One of the marketing techniques I see most often among marketers, and less frequently among less-savvy ones, is known as “host parasite” or “co-op” marketing.

What is parasite-host marketing? It just sounds… negative, doesn’t it? Well, actually it’s not. It is simply a business that uses the resources of another business to generate sales. If you want to do that, you also have to give something back to the “host”.

Probably the most common and effective form of host and parasite marketing is a simple referral/referral fee relationship. Business X has a large mailing list of people who are likely to benefit from using Business Y’s services. Company Y asks Company X to send out an email to their customers by recommending them and providing a short ad in exchange for a percentage of the profits generated by the letter. If Business X has carefully chosen its parasite, then the letter serves it in two ways: it provides an additional service to its customers at no cost, and it generates revenue from each sale. This can be hugely profitable for the host and is one of the reasons mailing lists are such a valuable resource for market-savvy businesses.

It’s just as good for the Business Y parasite. Business Y has very cheap access to a (possibly) large pool of potential customers along with a recommendation that pretty much ensures you get a favorable read. You can carefully control your marketing expenses while closely monitoring the profitability of the company.

And it’s good for customers, who have been identified with a potential need and provided with a trusted source of solution.

The trick, of course, is to identify your potential customer needs and build a suitable relationship with another trusted business. These are things that a good marketing campaign will take into account when laying out its business strategy anyway.