How Relationship Marketing Benefits Your Business
Posted by Derek Robson on Wednesday, February 2, 2011 Under: Affiliate Marketing
Relationship Marketing requires building stronger and long lasting relationships with clients and other companies. The business is based on repeat business with existing customers, where the relationship is improved to the extent that they refer their friends and the business grows through trust, rather than continually having to find new customers. It is meant to cater to the needs of individual customers and encourage regular purchases as opposed to one off customers. This involves studying the needs of each customer and being able to offer the right service and products at the right time.
Many marketers, particularly this in Internet Marketing miss the importance of this philosophy. They try their hardest to build their lists, try selling once or twice to those on their lists, put up with constant un-subscribes and then try to build the list up again from new sources. They are constantly building lists and never get to build relationships.
In the sales and marketing game, it is a well known adage that “there is no better customer than a happy customer” and this also means that “the best advertising is word of mouth”. This applies only to happy customers, as there is no worse publicity than an unhappy customer.
Relationship marketing includes techniques such as marketing, sales, customer care and communication. The relationship is not only enhanced by these strategies, but its life period ca be increased significantly. As the customer realises the value of relationship, they are drawn closer to the marketer. This marketing strategy not only focuses on building relationship and attracting customers to the products and services offered, but also ensures that they stay and continue buying over and over.
Internet marketing appeals to millions of people around the world because they see it as an easy way to make money. They think that if you have any old list of names and you blast them with sales e-mails, then sooner or later they will get lucky and make a few sales. As internet marketing usually involves affiliate links and digital products, there is no need to speak to the customer, but this is exactly where these marketers are going wrong.
If they built or bought a normal “bricks and mortar” business, they would have to entice customers, treat them well and get repeat business from them. This is basically a form of residual earnings or passive income, as the seller earns additional revenue without the work and costs involved in finding new customers all the time.
Failing Internet Marketers would do better if they saw their online business as a normal business and not an easy shortcut to wealth. There is work involved. The only difference is that an online business doesn’t cost as much to start up and quite often it is not necessary to tie up money in holding stocks of products.
This is why so many savvy internet marketers are turning to membership websites. This is basically tying the customer to a contract, taking monthly membership fees and then still getting a few product sales as well.
Relationship marketing is particularly applicable, where the customers have many other options in the market-place, for the same product or service and the customer is then entitled to make a selection decision. There is no loyalty and the customer is not obliged to buy from you. To remain competitive and to retain customers, businesses have to try to maintain their clients by providing comparatively better products and excellent service and hence, achieving customer loyalty, which means repeat business and good reviews.
Once a customer has achieved these goals, it becomes very difficult for competitors to entice that customer away and do well in that market. Customer satisfaction is all important and they will even accept inconvenience and higher prices to support the business where they are happy. This type of marketing strategy was initially called defensive marketing, as opposed to aggressive marketing, where not only new customers are attracted, but sales turnovers are raised by the increase in purchase frequency.
According to a research, the cost of retaining a loyal old customer is only ten percent of the cost of getting a new customer, which makes sense to not have to run around continually trying to get new customers. According to another research, done by cross-sectional analysis, findings were that a five percent improvement in customer retention is responsible for twenty-five to eighty-five percent of the profit. Usually high costs are incurred when getting new customers, so if a sufficient number of existing customers is retained, the business can be tailor made to suit those customers and natural growth will occur.
Once the customer’s trust is gained, the chances of him or her switching to another company becomes relatively less, that customer buys goods in bulk, buys other similar goods and starts overlooking price variations. This maintains the unit sales volumes and there is an increase in revenue. The existing happy customers will become walking talking advertisements because if he or she is satisfied with the company your client will recommend you to his friends and acquaintances.
Since the existing customers are familiar with the process, it will take less time and money to educate them about the procedures, thus in a store environment, this places fewer burdens on employees and makes them feel more satisfied with their jobs. The customers are divided into groups, based on their loyalty. This procedure is known as the relationship ladder of customer loyalty. The groups in ascending order are prospects, customers, clients, supporters, advocates and partners.
Due to the advancement in computers and the scope of the Internet, software has been developed to facilitate easier customer relationship management. With the help of this software the preferences, activities, likes, dislikes and complaints of customers are tracked. Almost all efficient businesses now use this software in their marketing strategies, which benefits the customers as well as the company.
Any type of business, whether internet marketing, a regular shop, an online store, multi-level-marketing, network marketing or other type of business where customers and sales are involved will definitely benefit from relationship marketing.
Thus, the main aim of relationship marketing is to construct and maintain relationships with committed clients whose roles it is to bring profits to the company, on a regular basis. Most regular businesses work on this principle, so if your business strategy is failing, perhaps you need to rethink your strategy and incorporate relationship marketing into your future plans.
If you would like to learn more about this subject and improve your business ten fold, there is a very good book available. “That’s Customer Focus” is an exceptional e-book, that shows you how to create a truly Customer-Focused organization and reap the financial gains associated with effective customer focus. It contains almost 200 pages of examples, illustrations, case studies, tools and more that work. Get it here or copy this link into your browser address bar: http://www.linkbrander.com/lb/7421
Derek Robson has been a successful Internet marketer since 2003. He has a vision of empowering others, particularly fellow South Africans and other non U.S folk, to have equal opportunity and success on the internet, by finding solutions to the many obstacles facing them. He is a syndicated article writer. He and his wife Sally, have started a string of sites, online stores, resources, courses and articles, as part of Dersalsites. For informative articles on making money, setting up a simple business that actually makes money, Internet marketing, South African online business, list building, affiliate marketing, article marketing, blogging, seo, the law of attraction, rugby and other general topics, such as gardening and fitness, visit Derek and Sally at their blog, part of http://dersalsites.com/
Many marketers, particularly this in Internet Marketing miss the importance of this philosophy. They try their hardest to build their lists, try selling once or twice to those on their lists, put up with constant un-subscribes and then try to build the list up again from new sources. They are constantly building lists and never get to build relationships.
In the sales and marketing game, it is a well known adage that “there is no better customer than a happy customer” and this also means that “the best advertising is word of mouth”. This applies only to happy customers, as there is no worse publicity than an unhappy customer.
Relationship marketing includes techniques such as marketing, sales, customer care and communication. The relationship is not only enhanced by these strategies, but its life period ca be increased significantly. As the customer realises the value of relationship, they are drawn closer to the marketer. This marketing strategy not only focuses on building relationship and attracting customers to the products and services offered, but also ensures that they stay and continue buying over and over.
Internet marketing appeals to millions of people around the world because they see it as an easy way to make money. They think that if you have any old list of names and you blast them with sales e-mails, then sooner or later they will get lucky and make a few sales. As internet marketing usually involves affiliate links and digital products, there is no need to speak to the customer, but this is exactly where these marketers are going wrong.
If they built or bought a normal “bricks and mortar” business, they would have to entice customers, treat them well and get repeat business from them. This is basically a form of residual earnings or passive income, as the seller earns additional revenue without the work and costs involved in finding new customers all the time.
Failing Internet Marketers would do better if they saw their online business as a normal business and not an easy shortcut to wealth. There is work involved. The only difference is that an online business doesn’t cost as much to start up and quite often it is not necessary to tie up money in holding stocks of products.
This is why so many savvy internet marketers are turning to membership websites. This is basically tying the customer to a contract, taking monthly membership fees and then still getting a few product sales as well.
Relationship marketing is particularly applicable, where the customers have many other options in the market-place, for the same product or service and the customer is then entitled to make a selection decision. There is no loyalty and the customer is not obliged to buy from you. To remain competitive and to retain customers, businesses have to try to maintain their clients by providing comparatively better products and excellent service and hence, achieving customer loyalty, which means repeat business and good reviews.
Once a customer has achieved these goals, it becomes very difficult for competitors to entice that customer away and do well in that market. Customer satisfaction is all important and they will even accept inconvenience and higher prices to support the business where they are happy. This type of marketing strategy was initially called defensive marketing, as opposed to aggressive marketing, where not only new customers are attracted, but sales turnovers are raised by the increase in purchase frequency.
According to a research, the cost of retaining a loyal old customer is only ten percent of the cost of getting a new customer, which makes sense to not have to run around continually trying to get new customers. According to another research, done by cross-sectional analysis, findings were that a five percent improvement in customer retention is responsible for twenty-five to eighty-five percent of the profit. Usually high costs are incurred when getting new customers, so if a sufficient number of existing customers is retained, the business can be tailor made to suit those customers and natural growth will occur.
Once the customer’s trust is gained, the chances of him or her switching to another company becomes relatively less, that customer buys goods in bulk, buys other similar goods and starts overlooking price variations. This maintains the unit sales volumes and there is an increase in revenue. The existing happy customers will become walking talking advertisements because if he or she is satisfied with the company your client will recommend you to his friends and acquaintances.
Since the existing customers are familiar with the process, it will take less time and money to educate them about the procedures, thus in a store environment, this places fewer burdens on employees and makes them feel more satisfied with their jobs. The customers are divided into groups, based on their loyalty. This procedure is known as the relationship ladder of customer loyalty. The groups in ascending order are prospects, customers, clients, supporters, advocates and partners.
Due to the advancement in computers and the scope of the Internet, software has been developed to facilitate easier customer relationship management. With the help of this software the preferences, activities, likes, dislikes and complaints of customers are tracked. Almost all efficient businesses now use this software in their marketing strategies, which benefits the customers as well as the company.
Any type of business, whether internet marketing, a regular shop, an online store, multi-level-marketing, network marketing or other type of business where customers and sales are involved will definitely benefit from relationship marketing.
Thus, the main aim of relationship marketing is to construct and maintain relationships with committed clients whose roles it is to bring profits to the company, on a regular basis. Most regular businesses work on this principle, so if your business strategy is failing, perhaps you need to rethink your strategy and incorporate relationship marketing into your future plans.
If you would like to learn more about this subject and improve your business ten fold, there is a very good book available. “That’s Customer Focus” is an exceptional e-book, that shows you how to create a truly Customer-Focused organization and reap the financial gains associated with effective customer focus. It contains almost 200 pages of examples, illustrations, case studies, tools and more that work. Get it here or copy this link into your browser address bar: http://www.linkbrander.com/lb/7421
Derek Robson has been a successful Internet marketer since 2003. He has a vision of empowering others, particularly fellow South Africans and other non U.S folk, to have equal opportunity and success on the internet, by finding solutions to the many obstacles facing them. He is a syndicated article writer. He and his wife Sally, have started a string of sites, online stores, resources, courses and articles, as part of Dersalsites. For informative articles on making money, setting up a simple business that actually makes money, Internet marketing, South African online business, list building, affiliate marketing, article marketing, blogging, seo, the law of attraction, rugby and other general topics, such as gardening and fitness, visit Derek and Sally at their blog, part of http://dersalsites.com/
In : Affiliate Marketing
Tags: customer relations attitude more sales business
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