From Louis Vuitton and Supreme to Versace and H&M, brand collaborations have produced unprecedented volumes of sales and increased brand awareness for decades. The biggest difference is that now, most of these collaborations are seen on social media, namely, Instagram.

Collaborations offer opportunities for growth and new customer reach, both things that are difficult to master when using inward-looking marketing techniques. Collaborations also allow brands to create powerful campaigns without having to spend too much money by themselves.

So, there’s pretty much no reason why your brand shouldn’t try a collaboration, especially if your marketing strategy seems to be drying up and your brand is flatlining.

In this article, we’re going to spill all of the details about exactly what a collaboration is and how you should go about running one for your brand. Take a look below and get ready to boost your reach like never before!

What Is A Collaboration?

Collaborations, whether with influencers or other brands, are one of the best ways to attract new customers, boost reach, and smash marketing goals! In recent years, with such a rise in businesses adding social media, in particular Instagram, to their marketing strategies, brand collaborations have been increasing like never before.

But, what really is a collaboration?

A collaboration exists when two or more brands either create a product together or produce a service together. Both brands benefit from working together, as the customer reach is widened, brand reputation increases, and the cost of running a campaign is reduced.

As mentioned above, some of the most well-known brands in the world have run, or constantly run collaborations. For example, Louis Vuitton and Supreme, H&M and Versace, GoPro and Red Bull, etc.

However, collaborations aren’t just about brands working with brands anymore - influencer collaborations are increasingly happening and they can be just as effective, as long as the influencer and their followers actually resonate with the brand. 

Although this is more specifically called an influencer partnership, it’s still a kind of collaboration, and an important one at that. So, rather than running a collaboration with a brand, you might want to choose a particular influencer to do one with.

How To Run a Collaboration For Your Brand - 5 Things You Need To Do.

Think About Why You Want To Collaborate.

One of the most important things to do, before you reach out to anyone or even start to research brands or influencers, is to think about why you want to run a collaboration. What are you trying to gain from it?

Are you wanting to increase your online presence? Perhaps you’re wanting to direct people to your site? Or maybe you want more sales for a new collection?

You need to know the reasons that you want to collaborate before you go any further, so you know exactly what you’re looking to achieve and you can make sure the collaboration is targeted towards that.

Think About What You Can Offer Another Brand Or Influencer.

Obviously, it’s not just your brand that’s going to benefit from a collaboration, the other brand, or influencer, needs to benefit from it too, and they will normally only choose to collaborate if there’s a good reason for them to.

Whether you have really great social media engagement or you’re providing them with a completely new market to enter into, you need to think about why a brand, or an influencer, should choose you to collaborate with. 

You’re going to need to have this information down to a tee so you can push your brand and make it obvious that it’s going to be worthwhile for the other party when reaching out to ask about a collaboration. 

Come Up With A Concept.

Before you choose a brand or influencer and decide to pitch to them, you need to think about whether you want this collaboration to be a social media campaign, whether you’re wanting to create a product or if you’re going to be producing a service. 

If you are going to be collaborating with an influencer, your idea can be pretty set in stone because they probably won’t want to do anything too different - you’re the brand after all. However, with a brand, they will also probably come up with ideas about the collaboration, so make sure your concept is flexible.

Think About Who, or What Brand You Want To Collaborate With.

Once you’re set on your goals for a collaboration, you’ve put together an enticing list of reasons why a brand or influencer should collaborate with your brand and you have a concept for the collaboration, it’s time to find the right person or brand to pitch to!

You need to find a brand or an influencer that has similar values to you, with followers and customers that are going to be interested in your brand, and a similar interest when it comes to collaboration goals.

Collaborate and Market It!

Once you’ve pitched to the brand or influencer you’ve chosen and everyone’s on board with collaborating, the only thing left to do is to get to it! Whether you’re doing a social media collaboration or you’re doing a full campaign with them, as long as there’s clear communication, benefits for both parties, joint passion and effort, the collaboration will be a hit!

Now that you’re all clued up on what a collaboration is and you’ve soaked up all the tips on how to successfully run one, get to it and get co-creating with another brand, or an influencer!