketing
budget. A technique we have found to be successful is to partner with companies that have a similar audience
demographic and ones where their audience could benefit from the dlvr.it service. In many cases, the partnership may
simply be an email promotion to our respective audiences.
Forming partnerships to grow a small business takes a bit of creativity and time. We’ve outlined steps below that have
worked for us.
How to Find the Perf ect Match
1. Similar Audience - Does the potential partner have a similar audience? We make an educated guess based on
language used on their website and blog. If it appears to be a general match, we move on to the next question.
2. Mat ching Buyers - Does the partnering company speak to a similar buyer? As much as I would like to think
every company could benefit by using dlvr.it, we have found success when the partnering company has a similar
buyer as one that would purchase dlvr.it. For example, if the SMB buyer we are partnering with is responsible for
social media, a marketing department or a founder, etc. vs. HR or IT professional, the partnership will be more
successful.
Exclusive Of f er Required
1. Small Test - We agree to a set number of emails to send to our respective audiences as a test. This usually
ranges from 1,000 to 10,000 emails. We never exchange email addresses but rather take our partner’s creative
and send it to our opt- in list and vice versa. If the test is successful, we agree to send it to our wider respective
customer bases. It’s important that both parties have an audience siz e that is scalable.
2. Landing Page - When it makes sense, we create a specific landing page for the promotion. We want to make
the promotion as relevant to the partner as possible.
3. Special Of f er - We typically ask the partnering company to provide an exclusive offer to our audience –
something they cannot get by going direct to the partner’s website. It’s important that our customers understand we

2. only email them when we have something of value to share.
Determine Success Upf ront
1. Measuring Success - It’s important to discuss success metrics up front to determine if the initial test warrants
expanded distribution. We don’t necessarily look for a home run out of the gate but we want to see an interest.
Depending on the partner, we might be looking for open rate, CTR, sales, newsletter sign- ups, etc. The benefit
has to be mutual if we are to move forward.
2. Expanded Dist ribut ion - When our metrics are met and if we determine it makes sense for both parties, we
extend the promotion to our entire opt- in list in small batches. This helps us test messaging and improve open
rates.
The focus of the partnership is typically the stand- alone email. We have done smaller 1- 2 sentence promotions in our
newsletter or auto- responders. Guest blog posts are another benefit if the promotion goes well.
Finding the right partner is fundamental to the success of a partnership. It’s important for us to spend the time upfront to
determine who we want to work with. We look for quality vs. quantity because we value our customer’s time. The three
key things we look for in a partnership are the right audience, scalability and exclusive offer.