01Pick partners by customer, not by industry
The question is not who works in your trade. It is who already has your customer's attention just before or just after they need you. A wedding photographer and a florist meet the same couples over a few months. A physiotherapist and a running club meet people starting something new. Those are examples, not a rule. Then apply one test: would you put your own name behind this partner? A partner who ignores messages sends you customers who will assume you are just as hard to reach.
- The same customer at a different moment
- Not a direct competitor
- You have seen their work or used them, and you would recommend them to a friend
- Roughly the same size, so neither side feels used
- Close enough to meet in person
02What a partnership looks like in practice
Partnerships that last are small and specific. Choose one form and do it well. Offer first: before you ask for anything, say what you will do for them this month, then do it. Put the arrangement in a message so both of you remember it: what each side sends, what happens when a customer arrives, how long it runs. Check in after the first month. We have not timed how long all this takes. Count your own hours for the first three months.
- A card or flyer at each other's counter, with one clear next step
- A joint offer for people who use both businesses
- A small shared event or workshop, with a head count
- Each of you mentions the other to your own customers, in a newsletter or a story
- A 'recommended local' section on your website
03Free means no ad spend, not no time
Count it. Give every partner its own way in: a link or a page, a code, or simply ask each new customer how they found you and write the answer down. After three months, look at one line per partner: hours spent, enquiries, customers. A partnership with zero enquiries after three months does not prove the partner is at fault. The offer may be wrong, or the place. Change one thing, give it another month, then stop. We have no benchmark for how many customers a partnership brings, and any figure you read without a named source and method is a guess. You can run all of this with a link and a spreadsheet. A landing page for one joint offer falls inside the 48-hour offer, and websites cost 500 to 2,500 EUR, but you do not need one to start.
- One way in per partner: a link, a page, a code, or the question 'how did you find us?'
- One line per partner after three months: hours, enquiries, customers
- No result after three months: change one thing, wait a month, then stop
- We cite no benchmark, because we have none we can source
04What to leave out
Three things go wrong. Reviews: Google's policy bars merchants from offering payment, discounts or free goods or services in exchange for a review, and it bars content based on a conflict of interest, with employment and contractual relationships among its examples. We read a partner reviewing your business as risky for that reason. That is our reading, not Google's statement. Do not swap reviews. Customer lists: do not hand yours to a partner. Contact details are personal data, EU data protection rules apply, and we have not covered them here, so invite your own customers yourself and let the partner do the same. Money: if you agree a commission per referral, write down the amount and the rule, and ask your accountant how to record it.
- No review swaps and no discount or free service for a review
- Keep your customer list to yourself and invite your own customers
- Write down any commission, with the amount and the rule
- Ask a lawyer about data rules and your accountant about the books
05Where PROOF48 is the wrong choice
A partnership needs a person and a handshake. We cannot do that part for you, and none of our plans builds partnerships. FOUND, at 297 EUR a month, covers Google Business Profile management, local SEO for 5 target keywords, 2 AI blog posts a month, schema, a monthly ranking report, and competitor and review monitoring. That is a different channel. If your diary is full, or you want a monthly plan that does partnerships for you, skip us: the time is yours to spend. What we can do is the page a partner's customers land on, with your services, your prices and a booking link or form. A website of up to about five pages costs 500 to 2,500 EUR, is built in 48 hours and is paid for only after you see the preview.
- The conversation with a partner is yours; no PROOF48 plan does it for you
- FOUND, 297 EUR a month, is local search and Google Business Profile, not partnerships
- A busy diary or a wish to hand off the relationship: not our plan
- The part we do: the page partner customers land on, 500 to 2,500 EUR, 48 hours, paid after the preview
Nearest build: a salon page per service with a booking flow, and no partnership results to quote
None of our eight builds is a partnership programme, and we have measured no partnership results for any client. The nearest thing is SCP Shine & Style, a beauty salon on Strada Baba Novac in Sector 3, Bucharest. The case study lists a page per service, each with its own copy and media, and a booking flow pointing at the salon's live booking platform. That is the kind of destination a partner would send customers to. The case study does not say the salon runs partnerships, and we do not publish its booking counts, because we do not measure them.
See the build: SCP Shine & StyleQuestions, answered
Are local partnerships really free?
They need no ad budget. They do need your time: meetings, material, messages and follow-up. Count your hours for three months before you decide whether a partnership is worth keeping.
How many customers will a partnership bring?
We do not know. PROOF48 has no measured partnership results and no benchmark we can source, and nobody can promise a number. Track enquiries per partner for three months and decide from your own count.
Can I swap Google reviews with a partner?
Do not. Google's policy bars offering payment, discounts or free goods or services for a review, and it bars content based on a conflict of interest. Ask your real customers, all in the same way.
Does PROOF48 find partners for me?
No. Finding and meeting a partner is your job, and none of our plans does it. We build the page their customers land on.
Where PROOF48 fits
A local partnership brings customers when two businesses share the same customer at different moments, make one small specific arrangement and count the result. It costs no ad spend and a fair amount of time. Skip review swaps and customer-list swaps. PROOF48 does not run partnerships for you and has no measured results to quote, but it builds the page a partner's customers land on, in 48 hours, paid after the preview.
Cosmin Tiu · Founder, PROOF48
Cosmin has worked in online marketing and software development since 2018, and has built with AI every day since January 2023. He still writes code from scratch daily, in Python, React, Rust and C#. PROOF48 ships business websites in 48 hours and invoices afterwards, so every opinion on this blog was paid for in real builds, not in theory.