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   RELATIONSHIP MARKETING

The Key To Business Growth Is In Managing More Relationships.

To understand relationship marketing you must first acknowledge the fundamental truths that:

1.  Business is all about relationships.
2.  Relationships are based on communication.

Therefore, the key to growing a relationship based business is managing more relationships. And the key to managing more relationships is better and more frequent communication across all levels of contacts.

Effective relationship marketing is dependent on your ability to consistently communicate to a wide audience with differing interests and needs; with relevance and in a tone that reflects your existing level of familiarity. These communications must be relevant, valuable and actionable.

  • Relevant - First and foremost, the topic of conversation must be appropriate to the recipient or the message will likely be deemed irrelevant and may even elicit feelings of irritation, resentment or contempt. At the very least irrelevant messages will be considered valueless.
  • Valuable - At a minimum the message should relate to challenges that your customers and prospects face now or are likely to face in the future when it comes to purchasing or using your services Your messages must provide important information that they may not possess. Recognizing that your target market is also being bombarded with irrelevant messages from all sides figuring out what is important to them and becoming a source of valuable information allows your messages to get through and you to build a stronger bond.
  • Actionable - There should be something they can and/or should do about it. The purpose of an offer is to create a low or no-risk opportunity for your qualified contacts to engage with your company.  Once interest is expressed by them you have the opportunity to “upgrade” the familiarity and messaging for your next communication.

In its simplest depiction, a successful relationship marketing program must allow for direct, relevant communication to your contact base as if you were communicating directly to them about matters that are of specific interest to them.

The 4 steps to developing a profitable relationship based marketing program are:

  1. Identify your most profitable prospects by analyzing your current clients, prospects and using industry data.
  2. Segment your contacts into meaningful channels of similar interests or needs
  3. Optimize your communications for maximum relevancy and tone.
  4. Communicate to them with relevant messages based on:
    • Context (what’s important to them)
    • Tone (your level of familiarity)
    • Frequency (how often they wish to receive messages from you)
    • Mode (the vehicle for delivering the messages)

What do we mean by "tone that reflects your level of familiarity?" This is probably the single most ignored element in relationship marketing. Why? Because it is hard. The tendency in marketing today is to communicate to a wide audience as if they were all the same. We know we can’t do that and improve and solidify relationships.

After segmenting our contacts into meaningful groups based on similar interests or needs, the final step of segmentation is identifying each individual in terms of how well we know them. We can then set the “tone” of our communications to match our level of familiarity.

In business communications you speak differently to different groups of people based on your level of familiarity, their position or title and the level of importance of the communication.

For instance your communications with family or close friends takes on an entirely different style and tone than would a correspondence to your boss. But even a close relationship may require a more formal tone if the subject matter is serious. If you are asking a family member to invest in your business or providing advice on a difficult family matter, that correspondence would not be the same as a quick update on your new address, a forwarding of the joke of the week, or even your company’s latest product introduction.

Tone determines whether or not your communication will be received as a one-to-one conversation and that you have a good grasp of the relevancy of the relationship and message.

Each mode of communication has a perceived intimacy attached, for instance a business letter in a #10 envelope is perceived as less intimate than an email, but more intimate than a postcard advertisement. Which vehicle you choose to deliver your message will be determined, in part, by your level of familiarity and the contact information you have on file.

The mode or method of delivery can significantly impact the response rate. Sending your best friend a formal announcement of your new position in a letter of introduction would seem weird and could actually strain the relationship. And sending someone an unsolicited email asking them to buy now will most likely be received negatively and may even be considered SPAM.

So now you know what a company has to do to create effective relevant communications to build better relationships. Does your business have time to focus on communicating with prospects and customers directly?  Can you afford not to?

Let Vantage Point Direct be your Silent SalesforceTM.

For More Information on Vantage Point Direct's Silent SalesforceTM Relationship Marketing SystemTM  click here

 

 
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