The Host Business Marketing Strategy
For online businesses and especially brick and mortar stores that have an online presence, finding new customers can be a difficult task even in the best of times. While traditional internet marketing tactics can bring in a base of customers, there are still a substantial number that you will even with the best efforts you put forth.
However, there is one tried and true marketing strategy that has worked for decades in finding new customers, the host-business marketing strategy. This particular tactic is one that can build up your profits by finding customers who otherwise might overlook your marketing efforts.
What is the Host-Business Marketing Strategy?
Basically, this is where you find another business that is different than yours, but has the same target audience. Once you find that business, you contact the owner and offer to provide one of your products or services as part of their sales program. This is especially effective if the other business deals in higher priced merchandise such as electronics, car dealerships, jewelry and so forth.
For example, for every particular type of vehicle that is sold, the customer will get a free item or huge discount from your company. All they have to do is drop by your store or website to pick it up. While this can work for online-only businesses, it is especially effective for brick and mortar stores that want to pull in more customers.
The customer then takes comes into your store and picks up the product. Quite often, they will also shop around at your store and buy more items, but the effect is even greater than that as your business brand is being built up considerably.
How to Initiate the Host-Business Marketing Strategy
In order to get this strategy working for your business, there are a few things that you need to accomplish first.
Find your Target Audience: You will need to know exactly the main type of customers that shop at your store. This means understanding their general age range and gender for a start, but any additional information is important to knowing who your products and services will appeal.
Locate Businesses with the Same Target Audience: Once you know who buys at your store, then you can see where else they shop. From this, you can then identify the best type of businesses for your needs.
Pick a High Level Host Business: Car dealerships are always a good start since different target audiences prefer different types of vehicles. By identifying the car dealership that sells the type of vehicles that appeals to your target audience, then you should choose the one that best suits your needs.
Make an Offer They Can’t Refuse: Basically, you will need to make a formal offer of one of your products that they can then use to sell their items. Such incentives are a “win-win” for both you and the host business because they are offering something that cost them nothing to sell their items while you can reap the benefits of having new customers come into your store.
The host-business marketing strategy can really work for your business if you do a little research, find your target audience and where they shop.