There are various different terms associated with marketing partnerships which all mean exactly the same thing. Whether you refer to them as contra deals, bartering agreements, media partnerships, or anything else – essentially these are non-financial, mutually beneficial agreements. If you’re able to demonstrate how you can increase a prospective partner’s members, visitors, subscribers, or revenue, you can get them to help market your conference for free.

As appealing as they are, marketing partners can be tricky to pin down (or so some marketing team members might say). We’ve previously detailed how to identify key marketing and media partners and this is the next stage towards actually securing them.

As a busy director, you probably don't have time to get bogged down in the detail of marketing reports. But since your  company is likely to be heavily reliant on the emails you send to your database, not knowing exactly what the  metrics show (or which ones really matter) can lead to lengthy yawnworthy meetings and little clarity on how your team, marketing and tactics are truly performing.