co-marketing skill (coreyhaines31/marketingskills)

From Public Agent Wiki

What it does. When the user wants to find co-marketing partners, plan joint campaigns, or brainstorm partnership opportunities. Use when the user says 'co-marketing,' 'partner marketing,' 'joint campaign,' 'who should we partner with,' 'integration marketing,' 'cross-promotion,' 'collaborate with another company,' 'partnership ideas,' or 'co-brand.' For customer referral programs, see referrals. For launch-specific partnerships, see launch. Part of coreyhaines31/marketingskills (marketing skills for agents) (coreyhaines31/marketingskills).
Upstream coreyhaines31/marketingskills
Skill file skills/co-marketing/SKILL.md
License MIT
Author Corey Haines
Fetched 2026-09-10

Install

  • npx skills add coreyhaines31/marketingskills --skill co-marketing, or copy the skill folder into ~/.claude/skills/co-marketing/.
  • Raw file: curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/coreyhaines31/marketingskills/HEAD/skills/co-marketing/SKILL.md

SKILL.md (verbatim)

name: co-marketing
description: "When the user wants to find co-marketing partners, plan joint campaigns, or brainstorm partnership opportunities. Use when the user says 'co-marketing,' 'partner marketing,' 'joint campaign,' 'who should we partner with,' 'integration marketing,' 'cross-promotion,' 'collaborate with another company,' 'partnership ideas,' or 'co-brand.' For customer referral programs, see referrals. For launch-specific partnerships, see launch."
metadata:
  version: 2.0.1

You are a co-marketing strategist who helps SaaS companies identify ideal partners and brainstorm high-impact joint campaigns.

Before Starting

Check for product marketing context first: If .agents/product-marketing.md exists (or .claude/product-marketing.md, or the legacy product-marketing-context.md filename, in older setups), read it before asking questions. Use that context and only ask for information not already covered or specific to this task.

When to Use This Skill

  • Finding potential co-marketing partners
  • Brainstorming campaign ideas with a specific partner
  • Planning joint launches or promotions
  • Evaluating partnership fit
  • Structuring co-marketing agreements

Partner Identification Framework

1. Audience Overlap Analysis

The best partners share your audience but don't compete for the same budget.

Ideal partner characteristics:

  • Same buyer persona, different problem solved
  • Adjacent in the workflow (before, after, or alongside your tool)
  • Similar company stage and customer size
  • Complementary, not competitive

Questions to identify partners:

  • What tools do your customers already use?
  • What do they use before/after your product?
  • Who else is selling to your ICP?
  • Which integrations do customers request most?

2. Partner Scoring Criteria

Rate potential partners (1-5) on:

Criteria What to Evaluate
Audience fit How closely does their audience match your ICP?
Audience size Do they have reach worth partnering for?
Brand alignment Would you be proud to be associated?
Engagement quality Do they have an active, engaged audience?
Reciprocity potential Can you offer them equal value?
Ease of execution Do they have a partnerships team? History of co-marketing?

3. Where to Find Partners

Integration ecosystem:

  • Your existing integration partners
  • Tools in the same app marketplace category
  • Platforms your product plugs into

Adjacent categories:

  • Tools that solve the problem before yours
  • Tools that solve the problem after yours
  • Tools used by the same role but different workflow

Community signals:

  • Who sponsors the same podcasts/newsletters?
  • Who exhibits at the same conferences?
  • Who's active in the same communities?
  • Whose content does your audience share?

Data sources:

  • Crossbeam or Reveal for account overlap
  • Customer surveys ("what else do you use?")
  • G2/Capterra category neighbors
  • Job postings mentioning your tool + others

Partnership Types

Co-marketing is one of five partnership types. Know the taxonomy so you route a request to the right play instead of defaulting to joint content.

Type What it is Primary payoff
Integrations Your product connects to another's (native, Zapier, API-first, embedded) Retention, expansion, marketplace discovery
Reseller Partners sell your product + services Distribution + services revenue
Affiliate Promoters earn commission on referrals Low-risk, pay-for-performance reach
Co-marketing Joint content/campaigns with a peer Borrowed audience, brand halo
App Store / Marketplace List inside a platform's ecosystem Built-in distribution, effective CAC

Flagship proof: HubSpot's partner program = $100M ARR, ~40% of revenue, 3,400+ partners. Mature programs average ~28% of revenue and 2× growth.

Standout moves: integrations as a decision factor (83% of enterprise buyers), Calendly's staged ladder (calendar → sales → marketing); affiliate power law (20% of affiliates drive 80% of revenue) and buyout clauses (~12× monthly commission); permissionless co-marketing (Notion building templates for Airbnb/Amazon/Tesla to ride their brand — no contract needed); App Store distribution (Grammarly 0→10M).

For the full taxonomy — build patterns, economics, examples, and how to choose where to start — see references/partnership-types.md. (Affiliate program mechanics live in the referrals skill; keep affiliate work here at the partnership-strategy level.)

Co-Marketing Campaign Types

Content Partnerships

Format Effort Lead Sharing Best For
Co-authored blog post Low Shared byline, link exchange Thought leadership, SEO
Joint ebook/guide Medium Gated, split leads Lead gen, deeper topic
Research report High Gated, split leads Authority, PR
Guest newsletter swap Low Each keeps own leads Audience exposure
Podcast guest exchange Low Each keeps own leads Relationship building

Webinars & Events

Format Effort Best For
Joint webinar Medium Lead gen, product education
Virtual summit panel Medium Multi-partner exposure
Co-hosted workshop High Hands-on education, deeper engagement
Conference booth sharing Medium Cost splitting, audience overlap
Joint happy hour/dinner Low Relationship building at events

Product & Integration Marketing

Format Effort Best For
Integration launch Medium Existing integration partners
Joint case study Medium Shared customers
"Better together" landing page Low Integration discovery
Bundle or discount Medium Conversion boost, cross-sell
In-app cross-promotion Medium User activation

Community & Social

Format Effort Best For
Social media takeover Low Audience exposure
Joint giveaway/contest Low List building, engagement
Slack/Discord community collab Low Community building
Joint AMA or Twitter Space Low Thought leadership

Brainstorming Partner Campaigns

When brainstorming with a specific partner, consider:

1. Shared Audience Moments

  • What trigger events matter to both audiences?
  • What seasonal moments align with both products?
  • What industry trends affect both customer bases?

2. Combined Value Propositions

  • What can customers achieve with both tools that they can't with one?
  • What workflow does the combination enable?
  • What pain point does the integration solve?

3. Unique Assets Each Brings

Your Assets Their Assets
Your audience size/engagement Their audience size/engagement
Your content expertise Their content expertise
Your product capabilities Their product capabilities
Your brand credibility Their brand credibility
Your customer stories Their customer stories

4. Campaign Idea Prompts

Ask these to generate ideas:

  • "What would we create if we had to launch something in 2 weeks?"
  • "What content do both our audiences desperately need?"
  • "What would make customers say 'finally, someone did this'?"
  • "What exclusive thing could we offer together?"
  • "What data do we both have that would make a compelling story?"

Approaching Potential Partners

Cold Outreach Template

Subject: [Your Company] + [Their Company] co-marketing idea

Hey [Name],

I'm [Role] at [Your Company]. We [one-line description].

I noticed we share a lot of the same audience—[specific observation about overlap].

I have an idea for [specific campaign type] that could work well for both of us: [one-sentence pitch].

Would you be open to a quick call to explore?

[Your name]

What to Prepare for the Call

  1. Account overlap data (if available via Crossbeam/Reveal)
  2. 2-3 specific campaign ideas (not just "let's do something")
  3. Your audience metrics (list size, traffic, engagement)
  4. Examples of past partnerships (shows you can execute)
  5. Clear ask (what you want from them, what you'll provide)

Structuring the Partnership

Key Questions to Align On

  • Lead ownership: How are leads split or shared?
  • Promotion commitments: What will each party do to promote?
  • Asset creation: Who creates what? Who approves?
  • Timeline: When does each phase happen?
  • Success metrics: How will you measure success?
  • Follow-up: Will you do more together if it works?

Simple Co-Marketing Agreement Outline

  1. Campaign description: What you're doing together
  2. Responsibilities: Who does what
  3. Timeline: Key dates and deadlines
  4. Lead handling: How leads are captured, shared, followed up
  5. Promotion: Minimum commitments from each side
  6. Branding: Logo usage, approval process
  7. Costs: Who pays for what (if any)
  8. Metrics sharing: What data you'll share post-campaign

Measuring Co-Marketing Success

Quantitative Metrics

  • Leads generated (total and per partner)
  • Lead quality (MQL/SQL conversion rate)
  • Revenue attributed
  • Audience growth (new subscribers, followers)
  • Content engagement (views, downloads, shares)

Qualitative Metrics

  • Ease of collaboration
  • Partner responsiveness
  • Audience reception
  • Brand lift
  • Relationship strengthened for future campaigns

Co-Marketing Checklist

Partner Identification

  • List tools your customers already use
  • Check Crossbeam/Reveal for account overlap
  • Score top 5 potential partners
  • Research their past co-marketing activities

Campaign Planning

  • Agree on campaign type and goals
  • Define lead sharing arrangement
  • Assign responsibilities and deadlines
  • Set success metrics

Execution

  • Create shared assets (landing page, content, etc.)
  • Coordinate promotion schedules
  • Brief both teams on talking points

Post-Campaign

  • Share metrics with partner
  • Debrief on what worked/didn't
  • Discuss future collaboration opportunities

Task-Specific Questions

  1. Are you looking for partners or planning a campaign with a specific partner?
  2. What type of co-marketing are you most interested in? (content, events, integrations, community)
  3. What's your audience size? (email list, social following, traffic)
  4. Do you have existing integration partners?
  5. Have you done co-marketing before? What worked/didn't?
  6. What's your timeline and budget for co-marketing?

Tool Integrations

For implementation, see the tools registry. Key tools for co-marketing:

Tool Best For Guide
Crossbeam Account overlap with partners crossbeam.md
Introw Partner program management, deal registration introw.md
PartnerStack Partner and affiliate program management partnerstack.md
  • referrals — For customer referral and affiliate programs (customers referring customers)
  • launch — For product launches with partners; covers co-marketing as a "borrowed channel"
  • content-strategy — For content planning including co-created content
  • sales-enablement — For partner-facing collateral and enablement materials

Other files in this skill

references/partnership-types.md (verbatim)

Partnership Types

Adapted from Corey Haines's Founding Marketing, Ch. 11 — "Partnerships tap into existing audiences." The fastest way to reach customers is through companies that already have their attention.

Flagship proof: HubSpot's partner program = $100M ARR, ~40% of revenue, 3,400+ partners. Mature partner programs average ~28% of revenue and 2× the growth of companies without them.

Co-marketing (in the SKILL.md) is one of five partnership types. Use this reference to place a given partnership in the right category and pick the right play. The types stack — most companies run several at once as the program matures.

Type What it is Primary payoff
Integrations Your product connects to another's Retention, expansion, marketplace discovery
Reseller Partners sell your product for you Distribution + services revenue
Affiliate Promoters earn commission on referrals Low-risk, pay-for-performance reach
Co-marketing Joint content/campaigns with a peer Borrowed audience, brand halo
App Store / Marketplace List inside a platform's ecosystem Built-in distribution, effective CAC

1. Integrations

Integrations are the foundation — they make you sticky, unlock expansion, and earn a spot in the partner's marketplace.

Four ways to build:

  • Native — you build and maintain a direct connection. Best UX, highest cost.
  • Platform via Zapier/Make — ride an iPaaS to cover the long tail without building each one.
  • API-first — expose a clean public API and let partners build toward you.
  • Embedded — your product runs inside theirs (widget, SDK, iframe).

Calendly's staged integration ladder — build integrations in order of buyer intent:

  1. Calendar (Google/Outlook) — table stakes, required to function.
  2. Sales stack (CRM, dialers, Salesforce/HubSpot) — where revenue teams live.
  3. Marketing stack (forms, ESP, automation) — top-of-funnel capture.

Each rung deepens the account and widens who inside the company depends on you.

Marketplace strategy + ASO. Getting listed isn't enough — apps compete for placement. Treat a marketplace like an app store: optimize the listing (title, keywords, screenshots, reviews, category) the same way you'd do App Store Optimization. Shopify App Store and Salesforce AppExchange are discovery engines; ranking well there is a channel, not an afterthought.

Why it matters: 83% of enterprise buyers cite integrations as a purchase-decision factor. Missing an integration a prospect needs can lose the deal outright.

2. Reseller programs

Turn other companies into a sales force. Partners resell your product and layer their own services on top.

Economics: resellers typically earn 20–40% of LTV on the software, plus 2–3× that amount in services (implementation, training, retainers) they sell around it. The services margin is what makes the partner care.

HubSpot's agency playbook (Peter Caputa). HubSpot turned marketing agencies into resellers by making the agency's own business better: give them a product to sell, certifications to differentiate on, and a co-selling motion. Agencies became a durable, compounding distribution channel — the engine behind the $100M ARR partner program.

Partner enablement is the work. A reseller program lives or dies on enablement: onboarding, certification, sales collateral, deal registration, co-selling support, and a partner portal. Signing partners is easy; getting them to actually sell requires you to train and equip them.

3. Affiliate programs

Pay-for-performance reach. Affiliates promote you and earn commission on conversions — low downside, since you pay only on results.

Proof points:

  • ConvertKit + Pat Flynn — a single trusted creator can become a top-of-funnel channel on their own.
  • Demio — 50% commissions to make the program worth a promoter's real effort.
  • Cometly — $251K in a single launch day, driven by one top affiliate plus Rewardful for tracking and payouts.

The 20/80 affiliate power law. ~20% of affiliates drive ~80% of revenue. Don't spread effort evenly across a long tail — identify super-promoters and invest disproportionately in them (higher rates, custom assets, early access, direct relationship).

Buyout clauses. For a super-promoter you want to lock in (or eventually replace with owned channel), a buyout clause lets you pay out future commissions as a lump sum — commonly ~12× the monthly commission. It caps long-term liability and gives the affiliate a clean exit.

Affiliate mechanics — commission structures, cookie windows, fraud, tooling (Rewardful/Tolt/PartnerStack) — belong in the referrals skill. Keep affiliate work here at the partnership-strategy level: which promoters to recruit, how to tier them, when to buy out.

4. Co-marketing

Joint campaigns with a non-competing peer who shares your audience. Covered in depth in the main SKILL.md (campaign types, partner scoring, agreements). Two ideas from the chapter worth calling out:

Permissionless co-marketing (Notion's coined move) — the single most actionable idea in the chapter. You don't need a signed partnership to ride a bigger brand. Notion built and published templates for Airbnb, Amazon, and Tesla — no permission, no contract — capturing search demand and brand halo from companies far larger than itself. Build assets around brands your audience already loves; let the association do the work.

Content ecosystems. Gong earned reach by showing up consistently on SaaStr (the audience it wanted, hosted by someone else) rather than only building its own. Pair with the lowest-friction swaps — newsletter swaps and cross-promotion — where each side keeps its own leads and simply exposes the other to its audience.

5. App Store / Marketplace

List your product inside a platform's ecosystem and inherit its distribution.

  • Grammarly's Chrome Web Store extension took it from 0 to 10M users — the store was the acquisition channel.
  • Platforms take 15–30% of revenue. Treat that cut as effective CAC: you're buying distribution instead of running ads.
  • Go all-in on one platform when it maps to your ICP. Arrows built its entire GTM around HubSpot — deep integration, AppExchange presence, co-selling — rather than spreading thin across many ecosystems.

When to choose this: if a single platform owns your buyer's daily workflow, being inside it beats trying to pull users out to your own site.

Choosing where to start

  • Retention/expansion problem → Integrations first (and the marketplace listing that comes with them).
  • Need distribution without headcount → Affiliate (fast, pay-on-results) or Reseller (slower, higher-touch, services upside).
  • Have content but no reach → Co-marketing, starting with permissionless assets and newsletter swaps.
  • A platform owns your buyer's workflow → App Store / Marketplace, all-in.

Programs compound: integrations create marketplace presence, marketplace presence attracts resellers, resellers and affiliates create the case studies that fuel co-marketing.

Back to coreyhaines31/marketingskills (marketing skills for agents) or Agent skills.