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Affinity Marketing: Move your business upward in a downward economy
Some things rarely, if ever, change no matter what the economy is doing. The key to surviving, even benefiting from a down economy is to get business from those who support ongoing needs within your community, whether customers are local or online.
Consider the organizations that depend on donations to deliver the vital services they provide for their communities. These typically suffer the most during a recession, as discretionary dollars grow scarce. Your business can benefit from the shortfall caused by a down economy by offering to donate a modest percentage of your sales to causes people care about.
This strategy is known as affinity marketing. There are numerous ways you can manage an affinity marketing program, there are even companies that will manage one for you, but the key is to publicize the fact that you are doing it. There are many ways to reach constituents of these organizations and in most cases the organization itself will inform their supporters through their established channels of communication.
Just think about the huge number of people in your community that are affiliated with organizations of this nature: There are parents of school children (schools always need more money, as they are some of the first to feel the effects of a recession); churches with large memberships; humane societies, environmental groups, Rotary clubs, community based health causes, and volunteer organizations.
In short any organization with a membership or close constituency of supporters is an ideal group of potential customers for your business.
As for managing your affinity marketing program, you can easily find companies that provide these services. Here is a short list of well-established companies that can help you manage your program:
Nietech Corporation
Help Worldwide, Inc.
Vesdia Corporation
Augeo
You can expand your options by searching Google for “Loyalty Transaction Processing”, “affinity marketing”, or “Loyalty Systems”.
Tags: affinity marketing, marketing