Whether you are a manufacturer seeking a way to push sales through the distribution pipeline, or a distributor looking for a creative way to promote products or services, co-marketing is one marketing tool that can boost sales while improving the buyer/seller relationship. It is the ultimate way to create synergy as both suppliers and distributors work toward a common goal.
 
Co-marketing in its simplest form is an agreement between a supplier and their distributor(s) to work together to promote products or services with shared strategies, execution, costs and benefits. Shared strategies require a discussion and agreement on goals; execution requires a conversation about who will do what to make the plan work;  shared costs can be a 50/50 split or any combination that works for both parties; and and both can reap the benefits of increased sales, web hits, unique visitors and more.

As a supplier, co-marketing allows you to:

• Further enhance your relationship with your customer by improving communications
• Support your customer with expanded or enhanced marketing tools to help sell more of your products
• Stand out among the crowd of suppliers as one that will spend extra effort to help their customers be successful - think of it as earning brownie points
• Stretch your marketing budget to allow for even more visibility of targeted messages
• Build company and brand awareness
• Allow you to target your audience in a more cost-effective manner, rather than a shotgun approach that may or may not directly impact sales
• Increase the ROI for your marketing budget

From a distributor's standpoint, the benefits of working with a supplier to develop a co-marketing program centers on the company's ability to:

• Leverage your marketing budget
• Highlight specific branded products
• Introduce a price or product category leader
• Round out a good-better-best product scenario
• Market a popular product that currently has high demand
• Introduce a premium product line
• Create or bring attention to products with new features
• Reach audiences that otherwise you would not be able to reach

There's many reasons why a company should consider co-marketing as a way to stretch their marketing budget. If you are still unsure if this is right for you, begin to notice how many companies are turning to co-marketing in their marketing mix. You may be surprised at how this is the new cost-effective way to market.