“Play the long game” and “It’s a marathon, not a sprint” are common phrases we have all heard. In the marketing world, traditional marketing focuses on acquiring new clients and sales. But the “long game” is relationship marketing, which cultivates existing customer relationships to create a loyal, long-term base. The focus is on building repeat business through brand loyalty. Think retention vs. acquisition.
Why is relationship marketing critical to your brand?
Research has shown that revenue may be increased by as much as 25-95% with as little as a five percent increase in customer retention,
When you cultivate your existing relationships and develop a loyal following, those customers will refer their friends and family. This saves you time and money. Word-of-mouth is free marketing, making your loyal customers great brand ambassadors.
While the focus of relationship marketing is retaining customers, “Good relationship marketing should appeal to the random viewer as powerfully as it appeals to your long-term customers.” writes Caroline Forsey in this Hubspot blog. Ensure your customers can grow with you over time.
Here are five tips she offers for a successful relationship marketing strategy:
Focus on personalized customer-service.
Meet your customers where they are.
Offer incentive and rewards for customer loyalty.
Create valuable content that tells a compelling story.
Collect feedback regularly.
The brand-customer relationship takes time to build and work to maintain. Market to your customer by getting to know your customer. Keep things fresh. Offer new content and diversify both your content and your platforms.
Customer loyalty is hard-earned. Play the long game to score the most points.
Without a defined marketing strategy, a company runs the risk of chasing marketing tactics that might not work. It’s tempting to chase every trend or try to do #allthethings. But it’s far better to focus on executing a few things right than to try to do everything and accomplishing nothing.
Take a step back and give some serious thought towards your marketing strategy.
Strategy First
The terms strategy and tactics are frequently used interchangeably but they are not the same thing. A company’s strategy will define the marketing tactics they should use, not the other way around.
At the core of every marketing strategy are five things: goals, a value proposition, target audience, competition and your marketing messages.
Goals Choose goals that are SMART, or Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely. Having SMART goals keeps you and your team accountable.
Here are some examples of SMART goals:
Grow e-newsletter list to 50,000 subscribers by the end of the year.
Increase website traffic by 50% with SEO and content efforts.
Convert and capture at least 1,000 leads over the next three months.
Value Proposition What value does your product or service bring to your customers? How is your company different from your competitors?
Target Markets “Everyone” is not a target. Think about the annual income of your target customer, where they hang out online, age or stage of life, what industries they work in, education level, and their motivations for buying your product.
For B2B customers, this may look slightly different. What is the annual revenue of your target client? Who makes the purchasing decisions for the product or service that you sell?
Competition Identify and know the competition. Run a competitive analysis and/or create a competitive profile matrix. Know what your company is doing that is both different and better than the competition. Define your competitive advantage.
Marketing Messages Your marketing messages should be tailored to all your target markets. A message directed at a CTO of a Fortune 500 company will look different than a message for the CMO of a tech startup. Adjust your messaging accordingly.
Tactics Second
Now we get to play in my sandbox, marketing tactics. Here are a few tactics to consider:
Social Media I’m surprised by how many businesses are still wary of using social media to promote their organizations. If you don’t think that your target customer is on social media, check out these stats from the Pew Research Center:
69% of U.S. adults use Facebook. And its not just for kids anymore – among Americans 65 and older, almost half use Facebook.
73% of U.S. adults use YouTube. YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world behind Google.
A quarter of U.S. adults use LinkedIn. The growing network is a great place for B2B marketing leads, growing thought leadership, and finding your next employee.
So, basically, if your ideal customer or employee is breathing, it’s time to pick a social media channel or two and start getting social.
Influencers If you can’t build a huge audience, then buy it: this is the thinking behind influencer marketing. But, the right influencer for your company doesn’t have to necessarily have the biggest following to be effective.
Influencer marketing isn’t just for lifestyle products like makeup or the latest diet fad. Check out how this welding products company created their own influencer program.
Video More than 50% of consumers want to see videos from brands – more than any other type of content. There are many different types of videos a company could create: demo videos, expert interviews, explainer videos, and list goes on.
It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day demands of your company. Most entrepreneurs are too busy working “in” their business to work “on” their business. But, don’t you think its time to work on your business?
