Co-acquisition: the new customer acquisition strategy that leverages the power of partnership campaigns between brands.

Together.do article series

Acquiring new customers is essential for the growth and success of any business. However, customer acquisition can be a challenging and expensive process. While direct methods are necessary, they are not enough. In today’s competitive business landscape, you must think creatively to maximize your resources and accelerate sales. You need to find ways to bypass the high costs of penetrating a new market.

Here, co-acquisition comes in as a highly effective customer acquisition strategy.

With co-acquisition, brands thrive in a win-win economy by:

• leveraging each other’s network and expertise,
• building upon existing trust,
• creating unique offers,
• expanding their addressable market and business opportunities,
• opening new acquisition channels and verticals.

One Understands that intuitively. Working together helps build stronger foundations.

You’re probably familiar with the saying, “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.” And going far in business implies building a solid customer acquisition strategy. So, let’s rebrand the proverb “…if you want to go far, invest in a co-acquisition strategy”.

There’s a lot to say about the topic; in this article, we’ll talk about the power of leveraging expertise.

Leveraging expertise through partnerships

1. An experts economy

Today’s economy is very sophisticated. Customers’ needs are more and more precise, solutions offered are more and more advanced, and the overall market is more and more interconnected.

In this context, introducing a new solution or penetrating a new market segment requires higher and higher levels of expertise, focused work, and concentrated effort. It is a strength to address a niche market! Metaphorically speaking, you need to be like a laser beam to cut through the layers and reach customers.

2. Expertise is challenging

The benefits of focus and expertise are evident. We all know the risks of diluted efforts and spreading ourselves too thin.

However, at some point, we need to add verticals, address new customers, grow our core market, create more encompassing solutions, etc. Sure, focus is essential, but so is expansion.

A question arises then: how can we expand without losing focus? How can we gain new customers efficiently without missing our target?

3. Successful partnerships achieve expansion keeping focus.

Another reason collaboration and co-acquisition are so powerful: they bring experts together. It’s a brilliant way to get the best of both worlds: high-level expertise meets a broad reach.

We benefit from staying on target while reaching a wider audience. No other acquisition strategy achieves this purpose so efficiently.

Really when you think about it, not using such a powerful tool is a waste of potential. But it’s easier said than done.

Can we find suitable partners and create successful co-acquisition strategies without losing focus?

4. Together.do helps you create successful partnerships.

Of course, just bringing brands together isn’t enough. And like any other industry or market, making partnerships becomes increasingly sophisticated.

We need to be ready and find the right partners. That in itself is a huge task. And then we need to:

• define goals, metrics, and KPIs
• open a new communication channel
• manage common resources
• etc.

That’s precisely why we created our solution. We enable brands to run meaningful and successful partnerships providing them with expertise and state-of-the-art technology. We’re like the team coach and selector of an all-star player team!

5. The partnership mindset: the total is greater than the sum of parts.

Steve Jobs, the iconic Apple co-founder & CEO, shared his views about collaboration.

“My model for business is the Beatles. They were four guys who kept each other’s kind of negative tendencies in check. They balanced each other, and the total was greater than the sum of the parts. That’s how I see business: great things in business are never done by one person. They’re done by a team of people. “

It’s a winning mindset. First, find partners that complete you. Then, get together and create unique offers that are more valuable together than individually added.

If the total isn’t greater than the sum, you’re missing out on the true potential of partnership and co-acquisition! Ask yourself: how can we bring more value to customers? Let the value guide you, successful results will follow.

6. Business case — Starbucks

In 2015 Starbucks and Spotify launched a beautiful co-branding campaign. It is still going strong eight years later!

Starbucks has over 7000 shops across the U.S. and 10 million members of their loyalty program MSR. Spotify, the music app, had 60 million users.

Their partnership illustrates the power of campaigns between brands as a co-acquisition strategy. Here’s an extract of their communication on the day of the launch :

[…] a multi-year relationship that will link its 7,000 company-operated stores in the U.S. and 10 Million My Starbucks Rewards® loyalty members with Spotify’s more than 60 Million global users to offer a first-of-its-kind music ecosystem. This interconnectivity will allow Starbucks MSR members unique access to Starbucks music on Spotify, the ability to influence in-store playlists as well as opportunities for Starbucks MSR members to earn “Stars as Currency.”

Both companies quickly increased their potential customer base.

How much more effort, time, and resources would Starbucks and Spotify need to gain exposure to millions of new customers?

These kinds of partnerships are truly win-win. They bring more value to everyone involved, Starbucks, Spotify, the customers of both companies, and the artists whose songs get promoted!

It works really well. Wait, how do we know it’s working? We don’t have access to the numbers.

-> They just did it again!

In February of this year, 2023, Starbucks announced a partnership with Hark Audio. Hark Audio is an upcoming hot start-up creating a unique Podcast experience. The partnership is similar to the one done with Spotify eight years ago. So if Starbucks does it again, we can confidently guess it’s working!

And to finish, many studies show that customers love brand partnerships. When you plan your partnership campaign well, your customers appreciate it!

So, what are you waiting to plan for your next partnership campaign?