I’m a big believer in collaboration. It’s a great way to reach new audiences, grow your business, and invest in the community! It’s also one of the biggest marketing tactics I use for The Quirky Pineapple Studio; helping me grow my audience and expand my reach. Using business collaborations to your advantage can help you with things like:
- Increased brand visibility
- Discovering a new audience
- Building a strong community
- and positioning yourself as an expert
While on the road with Job Trippin’, I was able to maximize my time and collaborate with local businesses and entrepreneurs! In each group, there are remote workers, digital nomads, freelancers, and an overall entrepreneurial spirit. As a creative entrepreneur – I LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT. I was able to brainstorm new ideas and understand the local economy even better.
I’ve now been able to collaborate with businesses and entrepreneurs from all over the world and want to help foster even more collaboration! Here are my 5 tips for business collaborations while traveling:
1. Decide on your goals
Every collaboration has a different purpose and should be treated differently. To find a mutually beneficial collaboration, it’s necessary to decide on your own goals (first) and then approach a potential collaborator to hear about theirs. Most of my business collaborations don’t necessarily focus on the money side of things (even though that could be a result), but more about the creativity and ideas that each person can bring to the table.
My goals for each collaboration vary, but usually, I set goals such as:
- Reach a wider audience
- Grow my platforms and position myself as an expert
- Work with someone else on a new idea
- Complement my strengths and weaknesses with theirs
Usually, if my business collaborators and I decide to create a project together – the sales goals come last. Our main goal is to work together, playing off of our strengths and weaknesses, to create something valuable, inspiring, and fun for our audiences!
2. What can you bring to the table?
Collaborations should never be all about YOU and what you’ll get out of it. Collaborations are mutually beneficial projects for both parties! If you’re approaching a collaboration with only your own needs in mind, take a step back to see how your biz collaborator can find something useful from the collaboration as well!
For example, I’ve been approached by another business based in the fashion & style industry to collaborate. I LOVE fashion and style, personally, but my target audience and clients are focused on tourism, hospitality, and gastronomy. Unfortunately, the collaboration wasn’t a good fit because we couldn’t find a common ground for both of our unique audiences to learn from us.
When I approach someone for a collaboration, I try to make a list of things I can bring to the table, like:
- Sharing about them to my audience
- Providing my copywriting and content strategy expertise to help them
- Seeing if people from my audience would be interested in their brand
- Understanding both of our strengths to play off of each other
From there it’s easier to pitch to potential collaborators with ideas and projects! People are busy and when you’re trying to “brainstorm” ideas together, it takes longer and people lose interest. My favorite collaborations have been when I gave some ideas before deciding to work together, or the other person approached me with a clear idea they had. From there, we got our creative juices flowing and the project always ended up going so well!
3. Be proactive
IF YOU DON’T LISTEN TO ANYTHING IN THIS POST – LISTEN TO THIS. Being proactive with business collaborations is the BEST way to approach them. Some collaborations I’ve participated in have “fallen into my lap” by chance – but most of them have come from reaching out and building a relationship with the brand/business beforehand.
Some tips for being proactive:
- Be clear on your niche and your unique selling point, so all the brands/businesses that you work with, complement your brand message and industry
- Have a list of people who you’d love to collaborate with! Break them into BIG DREAM collaborations (ie: Starbucks) and then medium/smaller brands.
- Keep track of their accounts on social media! Interact, engage, and build a relationship with them
- Once you’ve built a rapport with them – reach out! (via email, Instagram DMs, etc.)
I try to collaborate with a new business each month (even more while I travel) – either through guest blog posting on their platform or featuring someone on my own. My list of potential collaborators is always growing and changing, based on how proactive I am!
Want to collaborate? Let’s schedule a virtual coffee chat to get to know each other!
4. Find local businesses/brands to work with
If you’re traveling and looking for collaborations – look for local businesses and brands that you can feature!
This is the best chance to find small businesses and local entrepreneurs to reach out to, learn from, and share about their projects to your audience in an organic and natural way. The entrepreneurial and startup scene in each city has its own charm and vibe – and of course, if you’re a creative entrepreneur, we’re all over the world!
Here’s how I find local businesses/brands to collaborate with:
- Join a coworking space for a day or two
- Visit local coffee shops and see who I can find (no shame in approaching someone who you find interesting – just make sure you’re not distracting them from their work)
- Browse through the local Instagram hashtag (or location tags) –> I’m ALWAYS looking through these to see who I can find!
- Reach out in Facebook groups to see who’s around and who you can connect with
Working with local businesses and brands while you’re on the road instantly grows your audience and connects you to an international crowd – especially if you’re traveling outside of your home country! I find that highlighting local businesses during collaborations builds a stronger relationship with them and showcases parts of entrepreneurship that most people don’t get to see!
5. Use your influence to share about each other
I mentioned in the beginning, but collaborations while you’re traveling help your brand visibility and finding a new audience easy! You’re connecting to an international audience, a new crowd, and building a relationship with businesses in different areas around the world. All of that positions you as an expert and makes your business even more credible and trustworthy to international clients.
The collaboration doesn’t end after the project is over! You’re building a new relationship! To keep the buzz going and continuously show support and build a community, make sure you’re:
- Sharing about each other on your platforms (organically!)
- Engaging with their content to continuously show your support
- Celebrate their wins with them!
- Reach out every so often and see how they’re doing and if there’s anything YOU can support them with
I’ve got to say that this is my favorite part of collaborating because I’ve added value to my community, grown my network, and made a friend along the way! (Hello, all things that The Quirky Pineapple Studio loves!)
Business Collaborations While Traveling
If you have time during your travels to collaborate with one local business – I highly suggest giving it a try! There’s no need to collaborate with 5 different brands and small business owners (that’s a lot), but adding one to your trips can spark your creativity and inspiration! Some collaborations I’ve taken advantage of while traveling are:
- Featuring local businesses on my blog
- Working with a similar brand to create content and a workshop
- Finding potential clients
- Creating a small community event for creatives, entrepreneurs, and digital nomads
- Getting featured on different platforms in cities I’ve visited (ie: Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn)
All of these collaborations have helped me to grow my audience, find potential partners for business, and helped me network and be “top of mind” in different areas in the world. Creating an international crowd and audience has expanded my target audience and reach for potential work!
Want to learn the best way to manage collaborations? Join our masterclass ‘Project Management for New Ideas, Collabs, & Services‘ to keep track of your ideas and kick “Shiny-Object Syndrome” to the curb.
What have been some of your favorite collaborations? I’d love to hear about them!
Enjoyed this post? You might like these, too:
Creativity & Entrepreneurship in Latin America
Intentional Partnerships: Working with Specific Clientele
How Branded Events Create Brand Loyalty
Top 5 Tools for Working & Traveling
Want more copywriting, content strategy, and community building tips? Subscribe to the Pineappler family!
[yikes-mailchimp form=”2″ submit=”SUBSCRIBE”]
