I was doing research for my web site revamp and came across some very interesting stats on the economic power of the women’s market. Whereas the women in business market generated $1.9 trillion in revenue, the women’s market added $5 trillion to the economy.

Start off by laying the foundation for your marketing campaign by identifying the metropolitan areas with the largest number of women owned companies. The Women’s Center for Business Research is a great source. Then go through your LinkedIn connections and group members to identify who resides in the metro areas you plan to target.

Invite them to participate in a joint teleconference so you can get to know them and pick their brains about the needs of their women’s market. The days of mass marketing to women are gone. Every metropolitan market has different needs.

You need to find out about the economic climate in their metro area, the different cultures, companies similar to yours that are already servicing them (always scope out the competition), advertising and marketing infrastructure already in place, and more.

There’s no need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to marketing on a metro by metro basis. Use the publications, direct mail programs, cable advertising, web sites, expos, etc. that are in place specifically for the metro area(s) you are focusing your attention on.

The final piece of your strategy is collaborating with business people who live in the metro areas you plan to spend your marketing dollars. They will provide you with credibility, open business doors for your company, and can absorb a large portion of your marketing costs by pooling their marketing dollars with yours.

In short, the strategy for increasing your female client base in a sluggish economy is forming cross marketing partnerships to reduce the amount of time and money it takes to market to them.

Jerrilynn B. Thomas is the founder of Marketing 2 Women International. Jerrilynn’s business passion is facilitating lucrative cross marketing partnerships between complementary business and professional women so they can strategically expand their client while reducing the amount of time and money it takes to market their companies. For more information on how Marketing 2 Women International can help you maximize your marketing results on a budget, visit http://WomenPartner.com.

A printer who wants to get a booth at a pricey expo can invite 10 or more companies to write expert columns for a newsletter for a fee. The fees the printer collects would cover the cost of the booth and he or she will have a example of their work to pass out.

A skin care consultant who is considering purchasing a full page in a state or national women’s magazine ad can reach out to her contacts to share the cost. Her company would have top placement on the page so her company stands out and projects a high powered image.

A Realtor who would like to offer gift baskets to new homeowners can team up with local businesses to place their items in her basket for a fee to cover the productions costs. The basket would be compliments of her company so she still gets top billing.

Put your thinking caps on to come up with ways to cut costs on your marketing this year by collaborating with complementary companies.

Jerrilynn B. Thomas is the founder of Marketing 2 Women International. Jerrilynn’s business passion is facilitating lucrative cross marketing partnerships between complementary business and professional women so they can strategically expand their client while reducing the amount of time and money it takes to market their companies. For more information on how Marketing 2 Women International can help you maximize your marketing results on a budget, visit http://WomenPartner.com.

It is a proven fact that you have to spend money make money. Social media marketing and blogging without a budget will get you clients but you will spend countless hours doing it for a return of maybe one or two clients. Now if your business can’t be sustained by one or two clients a week in this recession, it’s time for a change.

You can actually cross market your way out of this recession. Everyday you are bombarded with advertising online and offline by companies who know that the human brain is fickle. If they don’t continuously push their marketing message, you are going to forget about them. You will watch a different TV program, pick up lunch at another fast food place, get another skin care product, etc

Now if we are like that in our personal lives, what do you think your target audience is like in their business lives? You have to keep your business name out there. By just engaging in social media marketing and blogging without investing in advertising (mobile advertising, post cards campaigns, expos, magazines, radio, etc.) you will stay on the slow road to success.

I know money is tight in this economy but you can afford to advertise if you team up. We are 21 days into the New Year. You can continue engaging in the same free marketing and advertising activities hoping for different results or you can cross market your way out of the recession.

Cross marketing will make it possible for you to save time and money on your marketing and advertising activities while you keep your company front and center in your target audience’s mind. You can share the cost of joint marketing campaigns with complementary companies and offer each others’ clients special discounts.

You will be able to afford to exhibit at expos, get a new WordPress blog created, engage in mobile advertising, conduct post card campaigns and more by sharing the cost with companies that are interested in utilizing the same marketing tools.

Remove the words “I can’t afford to advertise” from your vocabulary. Ramp up your advertising using cross marketing and watch your profits soar while carving out more time to work on your business instead of in it.

Copyright © Jerrilynn B. Thomas, Marketing 2 Women International

Jerrilynn B. Thomas is the founder of Marketing 2 Women International. Jerrilynn’s business passion is facilitating lucrative cross marketing partnerships between complementary business and professional women so they can strategically expand their client while reducing the amount of time and money it takes to market their companies. For more information on how Marketing 2 Women International can help you maximize your marketing results on a budget, visit http://WomenPartner.com.

In case you haven’t heard, Polariod has decided to create a strategic partnership with Lady Gaga as Creative Director for a specialty line of imaging products. Now if you are like me, you were surprised by them partnering but as I read more about it and gained a better understanding.

It looks like Polaroid is trying to reach a younger crowd by creating a partnership with Lady Gaga and a broader audience. As I look into this partnership, I wonder if it is going to far for Polaroid or if it just might do the trick to bring popularity back to their instant camera line of products.

As a business owner, have you looked at creating a strategic partnership that would not only challenge the way you are viewed by the public and also may raise questions? If you do consider doing something like this, what are somethings that you need to keep in mind when making your selection.

• Will the other business owner’s services/products match with yours?
• Will you be able to cross market to each others client base?
• Determine how far you are willing to “stretch” your partnering arm.
• Do you want to partner with someone who may be viewed as controversial or do you want to play it safe?

The video below includes the announcement about the partnership that was made at the 2010 Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas on Thursday, January 7.

[youtube 4pcmXpKHJHg nolink]

Developing a cross marketing partnership can be very helpful to a business owner especially one that may be struggling in today’s economy. Just know that you don’t have struggle alone because with a cross marketing partner, you can go from struggling to success.

One way to look at cross marketing is through the eyes of it being a collaborative partnership between you and at least one other business owner. You have an agreement between partners that you will work together, strategically, to create cross marketing opportunities to market to each other’s customer base.

With all of this in mind, I wanted to share a helpful list that you can use when determining a “best-fit” for your cross marketing partner:

• Determine the structure you want to use when cross marketing with other business owners.
• Research and assess the “best-fit” for the type of business you should cross market with (checkout the article “The Secrets of Cross-Promotion” by Stephanie L Gruner for INC.com).
• Checkout successful cross marketing partnerships to see what they did to make it work for them.
• Once you have determined your cross marketing partner, create a detailed plan of implementation that will help keep the partner on target.
• Develop an agreement that meets the cross marketing need of all partners involved.
• Understand need the cross marketing needs of your business and be able to communicate it to your potential cross marketing partners.
• Generate reports as you monitor the progress for the cross marketing project so that you can measure the success of your cross marketing efforts.