Best Relationship Marketing Strategies for a Business Growth?

Relationship marketing is a very technical part of marketing & it has its dependencies on how to create relationships that are important for business growth. An RM or relationship marketing strategy is a mix for the sake of making strong relationships with the customers & usually, it involves methods for improving the customer experiences. The strategy involves different aspects: attracting, connecting, courting, relationship and marriage. The attract part, i.e. the attraction between the two, is the initial stage & takes place when the brand and the customers first engage. As they say, the first impression is the last impression when it comes to attracting, i.e. the initial stage in relationship marketing. Secondly, it’s the connect stage, as it is up to the brand to pique the customer’s interest. Thirdly, it is courting, and you have got their interest, now turn them into a relationship. Make a start by asking for the name and the e-mail address. A key stage in relationship marketing. Fourth, it’s the relationship part, as your nurturing campaign worked well. Thus, you need to nurture the relationship and change or transform that into the next level. Ironically, as the customer is your new beau, don’t let them go. Lastly, it’s the marriage; you have treated the customer so well that they have accepted your proposal. It’s a big congrats as now you have a lifetime customer.

Relationship marketing is about maintaining that relationship with the customer and making it more sustainable with good campaigns and branding. The various strategies in relationship marketing then become a key for the company for good customer retention.

How Do Various Brands Use Relationship Marketing?

Initially, we shall discuss the coffee brand Starbucks, a global coffee brand that changed the way the world consumes coffee. Starbucks now uses digital marketing, i.e. social media, to make good connections with loyal customers. This is done using their social channels and apps to send special offers to their followers and build anticipation for product launches. These are campaigns that are relationship marketing campaigns that bring back loyal customers. Other includes quick and short videos of customers drinking Starbucks coffee and sharing them on Instagram. How it increases the weight amongst loyal customers is indeed a vital aspect to know.

The next one is the very popular Swedish furniture brand IKEA. The brand which is getting popular every day, i.e. IKEA, uses customer feedback as the means to drive the direction of its branding. IKEA is also a world-famous brand that offers perks to its customers to bring them back & create a relationship of loyalty, trust & respect. Examples include the babysitting services and their popular Swedish meatballs. As they say, let it be the Director’s cut. Some of the most effective relationship marketing strategies are as follows;

Listening To Customer Feedback:

Listening to customer feedback is the strategy most companies adopt for their relationship marketing campaigns. Companies value customer feedback as they perceive that customers make the right decision for them in terms of valuable feedback. Companies also take advantage of this by soliciting customer feedback and asking them about their requests, ideas and challenges. Importantly, the customers can be accommodated in much better and improved ways.

Investing In Technologies That Help With The CRM:

A vital strategy in relationship marketing is investing in technologies that help with CRM or customer relationship management. CRM software can help build these relationships, i.e. managing the customers, personalized messages, and maintaining regular communication and touchpoints. A vital CRM tool is ERP or Enterprise resource planning, which streamlines operations and eliminates departmental silos.

Building an Excellent Customer Service Team:

Building an excellent customer service team always helps in relationship marketing & creating good standards that are proved worthwhile at the end. A factor that can make or break a customer’s experience with a brand is its customer service. Also, it can be worthwhile for companies to create a Q&A template based on the demands of different customers. A Q&A template definitely will help you realize the needs & demands of the customers and what are they looking for in a relationship.

Reward Customer Loyalty:

The relationship marketing is all about rewards and perks, and it’s important to reward the customer loyalty while saluting the customer. A loyalty program or a system that is built in the company that rewards automatically a customer when they use your services & products is the best part of loyalty management & customer retention. It basically sums up how you make your customers feel special by rewarding them & urging them or motivating them to use the products and services time and again. As a company you can also reward customers for referring the leads that can convert into paying customers.

Relationship marketing & relationship marketing strategies also depends on the size of the company & how far they can invest for rapid results. Once you are into a loop than you can experiment with the minds of different customers and establish a unique pattern for your company.