Let me restate that. Have you tried “affinity marketing” yet?

Affinity marketing is marketing and promoting to a group of customers that have common interests. It usually involves getting other people or other firms to help you sell and promote your business. It can be as simple as an endorsement from one firm for another firm’s products. In exchange for this effort, the other party gets compensation or value. The effort or campaign to get other party to help is often called an “affinity program”.

An example of an affinity program would be an automobile mortgage company which markets its financial products with the endorsement of a thrift lender, which does not offer auto loans. The customers are shared and have common interests. In this relationship, the two firms promote each other’s products to a shared audience. The relationship is reciprocal.

Similar affinity programs can be created for most any business, entrepreneurial or not. Here are a few tips for setting up an affinity program:

• Establish the rules of engagement: determine who does what, what you get for doing it, and how to measure success.
• Designate a champion at your firm and at the other firm to be responsible for the success of the program.
• Treat the other firm like a customer or a member of a special team. Communicate regularly to maintain and create mind-share. Share success stories. Be generous with kudos and rewards.
• Brand the program by giving it a “mantra”, a three to four letter name. Make it easy say and spell. Make it clever and memorable. Blanket the earth with the mantra.
• Avoid affinity partners which directly compete with your firm; this can be trickier than it sounds. The risk is that the partner might decide to enter the business with you. Instead, establish non-compete agreements which discourage this behavior.
• The pay off has to be mutual or the affinity program won’t work; you need to address the question: what is in it for me?

Affinity marketing can be a very powerful method to ramp your brand awareness and sales. It can be like having two sales forces.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2006 All rights reserved.
Please visit my website at www.firstbestordifferent.com

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1 Comment
  1. Dainon Haggard

    Great examples John. I have found in my experience that Affinity Marketing is a great way to grow a business and benefit your customers. Loyalty is ever important in this economic environment. I have found that the more a company can build loyalty among their customers, the better the referral rate.

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