Working with other experts in your niche can be a great way to boost your content marketing results. You can learn from their insights, expand your network, and create valuable collaborations. But how do you approach them and build a mutually beneficial relationship? Here are some tips to help you work with other experts in your niche.
Before you reach out to other experts, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve. Do you want to interview them for your blog or podcast? Do you want to co-create a piece of content or a product? Do you want to get their feedback or endorsement? Having a specific and realistic goal will help you craft a personalized and relevant message that shows your value proposition and respect for their time and expertise.
Collaboration is key. Reach out to experts for guest posts, interviews, or co-host webinars. Share their content and engage with them on social platforms. Join forums or groups where they're active. This fosters relationships, enhances your credibility, boosts your content's reach, and provides additional insights to your audience.
Once you have your goal in mind, you need to find and research the experts that match your niche and audience. You can use tools like Google, social media, or industry publications to discover who they are, what they do, and what they care about. You should also look for commonalities, such as shared interests, values, or connections, that can help you establish rapport and trust. Avoid contacting experts who are too busy, too competitive, or too irrelevant for your niche.
Identify relevant influencers based on niche, audience demographics, engagement rates, authenticity, and those who align with your brand values. Study their backgrounds, understand their specific needs and challenges, and discover areas where this collaboration can offer unique value. It is good to analyze your competitor’s collaborations to gain insights into which or what kind of experts resonate with your target audience. Focus on communication styles and personalities. Complementary styles will ensure that small obstacles don't turn into major problems down the line. Never underestimate the compatibility between partners, as it makes the vision alignment and communication easier, thus creating a win-win for both.
The next step is to contact the experts you have selected and invite them to work with you. You can use email, social media, or other platforms, depending on where they are most active and responsive. The key is to write a warm and genuine message that introduces yourself, explains your goal, highlights your value, and asks for their permission or interest. You should also keep your message short, polite, and professional, and avoid being pushy, spammy, or presumptuous.
Start with a warm greeting, but don’t beat around the bush. Tell them what you appreciate about their work and how their expertise can benefit your audience. Remember to set up a win-win situation. Don’t just ask for the favour without giving something in return. It could be an invite to speak to their target audience at the next conference your company is organising, or a social media push of their contribution. Just make sure they don’t end up feeling insulted or used.
If you get a positive response from the experts, you should follow up and thank them for their interest. You should also provide them with more details about your project, such as the timeline, the format, the expectations, and the benefits. You should also make the process as easy and convenient as possible for them, by being flexible, responsive, and respectful. Finally, you should deliver value by creating high-quality content, promoting it to your audience, and giving them credit and recognition.
I agree with the outlined steps to take above. Focusing on these aspects emphasizes the essence of building strong, mutually beneficial relationships and achieving success through collaborative efforts. Throughout, being personable and genuine will go a long way toward driving toward success.
Working with other experts in your niche is not a one-time event. It is an opportunity to build a long-term relationship that can bring more value to both parties. You should nurture the relationship by staying in touch, providing feedback, sharing opportunities, and expressing gratitude. You should also look for ways to collaborate again, either on similar or different projects, or by introducing them to other experts in your network.
Making connections is often the easiest part of building collaborations. Building the relationship is the part that requires the most work and a real understanding of what each person brings to the table, what your shared goals and vision are, and how you can best support one another. For me, this is really where the magic happens, especially when we are working with people we don't know that well. It may take some time to work out all the details, but laying the groundwork well can help reduce the number of unexpected issues.
Making sure to be authentic and real to one another is the best way to build relationships that last. Sure, you may get a deal here and there out of a shallow relationship that you paint as real, but you will be able to generate more joint value, and everyone will come away feeling better - not only about the business that was done.
One of the biggest ways to guarantee success with collaborations is to make sure that there is a mutual exchange of values between all parties. This, combined with a clear strategic outcome and goal will put you in good steed. The other thing I always look for is that we genuinely collaborate without there being a conflict in competition. For example, we have a whole podcast production arm of our content agency so I would NOT collab with another audio agency, but I might work with others who serve the same audience with auxiliary services i.e. video, graphics, studios etc.
When you get in touch with your expert, be sure to answer the WIIFM question...What's In It For Me (your expert). And make sure there is some benefit for them.