It seems that at least once or twice a week I get an email or a call from someone trying to sell me a marketing "partnership" of some sort. The problem is, none of these are actually "partnerships." They are mostly sponsorship opportunities, or just plain advertising media deals.

For example, just this week I received an email from a SF agency principal who was offering a "marketing partnership" to my firm’s clients. What he was really promoting was a sponsorship deal, trying to get my clients to buy advertising at an event his client was holding.

Nothing wrong with that. But, it was not a "partnership" — it was a "sponsorship." Huge difference.

The obvious reason why people intentionally confuse marketing sponsorships with partnerships is that a partnership sounds much more interesting. A partnership implies mutual opportunity and benefits. A sponsorship is basically a one way deal.

To be sure, there are clearly benefits to buying an ad in the right media — or investing in a smart sponsorship — but the actual transaction is still just about boosting visibility with a certain audience.

Partnerships are an entirely different thing. A marketing partnership is when two parties come together to share sales and marketing channels and opportunities, and leverage each others’ brand equity, for mutual value and gain. A partner marketing deal is, by definition, a win-win. Each side has to put skin in the game, and thus gets something out of the deal. Those mutual results are built into the strategy from the beginning. Media advertising or sponsorships imply nothing of the sort.

Another name for partnership marketing is "affinity marketing." It usually means the same thing.

A great example of partnership marketing is my client TD AMERITRADE (TDA), the leading online brokerage company. TDA set up a partner marketing program with Starwood Hotels that generated real mutual success for each party in the partnership. Through the program, TDA agreed to pay Starwood’s frequent stay program members thousands of Starwood loyalty points if they opened up a brokerage account with TDA.

TDA marketed this partner offer through Starwood’s loyalty program channels, including direct mail, email and the web. The program truly was a win-win for all involved. TDA efficiently acquired new accounts; Starwood made money on selling the points to TDA (and also benefited by the exclusive offer to its best customers); and the Starwood customers got a lot of valuable hotel points just for opening a new brokerage account.

That is a real partner marketing program. It could not be further from the reality of the emails I frequently get from technology company salesmen who claim they want to partner with my firm. Basically, they are just trying to get access to our clients, but not offering anything in return. That is decidedly not partner marketing. It is just sales.

Partnership marketing represents one of the most efficient and effective marketing channels available to you, and it remains relatively under-utilized.

It is too bad the term partner marketing is so misunderstood, and so frequently misused by business people just trying to make another sale.

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