How can you tap in the audience that another company has already created? How can you spend less and leverage more in marketing? Make a strategic shift in marketing energy.
By Marc Zasada
Managing Director, Screenfire Media
Most companies approach marketing the same way: they try to do more. More ads, more content, more outreach, more spend. And while that can work, it’s often the slowest and most expensive path forward.
There’s a smarter approach that gets far less attention than it should—one that can accelerate growth without dramatically increasing cost. It’s simple in concept: instead of always building your own audience, find ways to tap into someone else’s.
Every established company has already invested in attention. They’ve built trust, created content, grown lists, and developed distribution channels. In many cases, those audiences overlap with yours. The opportunity isn’t to compete for that attention—it’s to align with it.
1. Partner Programs (Done Right)
One of the most obvious ways to leverage other people’s marketing is through partnerships—but most companies underplay this.
The real value isn’t in basic referral agreements. It’s in deeper alignment. When two companies actively bring each other into their marketing—through co-branded campaigns, shared webinars, or bundled offers—both benefit from expanded reach and transferred trust.
At its best, this doesn’t feel like promotion. It feels like a better, more complete solution.
Explore the formal marketing partner programs at big players, but also consider creating your own formal or informal program. Make it simple and mutually beneficial.
2. Your Product as the Add-On
There’s a natural instinct to want to be the main platform—the centerpiece. But often, the faster path to growth is to become the enhancement.
When your product clearly improves another product, you can ride along with demand that already exists instead of trying to create it from scratch. You’re not interrupting the buying process—you’re becoming part of it.
You see this clearly in ecosystems like Shopify. Shopify built the audience of merchants. Companies like Klaviyo and Recharge grew by positioning themselves as essential extensions. They didn’t need to create demand for e-commerce—they simply plugged into it.
3. Your Service as the Implementation Layer
Many companies are great at selling products but intentionally avoid handling implementation. That gap creates opportunity.
If you can become the installer, integrator, or service layer around another company’s product, you benefit directly from their marketing and sales engine. Instead of chasing leads, you’re stepping into an existing stream of demand.
Oh, and you can see upgrades at the same time.
A strong real-world example of this is HubSpot’s partner ecosystem. HubSpot generates enormous demand for its CRM and marketing automation platform—but many customers need help setting it up, customizing it, and actually using it effectively.
That’s where agencies step in. Thousands of certified HubSpot partners position themselves as the implementation layer—handling onboarding, integrations, and ongoing optimization. They don’t need to convince companies to adopt HubSpot. HubSpot has already done that. Instead, they attach themselves to that demand and turn it into a steady pipeline of service work.
That’s leveraged marketing in its purest form.
4. Marketplace and Platform Positioning
Once you start looking for it, distribution is everywhere—especially inside platforms.
Marketplaces like Shopify, HubSpot, Salesforce, and WordPress have already aggregated massive audiences actively searching for solutions. By positioning yourself inside these ecosystems, you don’t have to generate demand—you just have to capture it.
The shift is subtle but powerful: instead of driving traffic, you’re showing up where intent already exists, leveraging the inherent SEO and traffic within those established entities.
5. Co-Branded Content That Carries Weight
Most content struggles because it starts from zero. Co-branded content doesn’t.
When you create a webinar, guide, or case study with a partner, you immediately expand your reach and credibility. You’re not just another voice—you’re a recommended one.
That distinction matters. It shortens the trust curve and increases the likelihood of engagement.
6. Vendor Ecosystems and “Default Inclusion”
In many industries, buyers aren’t choosing a single solution—they’re building a stack.
If you can position yourself within that stack—through certifications, preferred vendor relationships, or strategic alliances—you move from optional to expected.
The goal isn’t just visibility. It’s becoming part of the default decision-making process.
The classic example is the way Microsoft Windows built an ecosystem through certification programs early on…. something I helped with, back in the day.
7. Customer-Led Distribution
Sometimes the most overlooked channel is your own customer base.
Your customers already use other tools, work with other vendors, and operate within broader ecosystems. When they talk about how your product fits into that mix—through testimonials, case studies, or shared workflows—you gain exposure to adjacent audiences in a highly credible way.
You’re not just being marketed—you’re being validated in context.
Is there a way you can feed content into their own presentations about their products?
8. Piggybacking on Existing Audiences
Sometimes the easiest path is to show up where attention already exists. Your partners and customers need content that maybe you can provide. Speaking on a partner’s webinar, contributing to their event, or being featured in their content gives you immediate access to a warm, relevant audience.
You skip the hardest part: getting people to pay attention in the first place.
The Strategic Shift
Overall, try to make a strategic shift in your marketing conversations—which usually revolve around generating more—more traffic, more leads, more reach.
But a more effective question is: Where is demand already happening—and how do we align with it? Who already has my audience—and how can we create value together?
That shift changes how you think about growth. It moves you from pushing uphill to working with momentum.
Stay fiery, Marc
About the author: Marc Zasada is the Managing Director and Co-Founder of Screenfire. His credits include work for Microsoft, Mastercard, Christie’s, and many other leading companies.
Does your marketing need help? Find us at www.screenfiremedia.com
