Establishing brand recognition in the UK can be a slow and expensive process for internationally-headquartered businesses breaking into the market. Partnering with influential individuals or organisations already established and recognised here is a powerful way to reduce this timeline, giving businesses a direct route to engage target audiences and create local relevance.
Potential partners could take the shape of industry influencers, academics, activists, peer companies, industry bodies, or even target customers. And the role they could play in a business’ communications strategy has the potential to be just as varied – from providing partner quotes and testimonials for use in media materials and co-creating content such as blogs or thought leadership articles through to collaborating on larger-scale integrated media campaigns.
Choosing your partner carefully
By aligning your brand with organisations that have already earned the trust of your target audience, you can benefit from their credibility – when these trusted players collaborate with you, some of that trust transfers to your brand, giving potential customers a reason to engage and feel confident in your service or product.
It’s therefore critical to consider a potential partner’s public persona before committing to working with them. For example: what topics do they speak about and what is their stance on key issues? How prolific is their media and social media presence, and how influential are they amongst your target audiences? And, perhaps most importantly, does their purpose, vision and values align with your organisation’s?
This careful selection process will help you identify partners with whom you have synergy, thus creating genuine and relevant collaborations that demonstrate your brand’s commitment and understanding of the UK market, and creating a route into and trust amongst new audiences.
Localisation of your message
Every market has unique cultural nuances and communication styles, and the UK – with its diverse regions and communities – is no exception.
It’s important to remember that what resonates in your home market may not have the same intended impact in the UK. Localisation involves more than just language – it requires adapting your brand’s voice and values to authentically connect with UK consumers. Whether it’s understanding the nuances of British humour or acknowledging local traditions, these insights can make the difference between a campaign that falls flat and one that truly resonates with your target market.
Collaborating with local individuals or organisations can help ensure your messages and tone are on point. Partners can also help you to capitalise on local trends, and tap into cultural touchpoints that might otherwise be overlooked.
Spotlight on: AgriWebb
Take, for example, one of the businesses we’ve worked with – the Australian company AgriWebb, which provides livestock management tools that increase farm productivity. As part of its product strategy and UK business expansion plans, AgriWebb partnered with 100 British beef and sheep farmers to test its technology before it was released to the wider UK farming industry.
This beta phase gave UK farmers the opportunity to offer their initial thoughts and feedback, helping ensure that AgriWebb’s software met the nuanced needs of the British farming market, while helping the Australian brand to build long-standing relationships with a large community of farmers – its priority audience.
When it came to the UK market launch, these partners became a critical component of AgriWebb’s comms strategy, immediately adding local UK credibility for an internationally founded SaaS business.
Laying the foundation for sustainable growth
Partnerships shouldn’t be viewed in terms of short-term gains, or simply from a commercial incentive perspective. Instead, they represent an important opportunity to build lasting relationships with customers or key industry figures that can lead to wider brand awareness and message reach, increased trust and open doors to new audiences.
Building partnerships into your communications strategies can help you to create a solid foundation for sustained media presence and long-term PR – and business – success.
Image credit: Christina Morillo on Pexels
