Nowadays, it isn’t enough to simply attract new customers to your website or business. You must retain their loyalty to keep them coming back. Thomas Ligor of New York discusses below how relationship marketing can help with this lofty endeavor.
Relationship marketing helps build and keep customer loyalty by personalizing the experience and rewarding loyalty to the brand. For example, many businesses have loyalty or rewards programs. A business can also retain repeat clients by improving customer service, building a community, sharing educational content like blogs and newsletters, and following up on their experiences.
More details below on the various types of relationship marketing strategies that exist, and why this tactic builds a trustworthy brand.
Relationship Marketing Strategies
There are a handful of relationship strategies that are proven to generate customer loyalty at scale. Utilizing such tactics will improve customer retention, increase profits, and broaden the business’ reach.
Personalized Experience
Personalizing the customer experience is one of the easiest ways to boost their devotion to the brand. By using simple, personal details such as their name in a confirmation email, for example, profit margins can increase by more than 25%. Other ways to personalize the customer experience include:
- Birthday greetings and special offers
- Profile creation
- One-on-one interactions (such as live chats and other customer-facing employees)
- Provide more choices in communication (social media, live chat, email, phone/text) to cater to every customer preference
- Ask for their feedback
- Personalized service offerings
Implement Loyalty Programs
Loyalty programs that reward customers with points or other redeemable rewards (such as free products) are an incredible method of encouraging customers to keep choosing the same business over and over again.
Guarantee Great Customer Service
Customers who have a positive experience interacting with a business are much more likely to return. Improving the customer experience and developing more involved training for customer-facing employees are reliable ways of guaranteeing that clients feel validated when they have concerns and feel that their needs have been met.
Build a Community
Building a community for a customer base makes them feel more connected to the business. Prime examples of how to foster community include:
- Forums
- Brand events
- Support of a specific cause for customers to rally around
- Leveraging user-generated content
- Hire a social media manager to interact with customers across all major online platforms
- Utilize the skills of a community manager
Generate Educational Content
Creating content like blog posts, videos and webinars, interactive quizzes, questionnaires, and surveys, and more, will help customers engage with the brand in more meaningful ways. Plus, getting in front of the audience more regularly with various content puts your brand at the forefront of a customer’s mind.
Why Relationship Marketing Works
Relationship marketing is effective at boosting profit and customer retention for one reason: people feel valued by the businesses using these strategies, so they’re more likely to return. Additionally, customers develop a bond with companies that take these steps to connect more meaningfully, and it’s unlikely for them to receive the same top-notch experience with another business or brand.
Ultimately, customers want to give their business to brands who make an effort to be communicative, receptive, and personal in their dealings with customers.
