Relationship marketing is employing marketing strategies focused on cultivating meaningful relationships with customers to ensure their long-term satisfaction and loyalty.
According to the AMA (American Marketing Association), relationship marketing has the objective of develop and manage long-term relationships of trust with clients, distributors, suppliers, or other parties in the marketing environment.
To cultivate meaningful relationships, relationship marketing does not focus on the sale of a product or the creation of an alliance, but on whether the client or supplier has felt comfortable with their purchase, or sale, so that, in the future , want to repeat the action and maintain a sustainable relationship over time.
Customer-focused relationship marketing
In relation to customer-focused relationship marketing, it is connect with users knowing what type of content adds value to them;what motivates them to place their trust and admiration in a company; how they like to be served; and what are the needs they want to satisfy.
It happens that the experiences your customers live influence their purchasing decisions. If these are positive; It is very likely that the person will feel comfortable with their choice and want to buy again.
On the other hand, if your customer has a negative experience, they will not want to buy the product again; He prefers to avoid the bad moment he experienced; That’s why,when you offer a positive relationship, with long-term intentions, you are ensuring that customers come back to you.
Under this reality, through an orientation toward relationship marketing, strategies are created to generate trust in prospects, build loyalty among existing customers, and provide an exceptional purchasing experience at all times.
A fundamental action within relationship marketing strategies is the purchase or acquisition of a customer relationship management system or software (in English CRM: customer relationship management) in which all contact data of prospects and customers of a company, as well as their interactions with it, through messages and calls.
Why apply relationship marketing in your company?
Below, learn some reasons why you should implement relationship marketing in your company:
It is cheaper to retain a buyer than to attract him
Did you know that attracting new customers generates an investment 6 or 7 times higher than maintaining existing ones?
It is well known that attracting new customers is an important objective, and, although that is a priority for some companies, the complexity that sometimes leads to studying the characteristics of a new incoming audience, and making it go through the sales funnel , it can take longer and require more resources than you think. In addition, it may happen that you attract people who do not have any similarity with your ideal buyer and, therefore; They never become customers.
So it is better to cultivate a better relationship with existing customers: You reduce your costs and get more loyal customers.
Improve your customers’ shopping experience
Having the information you need about your prospects and customers stored in a CRM system allows you to improve your customers’ purchasing experience by offering them content, products and/or services in line with their interests.
A better purchasing experience is one in which the prospect or customer receives the correct information, at the moment they are requesting it and through the appropriate messages and treatments. Also, it is one where they feel safe and confident to communicate their doubts and opinions.
Through relationship marketing, this type of purchasing process can be used more frequently, since to establish a lasting relationship, you must start by providing positive experiences.
You build promoters for your brand
Rather than having influenced payments that promote your brand, it is much more assertive to have loyal customers who recommend your products and/or services. People today don’t promote something they don’t know, much less something they don’t approve of.
In this sense, when you have relationships of trust with your clients, You get pleased buyers who become important promoters of your brand.
Are they free promoters? No! These are built with a lot of effort and dedication through your strategies to strengthen relationships with customers; however, the recommendations of your buyers can be more profitable than paying a brand ambassador and their testimonial is more authentic than any other.
In short, the purpose of relationship marketing is to generate significant links with customers that last over time and that provide benefits to your business. To do this, you need to gain the trust of your prospects and clients, knowing more about them and always maintaining contact.
