In today's world, every marketer knows that a joint venture is simply two companies working together to create mutually beneficial results. Your company will do something to advertize the products/ services of another company. In exchange, that company will return the favor. Simple.

But, will joint venture marketing work for online marketing? Can you use joint venture practices to increase traffic flow to your website and generate new online leads? If you do it correctly, you absolutely can. And should.

Joint ventures are a great way of using the assets of another company to build your own list of leads and customers, even in the online world. But, just like offline marketing, you need to do it correctly or risk wasting your time and money - not to mention burning any relationships with other companies that initially agreed to work with you.

Here are a few tips for joint venture marketing that will drive increased traffic to your websites and generate more online leads:

1. The money is in the lists. That's a common marketing saying. It means that you can create a lot of income if you maintain a list of clients and potential clients. One simple joint venture technique is to agree to send an email to your list of clients to promote another company's services. In exchange, that company will send an email to their list.

For example, imagine you provide construction loans to owner builders. You should have a list of past clients as well as new potential customers. You could agree to send your owner builders a promotion for a local furniture store that provides discount pricing. The furniture store would send a list to its customers to promote your owner builder loans.

This relationship would work well, because owner builders are looking to save money by avoiding the costs of hiring a general contractor. A discount furniture store will not only save money for owner builders, but furniture is something that almost everyone needs when moving into a new home. This makes for a great joint venture relationship.

As an owner builder loan company or a furniture store owner, you can reach an entirely new audience. This principle, of course, works the same no matter what industry you are in.

The key is working with a company that maintains a good list. You want to work with a company that regularly emails useful information to their list, so the customers will trust their advice when they recommend your company.

2. If you maintain a website with useful articles about your specific industry, you have a perfect joint venture opportunity. You can submit articles about your product or service to another joint venture partner. They will post your articles on their website to link back to your site. (And, of course, you will return the favor.)

Going back to the owner builder loan example, you can send your furniture store buddy a series of articles all about the advantages of owner builder construction loans. And, vice versa. It's a great way to swap content on a website.

Just make sure the content is useful and relevant. And, try not to come on too strong with the sales copy. Remember, it's an article that is supposed to be useful content for someone to read. If you do it properly, anyone interested in your owner builder construction loans will click on the link back to your site to learn more.

Plus, you've now established yourself as an expert in owner builder loans. Once the customer is at your site, you can then provide all the full information they will need and generate a new lead to add to your list.

3. Similarly, online joint venture marketing can involve the trading of interviews. How does this work?

Imagine you are still peddling your owner builder construction loans. The discount furniture store, which specializes in saving money for people, could interview you and post the audio file on their website.

Not only will it get the word out there about your service, but it will again establish you as the expert in owner builder financing. Once you are the expert, you won't have to work so hard to sell people on your services. They will already want to work with you.

And, of course, in true joint venture fashion, you will do the same for the furniture store. In fact, you should be happy to do it, because it will be a useful service to your owner builder customers.

So, you can see that finding a mutually beneficial joint venture is a pretty useful way to generate new leads, even in the online world. There are lots of ways to make it work for you.

And, of course, you don't have to sell furniture or owner builder construction loans. It doesn't matter what industry you work in. Joint venture marketing will work if you do it properly. Offline or online.