I’ve been interested lately in the health and wellness craze. So, I did some research on the Internet and found some interesting websites that provide some great information on weight loss, self-improvement, personal development, etc. Once I signed up for a company’s eNewsletter or bought some of their videos or educational DVDs, my inbox was flooded with daily emails from the various companies.
However, I noticed that they were not just pushing products from their own companies. They were promoting other companies (not competitors) but affiliate companies that sold products or services that were synergistic with their own products or services to the same target market. For example, a company selling meditation lessons would promote a therapist who sells seminars on dream building. Or a medical doctor who is selling integrative medicine might promote a nutritionist. And that nutritionist might promote a company who sells protein powders. And so on, and so on, and so on.
I realized that this type of marketing is a wonderful way to gain access to a larger database of potential buyers. It is called host-beneficiary marketing and it is a fairly inexpensive way to deliver solid results for your marketing efforts. The beneficiary (your company) instantly has access to large numbers of highly qualified prospects with the endorsement of the well-established company. You get new customers and the other company gains goodwill. It really is about separate entities selling individual products to the same community. In this case, the wellness and healthcare community. The companies are not competitors. Rather their products and services work synergistically with each other.
So, I’m encouraging all of my clients to seek out companies that provide symbiotic products and services and cross promote their products and services in their marketing promotions. Here are a few tips to remember:
1) Of course, always target your audience carefully. Don’t be vague. Be very specific about who you want to reach. The more you can segment your audience the better. And it will help you to better identify the companies you want to collaborate with.
2) Once you know who you want to reach, then target businesses that serve that market segment. For example, if you sell a brand of cosmetics, you might want to work with a salon owner to sell to his/her customer base.
3) So, now that you know who you want to reach and you have an agreement with several host companies, now what do you do? Develop a clear offer for your product or service and develop the materials for the host company to send to their database. This could be an email or an invitation to a webinar, for example.
The host-beneficiary marketing technique is a very effective way to attract new customers. It makes it easy to tap into a very targeted group of prospects. Both companies gain many benefits from this symbiotic relationship.
