Relationship marketing is one of the most effective tactics to move people through the buyer's journey and keep them coming back for more. Now more than ever, people want to feel connected to businesses even if all of their interactions are digital.
Timely and targeted communications are key components of relationship marketing, but it also needs to be efficient so it isn't draining your resources.
We've outlined some of the best ways to build stronger relationships with your prospects and current customers.
Ways to Use Relationship Marketing
1. Automated emails based on historical behaviours.This can be challenging to set up but will be well worth the investment. You'll begin establishing these by considering the buyer's journey and where prospects may drop off. Past data from other users is helpful for this process. At those points, you'll identify what they may need to get them re-engaged.
For instance, if they've added items to their cart and then abandoned it for a few hours, you could send an email reminding them of their items. Alternatively, if they visited your case studies page, you may want to send a follow-up email a couple of days later with one to two of your most popular case studies for them to read.
By sending emails relevant to what your prospects are interested in, you're giving them additional value and more of a reason to engage with you. This builds trust, and ultimately puts you as their first choice when they're ready to buy.
Automating where possible will help your relationship marketing be more efficient.
One of the best examples of this is the Starbucks free drink on your birthday. It's a small gesture on their part but makes users feel extra special, and long-time loyalty program members will associate their birthday with a trip to Starbucks. And, it's an automated process based on the date you input, so Starbucks doesn't have to spend a lot of reasons coordinating all their users' birthday offers.
This isn't limited to birthdays. You can use past activity to encourage customers to buy, whether that's sending them products they might be interested in or resources that'll keep them informed about a topic of interest. Get creative with it!
Opening up calls to join your "close friends" list on Instagram helps build even more intimacy between you and your customers. They'll be gaining access to exclusive behind-the-scenes content for them to get to know your business on a more personal level. This is great for building relationships.
Asking questions in captions and using the many interactive sticker features available in stories are great ways to encourage your following — made up of both customers and prospects — to engage with you. Reports suggest that consumers love it, especially when you're answering their questions.
This is especially true for new followers who may be intimidated to comment on a post, but comfortable clicking on a poll option or a sliding scale. As they get more comfortable doing that, they'll start to put questions into Ask Me Anythings and comment on posts.
Conclusion
Relationship marketing matters because it will help you stand out and keep your valuable customers close. It warms up newcomers to your business and helps you turn them into lifelong customers. This loyalty goes a long way since they'll be more inclined to recommend your business to friends and family.
Ensuring your relationship marketing efforts are timely, efficient, and targeted will help immensely.
As with all relationships, the best ones are the ones that aren't forced. Don't over-email, as it could be a turn-off to subscribers. Be patient, and good customer relationships will follow.
