Partnering with Local Brands to Share Marketing Costs

The cheapest marketing you will ever run is somebody else telling their customers about you. That is the whole point of a local partnership: you borrow an audience that already trusts the person doing the introducing, and your pub ends up feeling more connected to the place it sits in.

Partnerships also fail in predictable ways. Somebody pays for the leaflets and somebody does not. The offer gets complicated. The partner posts once, at 11pm, with the wrong date. None of that is bad luck, it is just missing paperwork.

The framework below is what I use at The Anchor. It is deliberately dull in the right places, because the boring parts are what make the fun parts work twice. It also costs very little, so it belongs alongside the other low-budget marketing ideas worth running.

Step 1: Define the audience gap

Do not start with "who would be nice to work with". Start with who is missing from your pub on the days you are quiet.

Look at your own trading pattern first. If Tuesday nights are empty, you need a group that already meets on a Tuesday. If your Sunday lunch trade skews to over-sixties, you need families. If your Thursday bar is fine but your food is not selling, you need a reason for people to eat, not a reason for them to come in.

Then write one sentence: "I want more [audience] on [day] and I am willing to spend [amount] to get them." Everything after this is easier once that sentence exists.

Do this week: list five local businesses that already have your missing audience in their building every week. Not on their mailing list. In their building.

Step 2: Shortlist and pitch

Look for local businesses with active communities: gyms, bakers, florists, breweries, coffee roasters, butchers, barbers, dog groomers, garden centres, running clubs, choirs, amateur dramatics groups. These are the same names worth knowing when you reintroduce your pub to the community.

Three filters before you approach anyone:

1. Overlap without competition. A café that does a roaring lunch trade is a competitor. A gym is not.
2. A real audience you can see. Check their social following is local, not bought, and that they post more than once a month.
3. Someone who can decide. Independents beat chains here, because the person you are talking to owns the diary.

Keep the pitch short and specific. "We want to run a Friday local makers night. Your customers match the people we want. Would you co-host and split the promotion?" A vague "shall we do something together?" gets a vague yes and then nothing.

Pitch in person or by phone. Email is where partnership ideas go to be politely ignored.

Step 3: Pick the right structure

Most licensees jump straight to "we'll split it". There are five workable structures and they suit different partners.

Start with cross-promotion or supply-in-kind. Move to revenue share once you have worked with someone and know they turn up.

Step 4: Co-create the offer

Build a simple offer both sides can promote in one sentence.

• A set menu with a dessert from the bakery two doors down, credited by name on the menu.
• A post-workout brunch at a fixed price, running from 9:30 to noon on a Saturday.
• A local brewery tap takeover with a meet-the-brewer slot at 7pm.
• A Mother's Day lunch where every table gets a posy from the florist and the florist takes pre-orders in your bar.

Keep it time-bound. "All month" is not an offer, it is wallpaper.

One warning if you are tied, as I am as a Greene King tenant: check your product range and any guest beer rights before you promise a local brewer a tap. A tap takeover you cannot legally pour is an embarrassing conversation, and it is worth understanding what your tie does and does not allow before you make the call. If the beer is off the table, run the same collaboration with a food producer or a maker instead.

Worked example. Say you run a post-parkrun brunch with a gym. Forty covers at £14 a head is £560. Food cost at 30% is £168. You split a £120 print and boosted post spend, so £60 each. Two staff for four hours at a true £15 an hour, including employer's National Insurance and holiday pay, is £120. That leaves roughly £212 of contribution on a morning that usually takes nothing, plus forty people who now know your coffee is decent. This is an illustration, not a promise: put your own numbers in before you commit.

Step 5: Put the agreement in writing

One page. It is not a contract for the ages, it is a shared memory.

Include: the date and times, who pays for what and the spend cap, who supplies what, the revenue split and when it is settled, who is responsible for allergen information, how sign-ups are handled, what each side commits to post and by when, and who cancels if the weather is bad.

Two clauses licensees forget:

Allergens. If a partner supplies food you sell, you are responsible for the allergen information given to your customer. Get the full ingredient and allergen spec in writing before the event, and remember that anything you pack on site before it is ordered needs a full ingredient label. A verbal "there's no nuts in it" is worth nothing.

Insurance. Ask whether they hold public liability cover, and tell your own insurer if you are doing something outside your normal trading pattern.

Step 6: Handle the data properly

This is where good partnerships get people into trouble.

You cannot hand your mailing list to a partner. Under the electronic marketing rules, consent has to name the organisation doing the marketing, so a tick box mentioning "selected partners" does not cover a specific gym emailing your customers. The ICO has been clear on that point for years.

What works instead:

• Each side emails its own list about the joint event. Same date, same link, own voice.
• Use one sign-up form on the night that names both businesses in plain words, with a separate tick box for each. Paper on a clipboard is fine.
• If you genuinely need to share data, put a short data sharing agreement in place and take advice first.

Everything you collect properly feeds the list you own, which is the real long-term prize here and the engine behind email marketing that brings people back.

Step 7: Share marketing assets

Create one shared asset pack and put it somewhere both sides can grab it: a shared folder, not an email thread.

Include three or four photos sized square and portrait, two ready-written captions, the booking link, the hashtags, and the exact dates you both post. Assign the posting days. "We'll both share it" means neither of you does.

The single biggest lift is a booking link that works on a phone in two taps. If your partner's audience has to ring you during service, you will lose most of them. Slot the whole thing into your social media strategy rather than treating it as a one-off.

Step 8: Measure and debrief

Do it within a week, while the till data and everyone's memory are fresh.

Track four numbers: covers on the night against a normal equivalent session, spend per head, new sign-ups collected, and total cost split by partner. Then ask the one question that matters: did anyone come back? Check for repeat visits four weeks later.

Share the numbers with your partner even when they are disappointing. Licensees who are honest about a flat night get asked back. The ones who quietly go silent do not.

Common mistakes

• Partnering with businesses that do not share your audience. A big following in the wrong postcode is worth nothing to you.
• Letting the offer become too complicated. If it needs a paragraph to explain, it will not be shared.
• Failing to agree the split upfront. Money conversations after the event end partnerships.
• Assuming you can email each other's customers. You cannot, and the fine risk sits with whoever sends.
• Running four partnerships at once. You will deliver all of them badly.

Quick checklist

• Target audience and quiet day defined in one sentence.
• Two partners shortlisted, both with a visible local audience.
• Structure chosen from the five above.
• One offer built, costed and time-bound.
• One-page agreement signed, including allergens and spend cap.
• Sign-up form naming both businesses, with separate tick boxes.
• Shared asset pack with posting days assigned.
• Results reviewed within a week and shared with the partner.

Mini FAQ

Should I split revenue or costs? Either can work. Splitting costs is simpler and suits first collaborations. Splitting revenue suits ticketed events where one side carries the risk.

How many partners should I run at once? Start with one. Build a repeatable format before scaling, then run the same format with three different partners across a quarter.

What if the partner does not deliver their side? Say so, calmly, with the numbers. Then decide whether to run it again on tighter terms or move on. Most under-delivery is disorganisation rather than bad faith.