Partner Evaluation
Finding and evaluating co-marketing partners
Find co-marketing candidates through customer needs, then assess audience fit, distinct contributions, capacity, claims and conflicts before committing.
Start with a customer task your organisation cannot fully address alone. Look for organisations that could add useful expertise.
Assess the strongest candidates for audience fit, a distinct contribution, capacity, credible claims and possible conflicts. A large audience by itself is a weak reason to proceed.
Find candidates through the customer task
Write down what the customer is trying to decide or do, where your help ends and what further expertise would help. A business teaching finance teams to prepare data might, for example, investigate a reporting specialist for a joint educational activity. That is a lead to investigate, not evidence their audiences overlap.
Review customer questions, sales and support hand-offs, industry events, published guides and organisations customers mention. Record the task that led to each candidate. A shared industry label or directory listing does not establish fit.
For each name, note its published offer, apparent customer, relevant expertise, possible channel and the question public material cannot answer. A shortlist needs enough evidence to justify a conversation; it does not need a finished campaign plan.
Keep the candidate pool open
A potential partner does not have to share your business model. Co-marketing can involve B2B or B2C organisations, product or service businesses, and start-ups or established brands. Assess each candidate on evidence of fit rather than excluding it on those labels alone.
Evaluate the same questions for each candidate
| Question | Evidence to seek | Reason to pause |
|---|---|---|
| Is there a relevant customer problem? | Roles, tasks and published topics | Only broad industry labels match |
| Does each party add something distinct? | Demonstrable expertise or service | One contribution adds little customer value |
| Could both parties take part? | Potential owner, review route and channel | Essential resources remain unconfirmed |
| Can the message be accurate? | Supported capabilities and conditions | A proposed claim needs an unverified result |
| Is there an apparent conflict? | Your commitments and the candidate’s public position | A restriction or competing role needs clarification |
Use these questions to decide what to investigate, not to calculate a score. Public material cannot establish how many relevant people a candidate can reach, whether they would engage or whether the candidate has capacity for a joint activity.
Key questions to evaluate co-marketing partners
- Is there a relevant customer problem?Look for roles, tasks and published topics; avoid relying only on broad industry labels.
- Does each party add something distinct?Ensure demonstrable expertise or service is evident; avoid duplication of value.
- Could both parties take part?Confirm potential owner, review route and channel availability; don’t assume capacity.
- Can the message be accurate?Ensure claims are supported by capabilities and conditions; avoid unverified outcomes.
- Is there an apparent conflict?Review commitments and public positions; clarify restrictions or competing roles.
Check friction before making a promise
Confirm you have identified the right organisation. For an Australian business, ABN Lookup can show public registration details and whether an ABN is active or cancelled. Check your current partnership terms with their owner for any category, channel, brand or timing restriction. A candidate’s public partner logo is a question to clarify, not proof of exclusivity.
If a proposed collaboration may involve anti-competitive cooperation, seek appropriate competition advice. Check that customer-facing claims can be supported and that important limits will be clear.
Compare broad customer roles and tasks before considering contact data. Sharing personal information requires a separate assessment of the proposed purpose and applicable rules.
Australian regulatory checks before co-marketing
- ABN status verificationUse ABN Lookup to confirm active registration and entity details.
- Competition law complianceSeek advice if collaboration may involve anti-competitive cooperation.
- Claim substantiationACCC requires support for all product or service claims; false/misleading claims risk enforcement.
- Privacy rule compliance (APP 6)Personal information use/disclosure must align with original purpose or meet exceptions.
Use ABN Lookup for specific identity details
ABN Lookup can also show a business’s type, GST status, public details supplied to the Australian Business Register and historical trading names, where available. These fields help check that the name and entity in your records match the organisation you intend to approach.
Apply specific competition and claims checks
The ACCC investigates possible anti-competitive contracts, arrangements, understandings and concerted practices. It can take enforcement action against businesses that break competition law. If a proposed collaboration raises concerns in these areas, do not assume calling it a partnership resolves them; seek appropriate competition advice.
The ACCC can require businesses to back up claims about their products or services. It may investigate claims it considers false or misleading. Treat any capability or outcome claim that cannot be substantiated as a reason to pause and clarify the wording before proceeding.
Apply privacy rules before using personal information
For an entity covered by Australian Privacy Principle 6, personal information can generally be used or disclosed for the purpose it was collected for. A secondary purpose may be permitted where the individual consents, or where the individual would reasonably expect it and it is related to the original purpose. For sensitive information, it must be directly related.
Other APP 6 exceptions include use or disclosure required or authorised by Australian law or a court or tribunal order, and certain permitted general or health situations. Check whether an exception applies to the proposed use rather than assuming that a joint activity makes it permissible.
Use the first conversation to test fit
Approach a candidate with the customer task, why its expertise appears relevant, what your organisation could contribute and one small activity to explore. Ask which parts of that account it recognises, where its offer has limits and who could review the work.
Record the outcome as a defined activity to explore, a narrower audience or contribution to investigate, or a decision to stop. Confirm capacity, claims and restrictions before turning the idea into campaign commitments.
In this guide
- Building a partner shortlist from customer workflowsMap customer tasks and hand-offs to find co-marketing candidates, record the evidence for each and decide who merits an approach.
- Assessing audience overlap without sharing private contact listsCompare customer roles, tasks and buying stages using broad summaries while keeping contact data out of early partner assessment.
- Identifying partnership conflicts before a meetingCheck your commitments and a prospective partner’s public position, then separate confirmed restrictions from questions for the first meeting.
