WPblab EP85 – CoBranding Your WordPress Product

In this episode, Jason and Bridget are joined by Josh Pollock. We’ll discuss the pros and cons of co-branding your WordPress products.

Josh Pollock – Caldera Labs – Caldera Forms – Caldera

@Josh412, @calderaforms, @CalderaWP, or @CalderaLearn  #catdera

http://calderawp.com, http://calderalabs.org/, https://calderaforms.com/, & https://learn.calderalabs.org/

Co-branding is when you leverage the audience of two different brands by teaming up together to help elevate both brands or gain a new audience segment. (Like the Eddie Bauer Ford Explorer)

Caldera and Give did a co-branding with a tutorial on using Caldera Forms to submit a fundraising campaign
“Create a Peer-to-Peer Give Campaign with Caldera Forms” –  http://bit.ly/2vdvrxH

Caldera & Aspen Grove – DIVI landing page co-branding with Caldera

Prerequisite: Get involved in the community

At some point, you just sit down with someone and say “Hey, I need something” and then figure out what it is that you can offer them in return – how can you benefit each other?

The WordPress community is often resistant to a hard-sell, but you do at some point need to move a friendly conversation to a professional-friendly if you are interested in partnering with them – try not to be too aggressive though!

Go ahead and put your business contacts in a CRM, but make sure you keep the relationships natural – don’t always follow up on the 2nd Tuesday of the month!

One of the benefits of co-branding is you get to play off each other’s strengths

If one company does a post featuring the co-branding, it’s a good idea to do a follow-up post with your brand as well and link back

We’re ALL co-branding with WordPress – WordPress.com now allows users to install plugins and that’s a big deal for plugin authors

WordPress benefits from the volunteers that give back

Make partnerships even when you are just starting out – but start by GIVING, don’t worry so much about what you’ll get back – make yourself useful to other people, give of your time

If you know that you have a conflict with your plugin and another plugin – maybe reach out to the company on behalf of your customers instead of sending the customer to them with the problem – then you both benefit and your customers are all happier!

Great partnerships shouldn’t require a lot of effort from either side – they should be a natural give and take

Reminder – a logo is not a ‘brand’, it’s the relationships that you build with the people who use your product that makes the brand

Co-branding is to leverage the individual relationships that each brand has built with people

Whether it’s going to WordCamps, emailing, or talking on twitter, it’s all about building relationships w/ people

Brand / values matter – don’t co-brand with a company that violates your brand or what you stand for, you need to pay attention to their ‘voice’