Here at Brand Torrent we spend a lot of time and energy encouraging small business owners to work together to build their brands. Lest you think that co-branding is beneath your company, check out this popular Geico commercial that uses Mrs. Butterworth pancake syrup to simultaneously build both brands.

The humorous ad builds a positive association for both Geico and Mrs. Butterworth pankcake syrup. The ad’s humorous nature has also given the commercial some viral power, scoring over 18,000 views on YouTube.

Even if you don’t have a big budget for a viral video, sharing the cost to produce an entertaining viral video with another brand is a marketing option within reach for the small business owner. If TV air time is too pricey, with sites like YouTube at your fingertips you can still make use of a video marketing campaign.

Print advertising can be both expensive and tough to track. Earlier this week I wrote about how to track the success of a marketing campaign so this leads nicely into exploring print advertising as a means to market your brand. I’m most in favor or print ads for brick and mortar businesses but whether you want to advertise in print for your online or brick and mortar business, advertising with partners is a great way to save some cash.

One group I admire for their print-based cross-promotion activities is Indie Finds. This group of independent artisans and designers buys print advertisements in national publications. For each advertisement, several of the designers chip in to cover the cost and all the participants get a product from their shop featured in the advertisement. Although this group focuses on independent designers, there’s no reason other types of companies couldn’t form a coalition to advertise in a local publication or another type of special interest publication.

Indie Finds’ placements in magazines have a stylish design but they probably wouldn’t be mistaken for content from the magazine. While their eye-catching design work is likely to attract eyeballs, another way to pull off the print-based cross-promotion would be to employ an advertorial format. If companies selling products for new moms wanted an ad in Fit Pregnancy, they might consider framing their placement as an “article” on top five must have items for new moms. Of course each of these must-haves would be picks from five companies splitting the cost of the placement.

However you frame your print marketing. Be sure to supply a unique URL, phone number or coupon code for the ad if possible so that you can measure the ad’s success. It’s also important to keep in mind that print placements usually become more effective over time. If you’re not prepared to invest in several placements to see a return you may want to reconsider investing in this marketing medium.

Did you know the average website purchase in today’s ecommerce world takes place over 34 hours from the consumer’s first visit to a website? If you’re relying on analytics measures such as Google Analytics alone to track your conversions, you’re missing important data — data that you need to make smart decisions about your marketing strategies.

Developing and executing a marketing plan is only part of your job when it comes to marketing your business. If you want real success you’ve got to be able to analyze your results. You need to know how many customers were exposed to your message and what percent converted. If the average consumer is taking over 34 hours to convert that means, unless you’re using cookies, you may not know where a lot of your conversions are coming from and that means you may not know which of your marketing tactics are working.

How can cookies help? Cookies are persistent files your website can place on visitors’ computers. You can use a cookie to see if the person has been to your site before. If they have, and they make a purchase, you’ll know how they found your site originally by reading their cookie. If they have never been to your site you can set a cookie to indicate the way they found your site. That way if they come back to buy in a few days you’ll know where they really came from.

Setting up a cookie tracking script requires some level of technical sophistication so if you’re not experienced with programming you may have to hire a pro to set this up for you. Be sure that once the cookies are implemented you’ll be able to access the data they’re collecting for you about your conversions.

If you’re new to the world of cross-promotion, you may be wondering where to start. How do I select a partner? How do I come up with a cross-promotion plan? What should I keep in mind when making these decisions? We’ll tackle the basics of these issues today, so you have a clearer understanding of how to get started.

Using the search tools on Brand Torrent, you’ll be able to look for companies that are interested in cross-promotion. The best partner for you is going to have a similar customer demographic, but not necessarily a similar product line. Think about your typical customer. How old are they? Are they men or women? What are their interests? What sort of household income and education are they likely to have? Once you’ve answered these questions about your own customers, you want to find a business with customers who fit a similar description. If you sell contemporary high-end jewelry and your average customer is female, style-conscious, 25-40 years old and middle to high-income, you want to connect with a partner whose customers also fit this description.

The next thing you’ll want to keep in mind when selecting a cross-promotion partner is a fair exchange. If you’re interested in trading promotional mail order inserts and you only ship 5 orders in an average day, you shouldn’t partner with a company that ships 50 orders in an average day. Make sure that you can match whatever exposure you’re hoping to get from your cross-promotion partner in return.

Once you’ve selected a cross-promotion partner, it’s a good idea to talk about what your cross-promotional activities will encompass. If you’re going to mention each other’s websites in your customer newsletters, agree to dates on which the newsletters will be going out. Discuss the actual copy that will appear in the newsletters. To keep a productive and positive working relationship with your cross-promotion partner, it’s important to chart a specific plan of action for your cross-promotion activities, and talk about your expectations.

The next thing to consider with your cross-promotion plans is tracking your success. You’ll want some way to measure the results you’re getting from this form of marketing. You may want to attach a coupon code to your cross-promotion efforts so that you’ll know which customers made purchases through your cross-promotion campaign. You may want to provide a special URL on your site for your cross-promotion audience so you’ll know how much traffic your campaign brought in. There are a variety of ways to track the success of your marketing efforts, so you’ll want to come up with something that works for your own situation.

The final thing to keep in mind about cross-promotion is that it’s like any other type of marketing; the goal is not just to get immediate conversions, it’s also to gain exposure for your brand. Just because you didn’t see an overnight jump in sales based on your cross-promotion efforts doesn’t mean the efforts were wasted. Getting your brand in front of your target audience is the way to begin building a relationship with your customer base. These relationship-building exercises will bring you more business in the long-run than any short-term oriented marketing campaign that focuses only on immediate increases in conversions.