|
Profiles
of real-life joint
venturers - Jim Crawford...
In March 2001, I had
the
pleasure of talking with Jim Crawford of Crawford Direct Marketing (www.CrawfordDirect.com)…
I made the opportunity when a short
e-zine mention of him
caught my eye… About how he had set up an individual
affiliate relationship
with a company he wanted to deal with that didn’t have an affiliate
program.
I
wanted to learn about that sole experience – and it turned out that
this is a
man who has pursued such joint venture relationships with web
businesses for
years!
Jim is a stay-at-home dad in Omaha,
Nebraska. He’s had
his own business for the past 7 years, his web business for 5 (which
dove-tailed
nicely with the birth of his daughter).
His first product was his grandfather’s collector’s
reference book, 1904 St. Louis World’s
Fair
Mementos and Memorabilia. Jim’s
grandfather, Robert L. Hendershott, was 6 in 1904... and he visited the
Fair
that year in St. Louis. Remarkably, he published his book at
age 96, but he needed a little
help selling it...
Jim saw a chance to really push the book via
targeted direct marketing and developed his first mail order
offer. His first joint venture was to include advertising for
two other book publishers in his offer, in exchange for a
commission. Jim thoroughly researched the antiques and
collecting industry for other back end offers and discovered his niche.
This research eventually led him online, where he
came across The Internet Antique Shop (5 years ago, when the web was in
its infancy). They provide online stores to antiques and
collectibles dealers. Their marketing was weak...
Jim offered to rewrite their promotional material and include it in his
mailings in exchange for a commission - and they went for it.
Soon afterward Jim created his first 2-page website
to promote the World’s Fair books and the online mall. He’s
been adding content ever since. His website, the Collector’s
Marketing Resource Center, focuses on providing webmarketing
information, consulting, and web design especially for the antiques and
collectibles industry.
Jim looks for affiliate program opportunities that
would benefit his highly targeted audience. He’s found
himself often on the leading edge of affiliation, as it were, with the
companies he’d like to promote.
For example… He discovered SmoothSale, a
real-time selling service. I wondered if this worked especially well
for people who were selling pricey, one-of-a-kind items… No,
that wasn’t it so much – "Collectibles is a haggling
industry… SmoothSale allows you to haggle online, in real
time." …Perfect for the niche!
SmoothSale folks had been thinking only in terms of
dealing with sellers (they do have a rudimentary referral program in
place)… Jim told them, "I don’t want to sell anything – but
if I write an article promoting your service, would you pay me for the
customers I send you?" They bit – and set him up with a demo
version of their service that he could show his site visitors.
Then there was SquareTrade, a company that verifies
the soundness of web businesses (especially online auction
sellers)… Another good business-building tool for his
collectibles dealer clients, who may be just individuals working out of
their homes. SquareTrade had no affiliate program; but Jim
contacted them to ask if they’d give him a commission for customers he
sent their way. After checking out references for him (after
all, business soundness is their raison d’etre!), they agreed to set up
a tracking system for him. …And the next thing he knew, they had set up
an affiliate program based on the success of this joint venture!
WebTradeInsure offers credibility (fraud)
insurance, for sellers, and transit insurance, for buyers, in online
transactions. Though they had no affiliate program, Jim had
seen a tracking banner ad of theirs in an email newsletter…
He contacted them with a proposal that he promote their service in
exchange for a commission, which he knew they could easily track from
his site – they agreed to pay him 5%. He wrote an article
about them for his site, and they even went so far as to set him up
with co-branding… Their order page says "Welcome Crawford
Direct Marketing Members" – that’s a courtesy more affiliate merchants
should consider.
[If you'd like to read about how to succeed in
"real" affiliate marketing programs, as either affiliate or merchant,
see "The Affiliate Marketing Primer" at my website
www.AffiliatePrimer.com.]
Now that business too has gone on to set up select
other affiliate relationships – though not a full-blown
program. (They also advertise their affiliates’ businesses in
a directory on their site – nice. …And win-win, of course, because
they’re proving to their site visitors that some great businesses are
working with them.)
The WebTradeInsure marketing rep was so impressed
by Jim’s article (and the others on his site) that he said, "You should
be a columnist!" That idea dropped into fertile soil…
Jim soon thereafter showed his insurance article to
the editor of the "AuctionBytes-Updates" ezine he subscribes
to. She didn’t wish to reprint it, but she was eager to have
him write other things for her publication. …His first
article, titled
"Writing to Sell – It’s Not About You!" (great advice about
"About Us" pages), came out in the March 4th
issue. (And his byline, which tells of the services he offers
to the antiques and collectibles industry, will definitely bring him
business from that readership!)
And this is it…
Jim Crawford
is a stay-at-home father, entrepreneur, and Internet Marketing
Consultant. He likes to think of himself as a "creative
resource". His Web site, The Collector's Marketing Resource
Center, provides information about Web site design and marketing for
the highly competitive antiques and collecting industry. Stop
in for a free consultation… http://www.CrawfordDirect.com.
Jim spends a considerable amount of time reading publications and
researching Web sites in both the collecting and marketing industries,
and enjoys networking with leaders in both. If you have a
question about marketing your Web site, email him at jim@crawforddirect.com.
What can we learn from Jim
Crawford about joint
venturing?…
-
Affiliate marketing is joint
venture marketing.
-
If the affiliate-style relationship you want isn’t
already provided… why not ask for it?
-
Don’t let other businesspeople’s blinders limit
your view of what's possible... so much is possible!
-
Joint ventures you initiate educate your partners
about how to get the most out of marketing (win-win indeed).
-
When you promote your own offers, think in terms of
how you might joint venture with others with complementary offers.
-
Write to e-zine publishers to let them know about
anything interesting you do that their readers might like to know about
(so prospective partners will find out about you).
-
What’s interesting? – write it up (so people will
find out about you)... Editors are constantly looking for fodder for
their periodicals, both online and off.
-
Find ways to incorporate strategic
alliance/affiliate relationships into what you do write up (so you'll
make money).
-
Creatively work your niche of expertise!
For
those serious about JV marketing...
SEARCH
THIS SITE OR THE WEB:
Back to
Profiles of Real-Life Joint Venturers
Back
to HOME
Copyright 3-2001 - Gordon Pioneering
|
