Offline, we see a lot of marketing partnerships, from tent cards in a restaurant promoting a nearby theatre, flyers in bar advertising taxi companies, through to more subtle referral relationships. This type of promotion is the main stay marketing for many small companies, and even a few very large ones. And there’s no reason why it can’t work for you online.

There are already online agents & lead generators for many industries (real estate, video conferencing, hotels), but outside of the obvious there’s plenty of opportunity to experiment with the new online relationships. For instance, chocolatiers tying up with florists for value-add or a post purchase promotion for all online sales, hotels providing coupons (post purchase) and the address & details of a local spa in it’s “nearby amenities” section. A particularly impressive, and now very mainstream, partnership is where airlines up-sell the planting of trees to counteract your environmental impact – there’s no reason any other business can’t do something similar.

If you treat local websites, like traditional local businesses, you may be able to forge partnerships that work small wonders for you.