Collaborations Are Not Automatically a Strategy
Let’s be real.
Most of us have done the collaboration thing just because.
Because early on, the message is pretty much the same across the board: get visible, get out there, say yes, get in more rooms, get your face on more screens.
Any collaboration is good collaboration.
Any audience is a good audience.
Any opportunity is worth taking.
Mmkay.
Except… not really.
Because a collaboration is not a strategy just because your face was on someone else’s screen.
And if you have ever said yes to something that looked amazing on paper but did absolutely nothing useful for your business afterward, you already know this.
Not every collaboration is a smart one
Be honest.
That bundle you joined with the big name and the huge audience, where 400 people came onto your list?
How many stayed?
How many bought?
How many were ever actually a fit for what you do?
Or that podcast opportunity that felt massive when you got the invite?
How many people clicked the lead magnet?
How many took the next step?
How many turned into anything beyond a nice ego boost and a cute line on your “as seen in” section?
I literally still have a welcome sequence in Kit for a PR opportunity I did early on, and it is still sitting there in the world doing absolutely nothing.
Not one person has meaningfully moved through that funnel.
Now, fine. It gave me a little backlink juice, and I love an SEO win as much as the next nerd.
But they cannot all be justified as backlinks.
At some point, a collaboration has to connect to an actual business goal.
Otherwise, it is just random collaboration energy.
And random collaboration energy is expensive.
Why some collaborations go nowhere
This is the piece people do not talk about enough.
A collaboration can look good and still be a complete dud.
It can be flattering.
It can be impressive.
It can make you feel very validated and very visible.
And still not build momentum.
Because what makes a collaboration useful is not just that it happened.
It is whether it actually supports the bigger picture of your business.
Can it lead people toward a real offer?
Can it bring the right people into your world?
Can it help you build a relationship with people who may actually need what you do?
Can it move someone one step closer to working with you?
If the answer is no, then it is probably not a strategic yes.
It is just a yes.
And there is a difference.
Three things that make a collaboration actually useful
If you want a collaboration to do more than look nice on paper, there are three things that need to line up like kindergarteners headed to recess.
1. The audience has to actually fit
Not every audience is a good audience.
And this is where a whole lot of well-meaning collaborations fall apart.
You need to know whether the people on the other side of that podcast, summit, bundle, or guest training are even remotely aligned with your people.
Are they brand new and looking for beginner how-tos?
Or are they more experienced and looking for nuance, depth, and discernment?
That matters.
A lot.
I was talking to a friend recently who serves women in that middle-experience phase of business. The kind who know a lot already. The kind who are done drinking from the fire hose of endless information and are trying to shift from “figuring it out” into “making this thing really hum.”
That is her sweet spot.
And she had just run a collaborative event where people were coming in not knowing the difference between Gmail and ActiveCampaign.
Which is totally fine. Everybody starts somewhere.
But that was not her audience.
Could some of those people eventually grow into fit clients? Maybe. Sure.
But they were not ready now.
And that means the collaboration may have looked good without being particularly useful.
The audience does not have to be identical to yours.
But there needs to be enough overlap that the people finding you are not years away from needing what you do.
2. There has to be a real opportunity, not just a flattering one
Some opportunities feel big because they are useful.
Some feel big because they are flattering.
Those are not always the same.
And listen, I get it. A bigger platform can feel validating as hell. Someone with a large audience wants you on their screen? Lovely. Beautiful. A little delicious, even.
But flattering is not the same as strategic.
I had a friend guest on a huge podcast once. Ten thousand downloads on day one. Close to sixty thousand over the course of six months.
Dream opportunity, right?
Her return? Almost nothing.
A handful of subscribers. No real momentum. No meaningful payoff.
Cool invite. Not a particularly useful one.
Good people say yes to bad-fit opportunities all the time because the opportunity looks so shiny from the outside.
But a collaboration is only as good as what it can realistically do for your business.
And sometimes the smaller room with the tighter audience fit is worth far more than the giant platform that makes you feel important for a minute.
3. There has to be a next step
This is the one that gets fumbled constantly.
You do the collaboration.
You build trust.
You warm people up.
You say smart, helpful things.
You get them interested enough to go looking for you.
And then?
You send them to Instagram.
No.
Absolutely not.
That person was interested enough to leave what they were doing and take action. They opened another tab. They went looking for you. That is not casual. That is a moment.
And if you send them into the chaos of your social feed with no clear path, no context, and no strategic invitation, you are making it so much harder than it needs to be.
Also, you probably missed the backlink. Which is rude to your SEO.
Give them somewhere real to go.
A relevant lead magnet.
A useful page.
A clear offer.
A next step that matches the audience, the topic, and where they are in the awareness journey.
Because when there is no next step, there is no momentum.
There is just attention that fizzles out five minutes later.
Random yeses are not a growth strategy
This is really what it comes down to.
A lot of collaboration decisions get made from a place of excitement, flattery, fear of missing out, or “well, I probably should.”
And listen, no judgment. We have all done it.
But random yeses create random results.
If the audience is off, the opportunity is more flattering than useful, and there is no real next step, then the collaboration was probably never going to do much for you in the first place.
Which does not mean it was worthless.
It means it was not strategic.
And there is a difference between doing something visible and doing something that actually supports momentum.
What to ask before you say yes
Before you say yes to the next summit, bundle, podcast, guest workshop, or PR opportunity, ask:
Does this audience actually overlap with mine?
Is this useful, or just flattering?
Where exactly am I sending people next?
Can this collaboration support a real business goal?
If the answers are fuzzy, the yes probably should be too.
Because collaborations are not automatically strategy.
They become strategic when they are thoughtful, aligned, and connected to a real path forward.
Everything else is just being visible in someone else’s room and hoping for the best.
And hope, while adorable, is not a strategy either.
If this has you thinking about how your marketing actually supports momentum, not just visibility, come on over to Welcome In. This Is Hospitality in Marketing. It’s my private podcast about building marketing that feels more human, more thoughtful, and a whole lot more effective.
