Affinity Marketing, Part I — continued

by Doug McDonald President, Branch Run Communications [December 20, 2004]

If you can offer better value, you can charge even more, raising your profit margin. You'll need to decide whether to throw in all the frills and charge a single high end price or to offer value-added services à la carte.

Your goal is a sliding discount schedule that gives back a greater portion of the gross revenues of your higher margin value added services, encouraging users to spend more, thus allowing you to generate more net revenues for both yourself as well as for the benefiting association or charity. This is where that in depth analysis of each component becomes extremely important.

You have done that already, right?

Once you've got that taken care of, you'll need to create a list of prospective groups to approach. Charity begins at home—or so goes the expression. Home is where you start. Local associations, local charities, or at least locally managed chapters of national groups. Start local; grow national, if you can.

Remember that it doesn't even need to be a charity. It can be a hobby group or association, perhaps one that you or a friend or family member are involved with. I have a warning however, for you: when you make your hobby your business, it will cease to be your hobby and become your job.

Becoming the ISP of your local group makes you more than a member of that group—now you're a service provider. Any problems are your problems, and most gains and advantages will be gains made by the group, with you as a minor contributor to that success at most. Don't take it personally. Just be happy that you're helping the group meet their needs and making some money along the way.

Once you've done the background work to prepare a recommended overall deal structure and some specific packages to offer, it's time to make your pitch. Selling your service to requires a multi-pronged approach similar to selling into any large organization or corporation.

Know your group
You will need to identify who the players are, because while there is likely to be one that can get you into the meeting and champion your offering, you will need to meet the requirements of a larger group of people all with different needs, wants and visions. Addressing the financial benefits alone is unlikely to get you very far in most organizations, but it will certainly get you some attention and may be exactly what you need to get your first foot in the door.

Being prepared to address the benefits beyond revenue generation will be what keeps you in that room. Address the communication needs of the membership chairperson or group, stressing the collaborative abilities of Web services to the social committee members as well as the marketing and advertising benefits of an increased Internet presence. This will gain you the interest and ultimately the support of the association as a whole.

Being prepared to demonstrate cost savings and gains in efficiency in addition to the top line revenue opportunity will secure you the interest of a larger percentage of the Executive or Management Committee, and improve your chances at success.

Tune in for more
Ideas and examples of the pitch, and the presentation will be the focus of Part II, coming soon. Until then, from my family to yours, best wishes for the holidays and for a Happy, healthy and profitable New Year.

—End

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