Businesses have dozens of ways to market to new customers, but what actually works? Most marketing strategies work for most businesses. However, relationship marketing will bring in more prospects and close more sales. (If you’re looking for nitty-gritty tactics, this article might help you.)
Balance The Message And The Media In Your Marketing
One of the major issues I see with marketing is people asking the wrong questions, like, “How do I make Facebook marketing work?” or “How can I get an automated direct mail campaign working?” Those are not the right questions because they only focus on the medium; where you’re marketing isn’t as important as what you’re marketing.
The key to relationship marketing is to care about your message and how you’re connecting with your customer. Then, use the media that will best allow that marketing to find customers for whatever your product or service is.
And don’t just choose to use the cool, shiny new thing. This is often done solely for vanity or purely out of ignorance. Glossy, corporate images make everyone think all businesses are big, even if they’re actually a one-person show operating in a basement. But is this the kind of marketing people respond to?
What’s working now is being real, being human, and connecting.
Think about the time we live in right now. We are all isolated on some level, surely more than normal. We lack the entertainment options we normally have. The media tells us we’re a divided nation. Every day, we hear about polarizing positions on politics, science, the environment, COVID-19, crime, education, etc. It goes on and on.
Find A Way Past Division
That begs the question: If this is what we’re being fed all day every day, how does it affect your relationship marketing strategy? You can approach it in different ways.
You can go with the masses, stake a claim on one of the divides, and push. In my opinion, unless your product or service is specifically applicable to an issue, I think that is a very bad marketing strategy. You will get lost in the noise, and it’s unlikely that all your prospects and customers will agree with you.
The second and more powerful relationship marketing strategy is to give your customers and prospects what they’re missing right now. And most people are missing a number of things, none of which are divisive:
#1 Personal Connection:
This is powerful. People want to build relationships and work with real people. They want to live vicariously through you. They want to know you and your business and connect with you. The personal connection is more powerful than ever — if you can get a readership.
#2 Entertainment:
With the lockdown in varying stages around the country, people are bored. They want entertainment, and they want to learn something new or interesting. Creative relationship marketing can provide that.
#3 Hope:
People want 2021 to be better, and they want things to go back to normal. Give it to them. Be positive and show them how to make their lives better and grow personally and professionally.
#4 Quality Information:
People don’t want useful but incomplete information; they want something that helps them. They want answers to questions. In common marketing, too many people offer prospects little value but expect them to take all the risks. That just doesn’t work.If prospects feel like you care and can help them, and you make them laugh and connect with them, then you will get more customers and close more sales. Relationship marketing may seem simple, but so few do it. Be the exception, not the rule. Go right when everyone else is going left. This is where you can find success.
