Supposing you had a product that sells for $97 on how to have a better relationship with your teenage children.

You contact your nearest list broker and buy or rent a list of 10,000 names. You then craft a sales letter that explains your product and why people should buy it from you. You send out this letter to all the people in your database.

You find that you convert 2% of people into buying your product using this letter and approach. Two percent multiplied by 10,000 names equals 200 orders. 200 Orders which retail at $97 is a gross profit of $19,400

Do you think that a 2% response is a bit on the small side? It is in fact pretty good as far as it goes but could it be a lot better? Lets pause for a moment; the people you have written to don’t know anything about you, they know nothing about your business, they may have never heard of your product before.

In short, they are concerned with being ripped off – Is there a better way?

Cold mailings are never going to be that great because they don’t trust you. Here is a way to improve it.

Just supposing you found an owner of a similar list who often contacts his subscribers and has a good relationship wit  them. Could you imagine what would happen when your endorser writes to the people in his database and explains what a great person you are and talks about your great product.

Do you think the response rate would be higher?

The chances are good that the letter endorsing you will achieve a much better conversion percentage than if you used a cold list. The reason is simply that these subscribers trust the person who is endorsing you so the trust is transferred to you.

If your Joint Venture endorsement has been properly thought through there is a very good chance that you will get wa more than a 2% response rate. If your conversion rate only increased from 2% to 6% (a three fold increase) just imagine what that could do to your bottom line. Think of your bottom line, even if it only increased from 2% to 6% that’s a 3 fold increase. So instead of $19,400 you are now getting 6% of 10,000, multiplied by $97, equals $58,200 gross profit.

If you are incredulous about the increase then please try it out yourself. Run a small test of say 1000 names from a cold list and then compare what happens when you work with a Joint Venture partner who endorses you.

Step 1 – Identify who you are targeting (type of customers)
Step 2 – Find a Joint Venture partner who already has a relationship with these types of customers.
Step 3 – Agree a % split of the profits
Step 4 – Test an endorsed mailing
Step 5 – Do a small test to a cold list (same No’s and customer profile)

Compare the two results. There is a very good chance that the joint venture endorsed mailing did far better and brought in more profit.

Now work out which one generated the most profit, repeat it and smile, as you make more profits in less time and at a lower cost.

Happy Joint Venturing

So the first place I would look for joint venture partners is in my own back yard. Think of your own customer database or mailing list. This is one of the best places to start because your customers have already done business with you, they know like and trust you (if they don’t, why not). This trust can be converted into more opportunities and more business.

Magazine Publishers
Focus on the smaller or niche magazines and you will find a rich resource of hungry publishers who will often be open to a carefully crafted joint venture. It’s the same with people who distribute newsletters on line or printed material off line. They are a fabulous resource, often with very large databases and hungry customers.

Library
Your local library offers you a rich resource of excellent material that you can research. There are reference books available that show you the numbers of members. In the USA and Canada you can review http://www.mediafinder.com/. They have around 75,000 newsletter for you to explore. There is a cost involved with this service so do your sums first before subscribing.

Another great USA based service is Standard Rates and Data Services http://www.srds.com. In the UK you can go to a list broker like Marketing File http://marketingfile.com/ I wouldn’t personally go out and buy a big list from a list broker because the chances are good that a business will already have an active relationship with your target market and this is likely to be warmer than a cold list.

Your library is going to have some great resources for research. It may be worth your while buying these directories for your own use. They are normally quite expensive so you could always see if they are available on eBay. Even the older ones still have gems.

Yellow Pages
This publication is now showing it’s age a bit because so much is researched on-line. But, the people who already advertise in yellow pages are a useful point of contact for joint ventures.

Seminars
Seminars can be a great place to meet potential joint venture partners. Be choosy about which ones you attend but generally they can be a rich pool of motivated people. Paid for seminars will have some of the better joint venture opportunities because you won’t get so many tyre kickers.

Search Engines
Go to Google and type in the keywords that you are looking for. You will be surprised what pops up.

Discussion Boards
Are a great place to find passionate people. These forums give you a chance to form relationships and build up trust before suggesting a joint venture deal.

Newspaper Ads
Newspaper ads can provide some good opportunities, they are after all advertising for business. Contact them and start a discussion.

Your Website
There is always an opportunity to better use your web real estate. Why not mention that you are open to joint ventures and explain what you are looking for.

Ezine Directories

Competitors
I know this might sound a bit odd to start with, but your competitors could offer you useful partnership opportunities. Some of the best joint venture alliances may come from your biggest competitors.

And the mailing will also be very targeted. Why not utilise this and make a handsome profit?

Referrals
Ask for joint venture referrals from existing customers. Just pick up the phone and ask them who they might know.

Other Places to Find Partners;

• Business events
• Newsgroups
• Business Directories
• On-Line classifieds
• Magazines / trade magazines
• Trade Fairs

There are literally dozens of places to look, have fun.

Happy Joint Venturing