Today, I want to educate you about affinity group marketing and teach you how you can leverage affinity groups to grow your network marketing business. Keep in mind that this advice will apply to any entrepreneur, not just network marketers.
Affinity group marketing is a smart way to build your network marketing business. It’s fun, easy to do, and very effective. The idea has been around for a long time, but very few people use it. In the paragraphs below, I want to teach you everything I know about affinity group marketing, so you can decide for yourself if it is a good option for you.
What Is Affinity Group Marketing?
Affinity group marketing is simply the process of focusing your prospecting, marketing and advertising on a specific group of people. An affinity group is a group of people that have something in common with each other. Examples of affinity groups include retirees, veterans, baby boomers and small business owners. In a perfect world, you would be a member of the same affinity group that you are marketing to, so you understand how they think and you know what types of things interest them.
Affinity marketing is a concept that consists of a partnership between a company (supplier) and an organization that gathers persons sharing the same interests to bring a greater consumer base to their service, product or opinion. This partnership is known as an affinity group. ~ Wikipedia
Why Should You Use It?
From my own personal experience, I’ve found that it’s much easier to connect with someone who has something in common with you than someone who doesn’t have anything in common with you. This gives you an easy “entry” into a conversation with them because you have common ground. Without the common ground you are complete strangers.
You have to remember that people typically do business with people they know, like and trust. When you have similar interests with your prospects, it’s much easier and faster to get them to know you, like you and trust you.
The greatest strength of an affinity marketing campaign might be how customizable it is. There are hundreds of affinity groups and target markets for companies to introduce themselves to, and with the right campaign, these strategies are largely successful. ~ Marketing-Schools.org
How to Do It Effectively
My best advice would be target your marketing and advertising on affinity groups that you are familiar with and understand. One of the reasons I focus on other network marketers, small business owners and military folks is because I have experience with each of those groups. I know how they think, what types of challenges they deal with on a day-to-day basis, and what type of solutions they are looking for.
To do affinity group marketing effectively, you should pick a group of people that you understand. You don’t have to, but it sure makes things a lot easier.
Your goal is to be a solution provider. Since you know how these people think you are going to offer solutions to their problems. For example, if your affinity group is people who own an RV, you can position your business as a way for them to travel and have good tax deductions from it. If your affinity group is stay at home moms, you can market your “safe” products as a way to create a “toxic free” home for their family.
If your market is baby boomers, and you market weight loss products, you can offer a healthy retirement, an extra income during retirement, or even a social club for retirees. The options really are endless when it comes to affinity group marketing.
Examples of Affinity Groups
Here are a few example affinity groups, just to get you thinking.
- Stay at home moms
- Small Business Owners
- Bloggers
- RV Owners
- Military
- Veterans
- Golfers
- Divorcees
- Accountants
- People from the same college
- People from the same fraternity or sorority
- People in a specific profession
- Civic groups
- Baby Boomers
- Dog Owners
- Cat Owners
- Retirees
How to Get Started and Do It Right
If this idea makes sense to you, and you are just getting started, I would suggest you start out by brainstorming 10-20 affinity groups that you belong to. Once you’ve done that whittle your list down to your favorite three choices. From there, make a list of problems and challenges that people in each group deal with on a daily basis.
Next, brainstorm ideas or ways that your product, service or business opportunity can be a solution to their problems. Once you’ve done that, you need to determine the best way to reach people in the group. Are you going to:
- Join a local networking group
- Purchase a mailing list for direct mail
- Advertise on websites in that niche
- Create YouTube videos for people in the niche
- Find online newsletters, ezines, and forums for people in your niche
- Reach them through pay per click advertising
I suggest you pick one method to reach people in your specified affinity group. From there you will need to come up with your marketing message.
I suggest you use a two step selling process in this situation. Give away free “information” for people in your affinity group, such as an eBook or white paper, and then promote that. Send people to a capture page or toll free number to request the free information and then have a good follow up process.
Keep in mind you are not leading with your business opportunity or products. You want to lead with the free information because it will attract MORE prospects. You can let your free information and follow up emails/mail introduce people to your business opportunity and products. Does that make sense?
Final Thoughts
The bottom line is that affinity group marketing is a smart way to build your network marketing business. Everyone has several affinity groups that they belong to. By following the advice in this post you now have step by step instructions on what to do.
What are your thoughts? Have you ever tried affinity group marketing before to grow your MLM Business? If so, leave a comment below to let me know what you think. I look forward to hearing from you.
Chuck Holmes
20+ Year Network Marketing Professional
Top Earner & Top Recruiter
Email: mrchuckholmes@gmail.com
P.S. Learn how to grow a successful network marketing business. Secret tips, training, and practical ideas. Free training delivered by email.
Great concept. As you said, the idea can be applied in any type of business. For example, in affiliate marketing, when you pick a niche (or topic) that you are interested in or have knowledge of, it’s easier for you to write content that makes sense and that is helpful to the reader. Better yet, if you know a lot about your area of interest, you can position yourself as an expert and you’ll be even more successful.
But I’ve never thought that it can be applied in network marketing, very helpful piece of advice.
Glad I could help.
It is best to target an affinity group you are familiar with. When you understand the group you can better formulate a strategy for reaching them. It just makes so much more sense than trying to learn about an entirely new group and then create a strategy to reach them. Affinity group marketing really reminds me of the whole, “work smarter, not harder” motto.
Yes, you definitely want to target affinity groups that you are familiar with so you can have something in common with them.
Affinity group marketing as you explain it here makes good sense!
I have been guilty, as have many other network marketers of trying to attract anyone and everyone. When using this system, we can use the terminology that fits the group. We also know what makes them “tick.”
I wanted to add to your post and say that it is a great idea to keep statistics too. If the marketing technique you are using for the affinity group you are going after, you may need to tweek a few things until the sign ups come.
It is all about the list, and capturing emails is the first priority. Offering the opportunity should be in the follow up.
Great post Chuck.
Yes, this is a simple strategy that anyone can use.
Another great part about Affinity Marketing is: you do not have to develop multiple advertising ideas to fit different groups of people. When a person is going after anyone and everyone, they either have to make generic ads that are not focused on any type of group, or they have to make multiple ads that go after the different groups. I believe if we focus on one group, we can develop our marketing methods to fit them and in the long run it will work out great.
I don’t think many people consider this, but Affinity Marketing makes very good sense. I believe this can be true for any type of business, not just network marketing.
I agree. It’s much easier to make a connection with someone you have something in common with.