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January 16, 2014

Business Partnerships: A Win-Win for All Parties Involved

Author: Valerie Baker

One of the single most annoying things in this world are the times when I am hungry, but don’t know what I want to eat. The frustration compounds when, after who knows how long, I realize I have been doing nothing but staring in the fridge. My dilemma only grows as I shut the fridge and open up the pantry. Can’t find anything there. How about the candy stash? Nothing sounds good, so I head back to the fridge. It ends up being a never ending circle of taste bud torture all due to my inability to make up my mind. Why is it that unless you know exactly what you are looking for, it becomes nearly impossible to make up your mind? I blame the Environmental protection Agency.

Ok, seriously, it’s not the EPA’s fault; at least that’s what I learned from two incredibly nice men in black suits who went to great lengths to teach me how truly wonderful the EPA really is. In this case, in all actuality, it’s all a problem with choices. There were too many options to pick from. What sounds better? A granola bar or chocolate? Or roasted almonds? Or fruit? What about them all mixed together? Maybe something salty like chips or some summer sausage? Sometimes our ability to choose gets the better of us and we end up never being able to make that decision. So, if the EPA’s not to blame for this, maybe Google is.

Google’s Usage of Business Cooperation

They didn’t create the first search engine, true, but they perfected it. They made it work, made it clean, and made it so everyone and their 150 year old great aunt wanted to use it to find anything and everything. Or nothing. After all, who can pick from 2,395,837,584,361,859 options for “thick crust pizza”? In the early days, it could easily become overwhelming. So Google narrowed down the important searches to about 10. They then took it upon themselves to learn about you and all your secrets to help decide for you what the best of those options are. Hold on a moment, I just got a visit from another group of men in black suits. This second group of fine gentlemen helped me realize that Google is all-loving and does everything with my personal best interest at heart.

All jokes aside, Google’s algorithm focuses on what content a person (or company) puts on their website in connection with related keywords and online searches. This is a kindergarten simplification of the real technology behind Google, but it works: if you want to show up under the keyword search “zoo mishaps”, then your website not only needs to use those keywords, but include regular, fresh content that contains text about different zoo mishaps. You may really want to tell a great story you found about an iguana that bit someone and gave them strange tongue-flicking powers, but that would not fit with your keywords, unless, of course that happened at a zoo; or maybe a wildlife preserve; or maybe Florida. Google will know what your post is about and rate it to that original keyword you are going after. And we all thought the Google algorithm was complicated! What a bunch of silly buffoons we are!

By this point in the article, one of two things is happening; 1) milk is spouting out of your nose, or 2) you are trying to figure out what this post has to do with the title above. The answer is simple: MVEMJSUNP. If you knew what I meant, then the answer is easy – it’s all about learning. Google has worked in cooperation with many other technology companies to learn about searchers, companies and the connections between. For a long time, Google cooperated with Apple to force all iPhone users to use YouTube. This gave Google information and data while giving Apple users a useable video playback device on their smart phones.

Business Partnerships  Work in the Interest of Mutually Shared Goals

Business partnership, or as I like to call it, Business Fusion, is the idea that two or more companies that join together by parts or the whole to work towards a common goal. I recently had a phone chat with a close friend of mine back in Seattle. He is on the director level of a company that provides telephone solutions across the company. During our chat (much of which was catching up on what’s happened in our lives since I moved to Florida), we brainstormed some ideas on how we could help each other in our businesses. It turns out that he needs some web work completed and we are looking to expand our business and partnering with a national company is certainly a great start. We envisioned ways to become part of their sales pitch, show up on their website with links and landing pages and even some direct referrals. What’s great about this is that it creates a win-win for both companies. They gain from better website and online marketing presence so they can show up better with other fusion partners they have in different industries and we gain multiple direct and indirect lead sources. This is business cooperation. Looking out for each other CAN aid your own endeavors.

This, though is not the only way. Business can share ad costs and do advertisements together. This is common in big media (for example, NBC presents the Olympics sponsored by McDonalds and Coca-Cola). It could be as simple as two businesses sharing their customers and referring business back and forth. It can also work with companies whom you might consider competition. Take that competing firm down the street. Do they really go after exactly the same clients you do? Where are they in their business? Maybe the owner is looking to sell and a timely partnership could make a very easy takeover for you, or vice versa.

The point is, when we work together, regardless of the situation or company, there is a way to work together and cooperate instead of compete. It’s worked with Google; it’s also worked with the Environmental Protection Agency! Then again, showing up in an animated movie as the ramblings of an old grandpa may not be the best marketing one’s ever dreamed up, but it’s a start. Hold on…who’s knocking on my door now?

The-Simpsons-EPA

Valerie Baker

Valerie is the Support Lead here at Atilus. Her background includes digital marketing and web development. She takes amazing care of our clients and assists with overall website updates and development.

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