7 Key Principles of Relationship Marketing to Attract Customers
and Get Them to Stay on Your Life!
Most of business owners fail to effectively attract and retain
lifetime customers. What they fail to realize is the key
principles of relationship marketing, that converts potential
customers into repeat clients.
To succeed in your business, your main goal should be to build a
responsive email list of lifetime customers from your targeted
market who trust you, feel grateful to you and value your
recommendation.
A good relationship with loyal customers is worth a fortune.
That's the most valuable thing any business can have. The key
here is to build your large list of lifetime customers who trust
you. Achieve this and you're set for life.
For that reason you need to learn the key principles of
relationship marketing to be able to apply relationship
marketing concepts to your web site.
What's Relationship Marketing?
Relationship marketing is the method of gradually turning
website visitors into subscribers and leads them from position
to position along a planned program to convert them into life
time customers.
Think of relationship building as the foundation to your
business. It establishes you as a professional, trust worthy and
a consistent source.
7 Key Principles of Relationship Marketing.
Building relationship online is more difficult when compared to
offline relationship building. The techniques used are almost
the same. But, turning a potential customer into lifetime
customer offline is easier due to the nature of the process. In
online marketing you can't meet your clients in person like in
offline marketing. But, you can deliver what you want if you
think of your potential clients in each step you make when
building your business. Relationship marketing is a process, not
just a one-time commitment. It starts the moment you think about
building a business and continue as long as you stay in.
1 - Know your potential customers.
Before you start building your business; you need to determine
your targeted market and know your potential customers. Learn
how to know your customers to develop effective tactics for
delivering your message to them.
You can start getting to know your customers by taking some very
simple steps.
- Determine in advance where your potential customers
congregate. - What newsletter they read? - What forums they
visit and post to? - What else might do while surfing the net?
The best places where you find your prospects are forums,
discussion groups and discussion boards. Visit forums of your
targeted market and figure out:
- What's your potential customers' problem? What they are
looking for? - What kind of business they are involved in? - How
they want their problem to be solved? - What words they use?
Only by knowing your customers' wants and needs you can
successfully grow your business and be totally
customer-oriented. In order to tailor your marketing and
advertising strategies to appeal to the tastes and interests of
your market, you must first identify your customer.
Relationship is not only based on knowing who your visitors are,
but on knowing your customers' and prospects' specific needs.
Note: To attract more subscribers and build a strong
relationship marketing the easy way use your prospects words. If
you feel their pain and use their words when posting to forums,
sending message, etc... they'll be related to you. You will be
one of them; you are not a stranger then they will be likely to
trust you and consider your recommendation.
2 - Show your expertise.
The majority of business people, never completely and clearly
display their knowledge to potential customers. Show to your
targeted market you are the leader in your industry and they
will follow you.
People like to learn about your experience. They like to follow
the expert's steps to avoid mistakes and reach success the easy
way with less investment in time and money.
3 - Start a dialog to establish trust.
Set up a continuing dialog to establish trust. Trust is a vital
step to building long-time relationship. This dialog should
starts as soon as your visitors submit information along with
their email addresses. This explains their interest in your
business. In return, you give them what promised when they
subscribed and keep contacts at periodic intervals by sending
quality information to your subscribers.
Your goal is to create long term relationships marketing with
your subscribers. To do that you must invest time to gather
available sources and high quality information and put it at
your prospects' disposal to help them succeed. Remember,
maintaining customer enthusiasm and creating customer loyalty is
your key to success.
4 - Follow up
Dialog leads to follow-up. Hook your subscribers with your
follow up messages series. Set up a series of follow up messages
to send quality information to every new subscriber.
Professionalism is the key to successful relationship.
The main purpose of follow up is to remain visible to your
subscribers so, when the need arise and your prospect wants to
make a purchase, your product will be the first one the
subscriber thinks of.
If you want to make good money your mission will not cease at
selling your product. Going after one sale is worthless.
Following up with your customer after the sale is made is a
great tactic. This important step will help you strength your
relationship, decrease the refund proclamations and keep your
customer baying from you again and a gain.
Keep following up; don't stop and be creative. Don't send your
customers only sales messages. From time to time send free
useful product they don't find elsewhere that can help them make
money and/or save time. Send special offers with discount for
loyal customers only. Keep them up to date and to the point with
latest news, etc...
5 - Offer good customer service.
Some people will start an online business and only focus on what
services or products they can sell to make good money. They are
not worried about establishing good relationship with their
customers and potential clients.
- Answer your prospects' requests as soon as you receive them. -
Replay to every email within 24 hours with the needed response
whether it is a question, concern or simply someone looking for
more information. - Treat your customers right. Even if you
offer the best products or services, most customers will
evaluate your business by how they were treated while doing
business with you. For that reason, it's important to take care
of your customers and give them the best product or service they
want.
By providing great customer service to the people you do
business with, you will get customers coming back to you again
and again to buy your products or services.
Note: If you want to stay in your customers' minds serve
them better. You can do this by collecting information from your
customers' feedback. Having a contacts page on your website with
a comments or feedback form will keep you informed about your
customers' wants and problems. If you publish a newsletter, you
can also accomplish this by asking for feedback from your
subscribers.
This is a great way of making your audience know you care about
what they have to say and how important they are to you. When
you show interest in your customers you will build credibility
and loyalty.
6 - Educate your subscribers.
Put at your customers disposal manuals, frequently asked
question (FAQ) web page, articles, etc... to help them learn how
to use your product or service perfectly. Educate your
subscribers to help them build interest and loyalty for your
business.
Lifetime clients want you to be their trusted advisor. The more
you educate your customers by offering them a variety of
options, the greater your chance to earn their lifetime
business. Education strengthens relationship marketing with
clients.
7 - Sell or recommend only quality products.
Sell quality products that have value, plus offer a guarantee
and stand behind it. One of the quickest ways to destroy a
business relationship is selling poor quality products and not
standing behind what you promise.
If you want to promote other marketers' affiliate programs from
your website, take the time to investigate the companies you
advocate. Promote only products from legitimate companies with
solid Internet presence. Remember the companies you suggest will
have an impact on your business reputation.
Relationship marketing is the corner stone of every business. If
you follow these key principles of relationship marketing,
you'll be on your way to building a responsive opt in email list
which will lead to more and better sales.