Relationship marketing focuses less on transactional encounters and more on the experience between the consumer and your brand.
In other words, your focus with relationship marketing is on building and maintaining relationships.
Today’s marketing, with relationships at its focus, is more about dialogue.
It’s About a Conversation
Marketing is becoming more the conversation between consumers and brand, which you can see in the experiential marketing campaigns that brands are choosing, to interact directly with consumers.
At the center of the relationship, marketing is the consumer desire to be cared for by brands. Consumer’s choices influence their own image.
It’s About Feeling Cared For
They want to make brand choices with brands who make them feel cared for, brands with personalities with which they can relate.
There are a few things consumers are especially concerned about in regards to relationship marketing:
- A face behind the logo and marketing campaigns
- A brand made of people who concern themselves with the consumer’s concerns
- An effort they can see, your brand going above and beyond for them
It’s About Brand Loyalty
Relationship marketing increases brand loyalty and referrals. That’s what makes relationship marketing so important.
Customer retention helps in developing relationships with customers who are loyal to your brand. Those brand loyalties translate to more sales, and also to new customers when the old ones recommend your brand.
Consumers are more likely to take advice from the people they trust, and loyal customers are more likely to vocalize their support.
It’s About Feedback
Another thing that happens when your marketing focuses on relationships over transactions? You can ask for feedback and get constructive advising straight from the source.
Maybe you want to test new products or services. Those relationships you’ve cultivated with loyal customers are ready to pay off.
They’ll be happy and probably even excited to try new things, and they’re more likely to buy something new. When you’re trying to understand your brand’s strengths and areas of most-needed improvements, they’re more likely to communicate back to you what those are.
That feedback from the customer’s perspective is extremely valuable.
It’s About Relationships
Relationship-driven marketing takes work, but every small step will show up as major benefits to your brand.
Not all brands are following this approach to marketing, which makes the little things even more noticeable to consumers. They see your efforts as soon as you add a personalized, more human touch to your interactions.
The relationship-based type of marketing is a process with a longer-term view. The benefits are not necessarily immediate, and the relationships could take time to cultivate.
On the other end of the spectrum, you have marketing with immediate results in mind, like generating a lot of one-time sales.
But without the customer service to be available to those customers after they’ve made their purchase, that purchase is more likely to be the only one they make with your brand.
Show customers you value them. Don’t just talk at them about why you believe your brand will work for them. Listen! Listen to their opinions, needs, and desires, and deliver accordingly.
Consumers will thank and appreciate you and your efforts.