What is co-marketing, and how does co-branding differ?

Co-marketing means businesses jointly promote an offer and share the results. Co-branding concerns creating a product or offer using both brands' contributions. A project can involve both, as explained in HubSpot's guide to the distinction.

For your first project, write down what customers will receive before discussing logos. Give them a reason to participate that makes sense without knowing either business. Then decide which partner contributes each part.

Choose the work you actually want to share

For a limited budget, consider sharing preparation, expertise and promotion. HubSpot describes reaching more people with less work as an intended benefit of co-marketing. Treat that as a reason to test the approach, rather than a promised outcome. Source: campaign purpose.

Before committing, estimate your own preparation time. Include meetings, approvals and answering enquiries. Set a limit that you could accept even if the first campaign produces little business.

Which business should you approach first?

Choose someone whose customers have a relevant next need that you can help with. Ask about that need directly. Avoid choosing solely because their social account looks larger than yours.

Hypothetical example: a freelance website designer could approach a product photographer. Plan a session for shop owners preparing their first product pages. Ask each partner to bring examples from their own area of work.

Use a short partner checklist

• Describe the customer you both want to reach.
• List the different expertise each partner would contribute.
• Ask which channels each business can commit to using.
• Name the person responsible for approvals.
• Agree what each business wants after the campaign.

Do not demand equal audience sizes as your starting rule. Instead, ask for a clear exchange of work and value. A partner contributing most of the teaching might reasonably take on less production work.

For a hypothetical opening message, try: I would like to run a practical session for shop owners preparing product pages. I can cover page structure and organise registration. Would you be interested in teaching the photography part and agreeing a shared invitation plan?

Replace every promise with something you can deliver. For a sharper customer benefit, work through writing a value proposition before sending the message.

What should the partnership agreement contain?

Write a working brief that both partners can approve before production starts. Give every task one owner, a deadline and a clear description of completion. Keep unresolved questions visible.

Make these decisions together

1. Purpose: choose the main result, such as attended consultations or workshop registrations.
2. Offer: state what the audience receives and what participation requires.
3. Production: assign writing, design, hosting and final checks.
4. Promotion: specify channels, dates and agreed placements.
5. Costs: record who pays and how extra spending is approved.
6. Enquiries: decide who responds and how information is handled.
7. Closure: agree reporting, reuse of materials and cancellation arrangements.

Separate cash contributions from work contributions. List the venue, design work, speaker preparation and customer support alongside advertising spending. Negotiate a split that both businesses accept rather than defaulting to equal payments.

Decide whether either partner may reuse the recording or edit it into short clips. Specify who approves the edited version. Also agree what happens to existing invitations if someone withdraws.

Keep registration clear

Explain which businesses will receive registration information and why. Have the form wording and sharing arrangement checked for your circumstances; HubSpot recommends legal review for shared campaign forms. Source: shared landing pages.

For a first campaign, keep existing mailing lists with their respective owners. Let each business send its own invitation. Plan any new contact sharing around the terms presented to participants, and do not treat registration as permission for unrelated promotions.

How can you prepare a joint campaign this week?

Choose one format and one next action. I recommend starting with a practical workshop or a short shared resource when both partners can contribute useful instruction. Pick the format your team can prepare properly.

A hypothetical joint webinar campaign

A webinar is an online presentation with an opportunity for questions. Imagine a packaging supplier and an independent product photographer preparing a session for small online shops. Give the session one promise: help an owner prepare a product for photography and delivery.

Ask the photographer to demonstrate a preparation checklist. Ask the packaging supplier to explain the choices involved in protecting and presenting that product. End with one optional next step for each service, clearly labelled.

1. Day one: choose the audience, topic and main campaign goal.
2. Day two: prepare the outline and assign each demonstration.
3. Day three: draft the registration page and invitation.
4. Day four: approve the materials and schedule promotion.
5. Day five: rehearse and test registration from a phone.

Use this week to prepare, then leave a realistic invitation period before the event. Do not promise a launch date until both speakers and the registration process are ready. Assign someone to answer practical questions about joining.

Make the offer concrete

For the hypothetical invitation, describe the task participants will practise. Replace a broad promise about growing a business with a specific description of the demonstration. Only promise a worksheet if someone has been assigned to create it.

If a downloadable checklist fits better than a live event, use the planning steps in creating a useful lead magnet. A lead magnet is a resource offered to attract interested contacts. Keep its registration and follow-up arrangements explicit.

Before release, ask someone outside the project to read the invitation. Ask what they expect to receive and what they would do next. Revise anything they cannot explain back clearly.

How should two companies share campaign results?

Separate the shared campaign report, contact handling and any revenue split. Make an explicit agreement for each. Do not assume that paying half the costs settles the other decisions.

Build one report with consistent definitions

Record registrations, attendance, relevant enquiries, sales and spending in separate columns. Define a relevant enquiry before launch. For example, you might require a stated need that one partner can serve within its normal service area.

Give each partner a distinct tracking link or campaign code. UTM parameters are labels added to a link to identify its marketing source. Use the UTM tracking guide when preparing those labels.

• Count the same registration once in the combined total.
• Keep an unknown category when the source is unclear.
• Distinguish enquiries from completed purchases.
• Choose a reporting period before launch.
• Record preparation time as well as direct spending.

For your internal review, divide each partner's agreed campaign cost by its new customers attributed under the agreed rule. If no customers were acquired, report the spending and zero customers separately. Do not invent a favourable cost per customer.

For a more careful allocation of credit, read the marketing attribution guide. Attribution means deciding which marketing activity receives credit for a result. Keep the same rule throughout this campaign.

Decide what to change next

If registrations arrive but attendance disappoints you, review the invitation timing and joining instructions. If relevant conversations happen without purchases, examine the offer and response process. Use those questions to investigate rather than assuming the partnership itself failed.

Finish the review with a decision to repeat, revise or stop. For planning the next small experiment, use the small business growth marketing guide. Assign the next change to a named person.

What does HubSpot's co-marketing program actually require?

HubSpot's program works with companies and influencers to create educational content and share campaign responsibilities. Its stated requirements include audience alignment, complementary expertise and joint promotion. Source: official program page.

The page specifies a minimum of 2,000 downloads from each partner in the first 30 days after launch. That is a condition of this particular program, not a benchmark to impose on a neighbourhood business. Source: promotion requirement.

Before applying, write down the expertise you would add and how you would meet the distribution commitment. If that scale is beyond your reach, develop a smaller partnership first. Borrow the discipline of shared responsibilities while choosing a realistic workload.