7 Key Principles of Relationship Marketing

Most business owners fail to effectively attract and retain lifetime customers. What they fail to realize is the key principles of relationship marketing, that converts potential customers into repeat clients. To succeed in your business, your main goal should be to build a responsive email list of lifetime customers from your targeted market who trust you, feel grateful to you and value your recommendation. A good relationship with loyal customers is worth a fortune. That's the most valuable thing any business can have. The key here is to build your large list of lifetime customers who trust you. Achieve this and you're set for life. For that reason you need to learn the key principles of relationship marketing to be able to apply relationship marketing concepts to your website.

What’s Relationship Marketing? Relationship marketing is the method of gradually turning website visitors into subscribers and leads them from position to position along a planned program to convert them into life time customers. Think of relationship building as the foundation to your business. It establishes you as a professional, trustworthy and a consistent source.

7 Key Principles of Relationship Marketing: Building relationships online is more difficult when compared to offline relationship building. The techniques used are almost the same. But, turning a potential customer into a lifetime customer offline is easier due to the nature of the process. In online marketing you can’t meet your clients in person like in offline marketing. But, you can deliver what you want if you think of your potential clients in each step you make when building your business. Relationship marketing is a process, not just a one-time commitment. It starts the moment you think about building a business and continue as long as you stay in.

1. Know your potential customers- Before you start building your business; you need to determine your targeted market and know your potential customers. Learn how to know your customers to develop effective tactics for delivering your message to them. You can start getting to know your customers by taking some very simple steps.

- Determine in advance where your potential customers congregate. 

- What newsletter do they read? 

- What forums do they visit and post to? 

- What else might you do while surfing the net?

The best places where you find your prospects are forums, discussion groups and discussion boards. Visit forums of your targeted market and figure out:

- What’s your potential customers’ problem? 

- What are they looking for? 

- What kind of business are they involved in? 

- How do they want their problem to be solved? 

- What words do they use?

Only by knowing your customers' wants and needs can you successfully grow your business and be totally customer-oriented. In order to tailor your marketing and advertising strategies to appeal to the tastes and interests of your market, you must first identify your customer.

Relationship is not only based on knowing who your visitors are, but on knowing your customers’ and prospects’ specific needs.

Note: To attract more subscribers and build a strong relationship marketing the easy way use your prospects words. If you feel their pain and use their words when posting to forums, sending messages, etc… they’ll be related to you. You will be one of them; you are not a stranger then they will be likely to trust you and consider your recommendation.

2. Show your expertise- The majority of business people never completely and clearly display their knowledge to potential customers. Show to your targeted market you are the leader in your industry and they will follow you. People like to learn about your experience. They like to follow the expert's steps to avoid mistakes and reach success the easy way with less investment in time and money.

3. Start a dialog to establish trust- Set up a continuing dialog to establish trust. Trust is a vital step to building a long-time relationship. This dialog should start as soon as your visitors submit information along with their email addresses. This explains their interest in your business. In return, you give them what they promised when they subscribed and keep contacts at periodic intervals by sending quality information to your subscribers. Your goal is to create long term relationships marketing with your subscribers. To do that you must invest time to gather available sources and high quality information and put it at your prospects’ disposal to help them succeed. Remember, maintaining customer enthusiasm and creating customer loyalty is your key to success.

4. Follow up- Dialog leads to follow-up. Hook your subscribers with your follow up messages series. Set up a series of follow up messages to send quality information to every new subscriber. Professionalism is the key to successful relationships. The main purpose of follow up is to remain visible to your subscribers so, when the need arises and your prospect wants to make a purchase, your product will be the first one the subscriber thinks of. If you want to make good money your mission will not cease at selling your product. Going after one sale is worthless. Following up with your customer after the sale is made is a great tactic. This important step will help you strengthen your relationship, decrease the refund proclamations and keep your customer baying from you again and a gain.

Keep following up; don’t stop and be creative. Don’t send your customers only sales messages. From time to time send free useful products they don’t find elsewhere that can help them make money and/or save time. Send special offers with discounts for loyal customers only. Keep them up to date and to the point with latest news, etc…

5. Offer good customer service- Some people will start an online business and only focus on what services or products they can sell to make good money. They are not worried about establishing good relationships with their customers and potential clients.

* Answer your prospects’ requests as soon as you receive them. 

* Reply to every email within 24 hours with the needed response whether it is a question, concern or simply someone looking for more information. 

* Treat your customers right. Even if you offer the best products or services, most customers will evaluate your business by how they were treated while doing business with you. For that reason, it's important to take care of your customers and give them the best product or service they want.

By providing great customer service to the people you do business with, you will get customers coming back to you again and again to buy your products or services.

Note: If you want to stay in your customers’ minds, serve them better. You can do this by collecting information from your customers’ feedback. Having a contacts page on your website with a comments or feedback form will keep you informed about your customers’ wants and problems. If you publish a newsletter, you can also accomplish this by asking for feedback from your subscribers. This is a great way of making your audience know you care about what they have to say and how important they are to you. When you show interest in your customers you will build credibility and loyalty.

6. Educate your subscribers- Put at your customers disposal manuals, frequently asked question (FAQ) web pages, articles, etc… to help them learn how to use your product or service perfectly. Educate your subscribers to help them build interest and loyalty for your business. Lifetime clients want you to be their trusted advisor. The more you educate your customers by offering them a variety of options, the greater your chance to earn their lifetime business. Education strengthens relationship marketing with clients.

7. Sell or recommend only quality products- Sell quality products that have value, plus offer a guarantee and stand behind it. One of the quickest ways to destroy a business relationship is selling poor quality products and not standing behind what you promise. If you want to promote other marketers’ affiliate programs from your website, take the time to investigate the companies you advocate. Promote only products from legitimate companies with solid Internet presence. Remember the companies you suggest will have an impact on your business reputation.

Relationship marketing is the cornerstone of every business. If you follow these key principles of relationship marketing, you'll be on your way to building a responsive opt-in email list which will lead to more and better sales.

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