I’m not a shopaholic, but from time to time I do get into one of those ‘buy all the new stuff’ kind of moods. I don’t end up buying more than one or two items, but I do spend a lot of time on eShops and every time I land on a store’s website, I can’t help myself – I have to analyse it with a marketer’s eye. What I saw lately gave me hope that people in the eCommerce business are starting to realise that there’s enough money for everyone in it and shops can actually team up to serve their clients.

eShops Can Cross Promote Each Other

If you own a little online store, you’re probably working hard to drive traffic to it. The same is true for many other people who just started in the eCommerce business. If someone you worked hard to get to your website doesn’t want to buy anything, no matter their reasons, they’ll just exit your website (maybe never to return again), bringing you no value at all. You’re not the only one that has that issue. All online store owners have this problem. So, why on Earth won’t you want to at least give a visitor who won’t buy anything on your website the chance to buy something from another store if that’s going to bring new people to your website?

What I’m talking about is partnering up with other eShops who are selling items related to your niche but who aren’t your competitors. If you’re selling Yoga pants but not Yoga mats, why not talk to a Yoga mats shop owner about having a banner advertising your business on their website and you promoting their business on yours? It’s not like someone who needs yoga pants is going to buy Yoga mats and wear them around as pants, so nobody is losing money. What you’d be doing would be telling visitors who aren’t buying anything on your store “you know what, I see you don’t like my stuff, but maybe you’ll like some of the items my buddy at the Yoga mats shop sells”.

So, do your research:

What other items or services are connected to your niche?
Are there any online stores selling them without selling any of your items?
Are any of these websites having a similar target as you? Do they sell stuff to the same people you do?

When you find the right shops for a cross promo, email them. Ask if they’d be interested in having a banner on your website for free if they’ll also add one on theirs. (It doesn’t have to be a banner, it can be a link, even an exit pop-up, whatever makes sense for you.)

Blogs Can Cross Promote Each Other

If you’ve just set up your free WordPress blog and not getting too much traffic yet, you can partner up with another blog, who might be in a similar situation. You can even leave a comment telling people you’re looking to enter a cross-promotion partnership on this post. Just let us know what’s your URL, what niche you’re in, and what you can offer for cross promos (links, banners, pop-ups).

When selecting the best partners for cross-promoting your blog, make sure your websites are targeting people with similar interests. And your deal doesn’t have to be restricted to the blogs, you can promote each other on your Facebook profile or Twitter accounts, too. Get creative in supporting each other!

Social Media Accounts Can Cross Promote Each Other

This is super popular on Instagram. You and other people can help your accounts grow by doing shoutouts – mentioning accounts you want to promote who do the same thing to promote your account. DM people, ask them if they’d be interested in doing a cross promo.

You can adapt this to work for your Facebook presence, too. Message pages and see if any admins are interested in doing cross promos. Just make sure you’re reaching out to pages who have an audience matching the one you’re targeting.

The best thing about doing cross promos is that it won’t cost you a thing.

You just have to invest the time in finding the right partners.

Just because you team up with a certain eShop or blog or Instagram account, it doesn’t mean you have to stick with them forever. It might actually cost you new opportunities to do so. Always look for new people to partner up with so you can have access to their audience and their traffic.

I hope you’ve found this useful and that you’ll start implementing your first cross promo campaign soon.