Cooperative lead marketing: winning customers together

As a solo entrepreneur and marketer, I know the challenges of lead generation from my own experience. After a failed online startup during the coronavirus pandemic, I was faced with the question myself: How can I sustainably acquire new customers with limited resources? The solution was cooperative lead marketing – a method that increases reach, optimises costs and promotes joint success through strategic collaboration with other entrepreneurs. This article shows you how to build a functioning system for cooperative lead marketing using WordPress as a platform – from shared landing pages to automated lead distribution.

What is co-operative lead marketing?

Cooperative lead marketing was developed by people in marketing for solo entrepreneurs with a service (e.g. consultants, trainers, therapists, coaches). Since both sides are solo entrepreneurs themselves, they have the same challenge: to use limited resources as efficiently as possible.

The basic principle of this collaboration is asset-based, not time-based. For example, the structure of a conversion-optimised landing page for the sale of an online course is only developed once. All members of the online marketing community are given access to it and can customise it with a video tutorial – at a fraction of the cost that a freelancer would charge, for example.

In contrast to traditional affiliate or partner programmes, cooperative lead marketing is based on joint value creation. The participating entrepreneurs work together to generate leads instead of just receiving commissions for referrals.

Why is the model particularly suitable for sole traders?

The pandemic forced us to rethink the start-up’s business model. While local retail suffered greatly from the restrictions, we clearly recognised from a large number of conversations with nutritionists, retirement consultants and psychotherapists that they faced their own unique challenges: They had to relearn digital customer acquisition, but often did not have the necessary marketing knowledge (compared to pure online entrepreneurs) or the time for effective implementation. This realisation led to the development of collaborative lead marketing, which economically bridges the gap between DIY online marketing and full-service outsourcing.

Cooperative lead marketing closes precisely this gap:

• Cost savings & success-orientation: Investments are only made when measurable success has already been achieved
• Efficient implementation: working with targeted information retrieval on an on-demand basis
• Scalability: Entrepreneurs benefit from existing, optimised structures instead of reinventing the wheel.
• WordPress as a platform for cooperative lead marketing

Key Design Principles

1) Lightweight development

“Choose a theme that complements the WP standard in a minimalist way and integrates features that make additional plugins or page builders superfluous.”

Example 1: GeneratePress Premium with dynamic and interactive features (GenerateBlocks Pro) makes Pagebuilder superfluous.

Example 2: Raidboxes outsources caching, backups, firewall, staging, redirects and much more to the web server, making many plugins superfluous.

2) Only use software with professional support

“Invest in high-quality solutions to ensure access to expert knowledge and guarantee the long-term economic operation of your solution.”

Example 1: Marketing staff can solve technical errors quickly and efficiently with the experts from Yoast, GeneratePress, Raidboxes or Matomo without having to familiarise themselves with the details.

Example 2: Instead of having to deal with technical problems multiple times, entrepreneurs benefit from a solution that has already been optimised and tested. Motto: implemented once and available to all – economic sharing effect.

3) Maintain control over your content

“Use WordPress as your central content hub to distribute high-quality content independently of gatekeepers or platform risks such as the continued existence of Twitter.”

Example 1: Reuse of content, e.g. in newsletters (MailPoet) through snippets from blogs, news or podcasts (CPTs)

Example 2: Self-hosting for fonts and SVG icons is natively supported by GeneratePress. Data protection requirements are optimally fulfilled without additional plugins.

Practical examples & best practices

Case study 1: SEO optimisation through joint content marketing

All members of the online marketing community use a shared online magazine. Through guest posts in which they explain how their services improve the lives of their customers, they not only increase their reach, but also optimise their SEO positions. Collaborations, such as between executive coaches and alternative practitioners for psychotherapy on the topic of “Psychological aspects of company succession”, lead to even better project results.

Case study 2: Professional video production as a blueprint

A moderator creates high-quality video material for their own landing page. The method is used by other members as a template or brought to a professional level with their support.

Case study 3: Better user experience through compliance by design

A retirement consultant focuses on a user-friendly, privacy-compliant web experience. Instead of using third-party cookies and retargeting, he/she relies on local tracking with Matomo and locally hosted fonts and icons (FontAwesome). This allows them to do without a cookie banner, which not only has legal advantages, but also improves the user experience. Customers perceive the website as trustworthy and trouble-free, which has a positive effect on dwell time and lead generation.

Case study 4: Standardised branding with WP Multisite

Our online marketing community uses the WordPress multisite feature to ensure a consistent user experience in the delivery of services by connected people in marketing (also called “webGefährt:in”). Each:r receives its own pre-structured website within the multisite network, including standardised design elements, pre-configured member area (see illustration) and shared technical infrastructure. Not only do all members benefit from a standardised brand perception, while individual content and offers can be flexibly integrated. This not only saves time and costs, but also strengthens the recognisability of the community as a whole.

Step-by-step instructions: Implementation with WordPress

1. Find an online marketing community that suits your own business model (e.g. Webgefährte for sole traders with services).
2. Set up a tried and tested WordPress structure for the community, including hosting, domain and e-mail.
3. Analyse digital role models and implement their successful marketing concept (e.g. SEO or newsletter marketing) within the community.

My conclusion & outlook

The article Lead generation “The 7 best strategies for more sales” offers an inspiring framework and classic approaches to lead generation. However, co-operative lead marketing goes beyond this: it closes the gap between DIY marketing and outsourcing and enables entrepreneurs and people in marketing to combine their strengths. This results in long-term success as a natural product of trusting cooperation.