Do you need ways to work with your competition? These 14 ways to work with your competition are great ways to get started working with your competition beneficially. Forming extraordinary joint ventures specific to your needs and theirs will do wonders for you all.
- Co-Host Events – One of the fastest ways to become a well-known business in the industry is to co-host live events. Live events are lucrative and well-loved by most people in almost all industries. Your live event can be in person or online today due to the advent of streaming technology.
- Pay Them to Speak at Your Events – If you have events, always invite industry leaders to speak at your events. If you cannot afford to pay people to speak, be sure to offer something to them for attending that enables them to earn money.
- Speak at Their Events – When anyone in your industry has a live event and needs speakers to be willing to step up and speak. If you become a regular speaker at your industry’s events, you’ll be seen as a thought leader.
- Guest Blog for Each Other – Agree to submit guest blog posts to each other regularly. Many competitors provide writers and publishers log-on information to their blog and allow known competitors to blog about what they want on their pages.
- Join Their Affiliate Program – You can’t offer everything to your audience because you’re just one person. But you can earn money from recommending your competition using their affiliate link.
- Start Your Own Affiliate Program – Allow your competitors to promote you by setting up an affiliate program of your own. Even if you only sell services, you can set up an affiliate program that pays a small percentage to those who make sales for you.
- Run Ads on Their Publications – If your competitors have a website or other publications online, they may be willing to sell ads on their space. You may even be able to do it via targeted ads on social media without even contacting the competitor.
- Sell Ad Space on Your Publications – If you publish anything online or offline, offer ad space directly to your competition. If you have a publishing calendar in advance, you’ll be more likely to sell ad space.
- Sponsor Their Events – If they have a live event of any kind and need sponsors to step up and pay for a sponsorship. Having your business name mentioned at their events will make you a household name to the ideal audience you share.
- Ask Them to Sponsor Your Events – If you host events, accepting sponsorships is a great way to cut your expenses and create goodwill in the community. The moment you know you’re hosting an event, send the information about open sponsorships to them.
- Start a Joint Membership Website – Ask three to five of your closest competitors to contribute content, products, and services every month to a membership site for a particular segment of your joint audience. Share the profits easily using your affiliate program to help streamline payouts.
- Offer Industry Training Programs – One way to break into the business-to-business (B2B) space in your industry is to offer training to the industry instead of customer information and education. Once you set up your training, let the competition know about it.
- Publish a Themed Book – Ask up to ten people in your industry that you see as your best competition to contribute an answer to a specific question for a book compilation. You can use the book as a lead magnet, but it can also be an income stream as you ask them to pay wholesale price for the book for their customers.
- Start an Industry Magazine – Like the book and membership site, you can get several people to spread the work for an industry based on a customer-based magazine for your niche.
The truth is, working with your competitors is beneficial to not only you but your audience too. The more transparency there is in any industry, the better the customers are. If you really want to be of value to your customers and the world, seek to work with your competition in new ways that benefit everyone.
