Teaming up with like-minded people and organisations can be a great way to build your business. It’s called affinity partnering – and here’s how it works.

An affinity partnership is when a company gives greater value to existing customers by promoting products and services it doesn’t normally sell. For example, if you run an activity travel agency, you could team up with a brand of walking shoe and recommend the product with your holidays.

The product supplier then benefits from tapping into new customer databases, so broadening its reach, and enjoying cut-price advertising and easy income. They will then direct traffic back to you by including your details in their literature, on their website, or in face-to-face discussions, recommending your services when their customers are preparing for the walking holiday. It’s all about boosting each other’s business through complementary services – not taking any trade away.

You may also have heard of affiliate marketing, which is similar in spirit but is specifically defined as an internet-based marketing practice where a business gives financial rewards to affiliates for each visitor or customer brought to their site. It works by monitoring click-throughs and traffic.

‘Traditionally, this is an online arrangement but it can work offline, too,’ says Chris Lake, editor in chief of digital marketing portal Econsultancy. ‘You could run an offline book club and make a commission on books you sell. The future of affiliate marketing may actually be offline, as online marketing is starting to plateau.’

Whichever avenue you choose, here are some tips on collaborating with the right partner.

1. Consult a Business Collaboration Network
The Government’s Solutions for Business (opens in a new window) portfolio provides Business Collaboration Networks where you can work with other businesses to develop opportunities you may not be able to achieve on your own. For example, if you want to sell travel insurance through your travel agency you could source a suitable insurance company to work with.

2. Make an informed decision
You need to make sure your prospective partner is reliable, otherwise the partnership will reflect badly on your own professionalism. Do your research and check how established they are. Are they still developing their proposition? How much experience do they have? How efficient are they? Do they have the capacity to manage increased volume and fulfil additional orders if the partnership yields good results?

3. Be sure the brand fits
It’s essential your selection of affinity partner fits perfectly with your own mission statement and brand identity otherwise it’ll weaken your proposition. Look closely at your prospective partner’s mission statement, business practices and philosophies. Likewise, they will have to be convinced that you’ll make a good partner for them, so make sure your pitch shows how you can benefit them as well.

4. Don’t pick a competitor
Affinity marketing isn’t about getting hold of your competitor’s customer base, but you do need to make sure that the company you’re partnering with targets a similar audience. It’s about supporting each other’s business through complementary services without taking any trade away from each other.

5. Agree on marketing plans
Apart from raising your own profile, this approach to marketing will make life easier for your existing customers. If you sell customised bicycles, most of your customers will want to know about the best cycle routes, so partnering with a site that lists them will save them time and give them the information they need. Presenting your partners in your marketing communications as your way of offering extra benefits to customers will reflect well on you. It’s important you collaborate with your partners when planning marketing arrangements.

6. Negotiate a contract
Establish the terms and conditions of your affinity partnership at the outset. You may have created a network of partners, all offering different but complementary services, so you need to make sure all the players are happy with the arrangement. When you take a new partner on board, do you automatically link them to any existing ones, or do they need to have a conversation first to check they’re happy to be part of the affinity network? If there’s money involved (a fee for each new contact or sale, for instance), a contract is essential.

Made for each other – five examples of effective affinity partnerships:

• Farfetch.com (opens in a new window)
  This is a one-stop-shop for independent European fashion boutiques, sourcing exciting designers and labels while maintaining the unique personality of each boutique. Farfetch.com says its policy is not to partner with just any boutique – ‘only the very best.’ It sells collections from Paris, London, Florence and Copenhagen, and is successful thanks to its eye for quality and wide-reaching fashion portfolio.
   
• ithinkmusic.com (opens in a new window)
  This is a music site where record labels, artists and retailers can create and sell a catalogue of music from their own customised store. They can also sell other people’s music from their store and get a cut of the profits, while the artist gets the remainder. What’s more, the seller’s music can be sold on by other stores, and the same profit split applies. It’s important to make buying and selling music online easy – all too many people download files for free – and this system is simple to use, and shares the profits fairly.
   
• Etsy (opens in a new window)
  Etsy is an online marketplace for buying and selling handmade products. ‘Our mission is to enable people to earn a living making things, and to reconnect makers with buyers,’ says the company, so they have found partners that provide products, which are all handmade and one of a kind. This affinity network really works because all the creators share common philosophies and goals.
   
• Women Traveling Together (opens in a new window)
  This website brings together women who want to travel but don’t want to do it alone. The site features a list of recommended affinity partners that include clothes, hotels, useful blogs and travel planning guides. Users trust the site and so trust its recommendations.
   
• MBNA Europe Breakthrough Breast Cancer credit card (opens in a new window)
  Credit card giant MBNA teamed up with Breakthrough Breast Cancer so the charity receives an amount of money when the card is first used, for every year the card is active, and a percentage of every purchase made on the card. This means the charity can benefit from MBNA’s resources and the bank can capitalise on Breakthrough Breast Cancer’s brand credibility. MBNA has similar deals with other charities including the RSPCA and WWF.

• How this eco-friendly entrepreneur chose the right partners.
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