Here is a Step-by-Step Guide to develop your Host Beneficiary Marketing campaign:
Host-beneficiary marketing is a great low cost strategy and fairly simple technique that will help you gain new customers. Before we move into the steps let’s review a few key concepts.
Key Concepts:
Why should I define a target or customer group?
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Defining a target customer group allows you to narrow your focus and conserves valuable time and resources to be used on potential customers who have the best potential to become a good fit for the products and or services you offer. These well defined targeted customer groups are also sometimes referred to as your ideal customer.
How can I define a target customer group?
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To define a target customer group use Demographic and Psychographic segmentation.
Demographic Resources
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Census Bureau data http://www.census.gov/data.html
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Bureau of Labor Statistics http://www.bls.gov/
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American Fact Finder http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml
What is the difference between Demographic and Psychographic segmentation?
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Demographics is a consideration of the quantitative makeup of a population. This helps us determine quantifiable subsets of a population. Some demographic considerations include; Age, Gender, Education, Geography, Income, Mobility, Race and Ethnicity.
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Also consider the Psychographic Segmentation of your customer which are qualitative lifestyle considerations like values, interests, attitudes and traits. These lifestyle considerations help you understand where to meet your customer by understanding what’s most important to them. For example if you are in the shoe sales industry and have a line of cross training shoes thru some research you may learn your target customer group is most commonly also concerned about the kind of foods they eat so you would develop a host beneficiary marketing campaigns with host businesses where healthy living products and services are the predominant offering.
Answering these questions are the steps to create your Host Beneficiary Marketing campaign strategy.
To answer question one and two about your target audience consider Demographic and Psychographic Segmentation using your available information and the resources noted above.
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Who is your target audience?
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Be as precise as possible defining your target audience. “Men 35 to 55” might be a start, but it’s likely not good enough. You need to create a detailed profile of your target customer. The more precise you are the easier it will be to find potential hosts and generate quick results.
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Where is the best places to meet my customer?
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Once you have established a clear understanding of your target audience it’s time to consider host business organizations that may be serving the same target audience.
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What other businesses are serving this same customer group or segment?
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When considering these businesses also consider the accessibility of necessary decision makers. For example large box national brand retailers will be more difficult to connect with key decision makers versus privately owned local business operators.
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What can I offer as a value ad consideration “gift” that will benefit my business and the Host business?
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Develop a clear offer for each prospective partner. Your offer could be a free or deeply discounted product or service that has a high perceived value for the consumer with a low cost for you. In most cases a $50 discount on a $500 item is not going to cut it.
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Talk to the host business who will become your partner and convey the value of the relationship. For example you will help them understand that this is a great no expense way to reward their customers and how this will take very little effort.
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Take action and implement quickly. You can give the host business gift certificates or providing a draft “offer” via email, or a letter that the host can transfer to their letterhead and then share with customers. This will help your host partner to see how easy the process will be as well as help them put the plan into motion quickly.
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How will I most effectively develop good relationships with potential customers as well as communicate our business offerings when prospects arrive with the special offer?
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Develop a strategy to convert first time customers to repeat customers. This, after all, should be your long-term goal. The strategy is to get new customers at little or no upfront cost, and then getting them to come back and patronize you again and again- which should be easy if their first time experience with you was pleasant.
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Track your results to assess your ROI and ways you can revise for even better results on your next Host Beneficiary Campaign.
