Affinity marketing is a direct marketing approach where two organizations partner with each other to provide new offerings out of their existing complementary products and services in order to boost branding and revenue.
When it is done the right way, the affinity marketing program helps each of the companies involved to boost customer loyalty, get new customers by exposure to the new partner’s audience and grow their revenue immediately.
In order for affinity marketing campaigns to work effectively there must be complementary products, services, events or brands. There are many examples of this marketing strategy in campaigns where business organizations partner with charity organizations, non-profit organizations, sports teams and events, etc.
When you are offered to open a new credit card in your grocery store – that’s an example of affinity marketing partnership between your grocery store and the bank. The bank might want to increase its market share and boost its branding while your grocery store may look to increase customer loyalty by offering you a reward program with your new credit card. The same marketing approach is used by hotels and airlines when partnering with financial institutions.
The parties in affinity marketing programs expect certain leverage and specific benefits. Here are some examples:
- Companies expect to add additional value for their existing customers by promoting additional products and services which strengthens their current offerings
- Companies expect to acquire new customers out of their partner’s existing customer base (this is a direct exposure to new targeted audience)
- Companies expect to generate immediate boost in their revenues by offering new targeted types of products and services
The key issue in planning and execution of an effective affinity partnership is to find the right partner with complementary offerings and access to your target market audience.
There are many organizations offering complementary products and services for your business however they don’t necessary make a good potential affinity partner. You need to be very careful in the process of selecting the right partners.
This type of campaigns and programs demand creative ideas and approaches from marketers. Since two partners offer complementary value there are various ways to structure the offerings for the customers.
Coming up with an effective offer that leverages the two partners and maximizes value for the end customer or consumer should be the overall goal for the marketers.
The proper execution requires allocated resources to this program and the efforts, investments as well as the results must be measured in order to evaluate these types of campaigns for your business.
How affinity marketing should be measured?
Just like any other direct marketing campaign the ROI can be easily quantified and measured. This would help your company improve its marketing and sales tactics and activities for any similar future campaigns.
The good news is that similar to any other direct response campaigns affinity partnership campaigns are simple and easy to measure. Depending on your specific expectations, goals and objectives, come up with the right metrics for your campaigns and analyze your performance.