Jill Addison contacted me the other day and asked if I would like to be a JV partner of hers. My first step was to confirm that she wasn’t trying to get me back into Junior Varsity sports… I was always terrible at that in school. Reassured that she meant “Joint Venture” partner, I told her that I don’t do any revenue sharing or referrals for financial gain with other businesses. It makes it too hard for me to be unbiased when blogging or consulting as an independent, objective party.
But I was interested in her approach to solving problems of webinar content and distribution. So I asked if I could write up her JV philosophy and the specifics of how she pitches it. She kindly agreed.
Jill’s business is video production optimized for online use. She creates client videos for SEO, lead generation, and other web uses. She can do traditional talking head videos or quick and catchy “Whiteboard Animation” videos. Click here to see an example. I like the flow and constant motion that keeps people watching.
Jill wanted to sell a package of those Whiteboard Animation videos to new clients. She knew how to create her pitch, knew how to put together a typical webinar presentation pushing the concept and promoting the value proposition. The hard part was reaching new prospects who don’t already know her.
She figured she would go looking for businesses with the complementary problem to hers. Somebody out there must offer an ongoing schedule of webinars for their audiences and need content to fill the pipeline. The Joint Venture idea is for the webinar hosts to bring in Jill as a guest speaker. She presents the concept of whiteboard animation videos and their benefits as a business tool. The hosting company is seen as offering new ideas and business promotion insights to its audience. Jill embeds a sales pitch in her presentation. Anybody signing up for her services as a result of the webinar is identified and the hosting company gets a cut of the action. Ideally it is a three-way win for Jill, the webinar host, and the audience.
In Jill’s case, she is offering a $200 revenue share for each new client who signs up as a result of the webinar. For a webinar host with large audiences interested in online marketing solutions, that could be a noticeable piece of revenue without having to create any content themselves.
Since Jill shared the specifics of her business proposition with me, I’ll return the favor by saying that you can use her web contact page if you want to work with her yourself (either as a client or a Joint Venture webinar host).
I’d be very interested in your comments on this post if you have tried this kind of cooperative revenue sharing arrangement on your own business webinars. Did it work for you?
