Collaboration among local businesses is a powerful strategy for encouraging mutual growth and creating unique experiences for customers. In an era where community ties are more crucial than ever, partnering with neighboring businesses not only amplifies the success of individual businesses, it also contributes to the building of stronger, more cohesive, and more engaged local communities—which is great news for everyone.
As a business owner, you can try to envision the potential that lies in shared endeavors and collective innovation. To help you get started, let’s take a look at 10 ways local businesses can collaborate for mutually beneficial growth.
1) Share a Retail Space
Consider sharing a physical retail space with a complementary business. For instance, if you have a boutique clothing store, you could partner with a local shoe brand or jewelry maker, creating a one-stop shop for customers looking to enhance their wardrobes.
To make this setup work well and facilitate seamless transactions, you’ll want a credit card machine that will also accept all digital payments and connect with your electronic cash register (ECR). A credit card terminal with these features should help you increase sales and also help update your inventory in real-time, once your ECR is set up to interface with your inventory management system.
More than just a credit card swipe machine, the Maya Terminal offers these features and more. With one of these e-payment and card machines at your shared storefront, you and your partners can have total visibility over sales, making the division of profits much easier.
2) Set Up Pop-Ups Together
Collaborate on pop-up events to showcase your businesses in different locations. These collaborations can attract a diverse audience and expose each of your businesses to new customers. For example, a coffee shop and a bookstore could organize a joint pop-up event at a local park to raise brand awareness and sales together.
As with your permanent physical stores, your pop-up will also need acard terminalthat can process all relevant digital payments, including digital wallets like Maya, GCash, and GrabPay. With its ability to process a full range of card and digital payments, small form factor, and multiple internet connectivity options, the Maya Terminal Lite is the clear choice for making sure you and your partners maximize sales at your pop-up locations.
3) Host Shared Events
Aside from simply selling your products at different stores together, you and your partners can also organize joint events or workshops that bring value to both your customer bases. The key is to do these events with partners who could amplify your business’s value proposition. If you run a fitness studio, for example, you could reach out to health food vendors to collaborate on wellness events, offering workout sessions followed by nutrition workshops.
4) Collaborate On Social Media Posts
Cross-promotions on social media platforms can be an easy but effective way to showcase each other's products or services to new audiences. Share posts highlighting how your businesses complement each other, and encourage followers to explore both establishments.
5) Pool Your Marketing Resources
Combine marketing efforts for shared campaigns to reduce costs and increase the impact of your marketing initiatives. For example, you might not have the budget for a major YouTube ad campaign on your own but you might if you had a partner. For maximum effect, team up with a business whose customer base might be interested in your offers as well.
6) Blog On Each Other’s Websites
Exchange guest blog posts to tap into each other's audiences. Think about topics that would be relevant to both businesses. For example, if you run a local bakery, collaborate with a nearby coffee shop to write about the perfect pairing of pastries and coffee. Doing this regularly should expose both businesses’s sites to a broader readership while also increasing visibility on search engines like Google.
7) Launch a Collaborative Product
Develop a product or service that blends the strengths of both businesses. This could be a limited-edition item or a unique offering available exclusively through the collaboration. For example, a local microbrewery and a gourmet popcorn shop could offer a discounted beer and popcorn bundle or create a special beer-infused popcorn flavor that’s only available through their stores.
8) Start a Shared Podcast
Demonstrate thought leadership within the community you share by collaborating on a podcast series where you discuss topics relevant to both businesses. Doing podcasts provides interesting low-effort, high-impact content for your audience and also allows you to tap into each other's networks. Again, this strategy can work better if both businesses offer complementary products and services.
9) Try a Co-Promotional Email Campaign
Combine forces on an email marketing campaign where you promote each other's businesses to your respective email lists. Provided you obtain consent to send your marketing emails, these campaigns can be an effective way for all partners to reach out to new audiences. Ensure the email content is enticing and offers exclusive deals to subscribers from both businesses.
10) Share Products with Each Other’s Employees
For collaborations to be meaningful, some exchanges between employees are necessary. Having each partner business’s employees get discounts and samples will not only boost morale but also give everyone a better idea of what each party has to offer. This allows employees to not only become brand advocates but paying customers as well.
Build Enriching Collaborations with a Maya Terminal
With the Maya Terminal, you get more than just a card swipe machine—you get a fully featured digital payments solution that can also process popular digital wallets like Maya, GCash, and more. The ultraportable Maya Terminal Lite is likewise a capable card terminal machine that comes in handy for pop-ups, weekend market stalls, and cashless-on-delivery payments. Sign up for Maya Business today to accept any card or digital payment at your storefronts.
Signing up for Maya Business Manager puts you ahead of the pack with the Maya 1-2-3 Grow bundle. Maya 1-2-3 Grow entitles your business to a 1% MDR (merchant discount rate) discount on all QR Ph transactions for 3 months after signing. With this generous discount, your business will save an extra PHP 14,600 for every PHP 1 million in QR Ph sales.
The Maya 1-2-3 Grow bundle also gives you access to a high-interest Maya Business Deposit account for your settlements. Your account will come with a market-leading 2.5% per annum interest rate, accelerating your funds 20-25x faster than other locally available business savings products. At 2.5% per annum, your fund will earn PHP 25,000 each year for every PHP 1 million deposit. With Maya Business Deposit’s zero maintaining balance and free transfers via InstaPay and PesoNet, you’ll also pay much less for your day-to-day business banking activities.
The exclusive bundle also qualifies you for a Maya Flexi Loan offer of up to PHP 2 million in just 3 months—just what you need to pull off creative collaborative marketing campaigns. To improve your next loan offer, just use Maya as your primary processor for all wallet and card payments.
Sign up for Maya Business today to access Maya 1-2-3 Grow and try out the Maya Terminal and Terminal Lite.
