Relationship Marketing and Customer Loyalty
Marketing Mondays with Marci B.
Losing customers can be an expensive headache for business owners. One of the most efficient ways to eliminate customer churn is through relationship marketing. According to Marketing-Schools.org, "Relationship marketing is about forming long-term relationships with customers. Rather than trying to encourage a one-time sale, relationship marketing tries to foster customer loyalty by providing exemplary products and services. This is different than most normal advertising practices that focus on a single transaction; watch ad A and buy product B. Relationship marketing, by contrast, is usually not linked to a single product or offer. It involves a company refining the way they do business in order to maximize the value of that relationship for the customer."
I started my professional career in sales, and a popular saying in the industry was "Think Lifetime Customer". An abbreviation for that is TLC, which is also a popular expression for Tender Loving Care. During my time in marketing and sales I have learned that Thinking Lifetime Customer begins with taking Tender Loving Care of your customer's needs at all times. When all things are equal or even similar between you and the competition, the customer relationship becomes the tie-breaker.
Here are a few tips to make sure you are taking advantage of relationship marketing to ensure customer loyalty.
Technology
- CRM and Marketing Automation software are both great options for implementing relationship marketing. CRM databases allow you to collect pertinent information on clients that will be useful for future communications. Combining information such as birthday or anniversary with contact details allows for more personal communications. Marketing automation gives you a multimedia platform to share relevant content that will keep customers interested in your brand.
- Email marketing provides an opportunity for you to improve the customer relationship. Paying special attention to small details such as addressing the customer by first name or sending them sales that are specific to items they purchase most often are effective ways to build customer loyalty.
- Social Media is a great way to share information with your customers and show them that you are easily accessible. Most customers use social media as a forum to brag and complain about customer service. If your business offers a product or service that could end up on a review site, make sure you monitor those regularly and respond to customers in a timely manner.
- Loyalty Programs offer customers incentives to customers for repeat purchases. You can find loyalty programs on everything from books to shoes to travel. Customers love to save money, and will often shop first at the place where they can earn loyalty points that can be redeemed for discounts, cash back or even free items.
- Consistency is key when you are building customer loyalty through relationship marketing. Customers should be able to depend on a standard of quality from your business, and it should be consistent regardless of whomever they speak with, the media or the form of communication. This consistency is developed through company policy, training and customer feedback.
- Mystery Shopping is a great way to find out if your employees really are offering the experience to customers that you expect. Mystery shopping is popular with large companies, but small benefits looking to compete with major brands can also benefit from hiring mystery shopping companies. Mystery shoppers will blend into your establishment like any other customer, and provide a detailed report of their interaction with your employee. Mystery shopping reports provide great coaching opportunities for your staff as well as offer insight on what exactly your customers are looking for.
Further Reading:
http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/definition/relationship-marketing
https://www.pm360online.com/the-ins-and-outs-of-relationship-marketing/
http://www.marketing-schools.org/types-of-marketing/relationship-marketing.html#link3
http://www.forbes.com/sites/marketshare/2013/05/09/this-is-the-most-important-word-when-it-comes-to-...
Photo Credit
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Consider the different types of customers you have or want, and how their needs for your product may differ.
Creating buyer personas and tailoring messages to each customer segment will help you increase conversions, reduce churn and increase brand loyalty.
Despite many options for digital marketing, email remains a fundamental part of any campaign. Email marketing is one of the easiest ways to get your content directly to traffic you own,
whether your message is promotional or conversational. You can easily share information such as corporate updates, sales, product launches, free downloads and more.
Key Performance Indicators are aligned with high-level business goals, ensuring that marketing efforts contribute to overall business success. In order to have proper marketing KPI, you should also have a business plan, as it is the main reference point for indications of marketing KPI.
Every business owner has to invest to acquire new customers. Maximize your opportunity to interact with excited customers who already have their credit cards in hand. Recommend other products to enhance your customer's buying journey and increase your return on investment for customer acquisition costs by upselling customers with impulse buying.
Many companies spend money on advertising but fail to benefit from a profitable return on their investment. They lose prospective customers when they fail to provide a funnel for nurturing leads. The two biggest pitfalls for an advertising campaign are tracking results and converting leads. Landing pages give customer more information specific to their promotion of interest and capture customer information.
Today's customers are bombarded with marketing messages all day, every day. They have learned to easily tune out traditional advertising such as radio and television by changing the station or choosing commercial-free stations. In
a digital age where everyone wants information at their fingertips but no one actually wants to be "sold", how does the business owner connect to an audience to give them information on demand without being "salesy"?
Marketing and advertising are terms that get easily confused or misunderstood.
Advertising is an element of marketing, but it does not encompass how broad marketing can be.
A common mistake is developing a marketing plan that only consists of advertising. A true marketing strategy impacts many departments including product development, research, sales, customer service, operations and more.
Traditionally, creating an ad for television costs customers thousands of dollars for production and distribution. Cable providers and streaming sites are offering customers the option to remove or fast-forward commercials. Mobile devices, tablets, and the growing popularity of new media has given business owners the unique opportunity to produce distribute video for little to no cost. Technology, editing software and video-based websites have made it easier than ever for businesses to create and share videos. According to HubSpot.com : 2016 saw a surge in the popularity of video as a content marketing format. From 360-degree videos to Facebook Live , marketers are responding to audiences' shorter attention spans by making content more interactive and visual -- and it's paying off. Video is growing to dominate your audience's online activity: 78% of people watch videos online every week, and 55% watch videos online every day. If you don't already have a video marketing strategy in place for your website and social media, you're missing a tremendous opportunity to reach and engage with your audience. Consumers are bombarded with marketing messages all day long, and as a result have become increasingly impatient when it comes to advertising. Videos are a quick way to share lots of information. They let you communicate through words, images and motion all at once. You can even include typography and imagery to insert things like websites and logos. According to Dan Griego with Video Editing Sage , there are five main uses for video. Corporate Webinars Company Culture Videos Event Videos Video PowerPoint Presentations Sales and Marketing Online Marketing Videos Promotional Videos Testimonial Videos Giveaways Videos Product Videos Information Training Videos Video Tips Series Animated Explainer Videos Educational Videos Entertainment Music Videos Travel Videos Documentary Videos Legacy Videos News Digital (Online) Journalism videos Interview Videos Video PSAs (Public Service Announcements) Here are a few different styles of video to consider: Animation: Uses illustrations and special effects. Often used for corporate branding, entertainment or information. Presentation: Uses presentation software such as PowerPoint for creation. Often used for education, sales and news. Photo Collage: Uses photographs with transitions and narrations. Often used for entertainment and news. Motion Picture: Uses video footage to create video, may include narration and photographs. Most used style of video. For more information on how to integrate video into your marketing strategy, contact Marci B. Marketing & Management at 248-838-9458 or marci@marcibmarketing.com Further reading: http://www.videoeditingsage.com/types-of-video-productions.html https://blog.hubspot.com/ marketing /2017-year-of- video - marketing http://www.huffingtonpost.com/swati-joshi/why- video - marketing -is-th_b_9230342.html https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2017/02/03/ video - marketing -the-future-of-content- marketing /#6e0422c86b53 https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/5-secrets-super-successful- video - marketing https://www.forbes.com/sites/ajagrawal/2017/02/01/lights-camera-engagement-2017-is-the-year-of- video - marketing /#692848832315 https://www.wirebuzz.com/video-marketing-trends-2017/ https://www.martechadvisor.com/articles/ video - marketing -ads/4-predictions-for- video - marketing -in-2017/ https://blog.bufferapp.com/video-marketing http://www.socialmediatoday.com/marketing/7-video-marketing-trends-2017-and-what-they-mean-you
