Suede Co Marketing

Suede Co-Marketing

Use this Suede co-marketing playbook to identify credible partners and design measurable joint campaigns with explicit roles and value exchange.

Before Starting

Check for product marketing context first: If .agents/product-marketing.md exists (or .claude/product-marketing.md, or the legacy product-marketing-context.md filename, in older setups), read it before asking questions. Use that context and only ask for information not already covered or specific to this task.

Partner Identification Framework

1. Audience Overlap Analysis

The best partners share your audience but don't compete for the same budget.

Ideal partner characteristics:

• Same buyer persona, different problem solved
• Adjacent in the workflow (before, after, or alongside your tool)
• Similar company stage and customer size
• Complementary, not competitive

Questions to identify partners:

• What tools do your customers already use?
• What do they use before/after your product?
• Who else is selling to your ICP?
• Which integrations do customers request most?

2. Partner Scoring Criteria

Rate each candidate 1-5 on all six criteria, using these anchors. Score from evidence the user or a public source supplies; a criterion with no evidence is scored ? and named as an open question, never guessed.

Pursue/drop rule: pursue only partners scoring 4+ on both Audience fit and Reciprocity potential. Anything below is reported as scored-and-dropped with the failing criterion named: it is not silently omitted.

Shortlist cap: 5. At the cap, rank the five and report; do not expand the list. Additional candidates go in a named "not pursued this round" line.

3. Where to Find Partners

Integration ecosystem:

• Your existing integration partners
• Tools in the same app marketplace category
• Platforms your product plugs into

Adjacent categories:

• Tools that solve the problem before yours
• Tools that solve the problem after yours
• Tools used by the same role but different workflow

Community signals:

• Who sponsors the same podcasts/newsletters?
• Who exhibits at the same conferences?
• Who's active in the same communities?
• Whose content does your audience share?

Data sources:

• Crossbeam or Reveal for account overlap
• Customer surveys ("what else do you use?")
• G2/Capterra category neighbors
• Job postings mentioning your tool + others

Co-Marketing Campaign Types

Four families, with per-format effort, lead sharing, and best-fit in references/campaign-formats.md. Open that file whenever a campaign format is being chosen: the campaign plan must name its format from it.

• Content partnerships: when both sides can produce and both audiences read.
• Webinars & events: when the goal is gated lead generation or education.
• Product & integration marketing: when a live integration or shared customer exists.
• Community & social: when the goal is exposure or list growth, not pipeline.

Brainstorming Partner Campaigns

When brainstorming with a specific partner, consider:

1. Shared Audience Moments

• What trigger events matter to both audiences?
• What seasonal moments align with both products?
• What industry trends affect both customer bases?

2. Combined Value Propositions

• What can customers achieve with both tools that they can't with one?
• What workflow does the combination enable?
• What pain point does the integration solve?

3. Unique Assets Each Brings

Inventory what each side brings across audience, content expertise, product capabilities, brand credibility, and customer stories, and name which asset the campaign actually depends on.

Approaching Potential Partners

Outreach gate (draft-only, hard stop)

Outreach drafts are produced; outreach is never sent. At the handover: stop, name the four variables in one line each: recipient, channel, visible sending identity, exact message, state that the outcome is a draft and nothing has been sent, offer approve / revise / drop, and wait for the user's pick. The same gate covers sharing any customer or overlap data with the partner.

Cold Outreach Template

Subject: [Your Company] + [Their Company] co-marketing idea

Hey [Name],

I'm [Role] at [Your Company]. We [one-line description].

I noticed we share a lot of the same audience, [specific observation about overlap].

I have an idea for [specific campaign type] that could work well for both of us: [one-sentence pitch].

Would you be open to a quick call to explore?

[Your name]

What to Prepare for the Call

1. Account overlap data (if available via Crossbeam/Reveal)
2. 2-3 specific campaign ideas (not just "let's do something")
3. Your audience metrics (list size, traffic, engagement)
4. Examples of past partnerships (shows you can execute)
5. Clear ask (what you want from them, what you'll provide)

Structuring the Partnership

Key Questions to Align On

• Lead ownership: gated/split (one shared form, agreed split, written data and consent terms) or each-keeps-own (no shared list: the default until data terms are agreed). The format chosen from references/campaign-formats.md names which arrangement it assumes.
• Promotion commitments: What will each party do to promote?
• Asset creation: Who creates what? Who approves?
• Timeline: When does each phase happen?
• Success metrics: How will you measure success?
• Follow-up: Will you do more together if it works?