What is relationship marketing?

Relationship marketing is the combination of marketing strategies that work together to create an overall positive, engaging brand that goes out of its way to bring value to its community. The ways in which this is done is through the many different sectors but primarily:

Social Media

In its simplest form and most common in the modern era social media has now become a scheduled tool and it irritates us. Social media never started out for users to schedule their posts, and this is where relationship marketing is different.

• Engagement: Actively get involved with the community, show that you care and that you want to build a relationship with them. Post and engage consistently and schedule as little as possible.
• Content: Content can bring serious value and show that you know what you are talking about. We use content a lot through our social channels, and we aim to post two articles a day that brings value to our followers.
• Follow for follow: Don’t boost your followers through quick methods, we are talking about getting to know your followers and the people you are following like the back of your hand there is no point in following thousands of people if you don’t have the resources to make each one of those relationships count.

Content Creation

Creating content is critical in this day and age, but make sure that it is worth your target markets time, don’t just create it for the sake of it.

• Video: Utilise this to engage your potential customers, answer their questions to show that you are an expert in your field, also use it as a way to show your real personality. Who likes wooden, boring brands these days anyway? The big platforms to do this on at the moment are YouTube, SnapChat, Periscope, Meerkat and Google hangout. (Email us if you have any questions about these)
• Images: Engagement! We love that word, and it is no different with Images, in fact, behind video it is the most engaging way to give content. You can get a point across through the use of imagery and entwine this into other methods of distribution such as Social Media, Email and Blogs.
• Blog: One of the most used methods of giving value to a community and most probably the easiest. But in essence, don’t just write a sales pitch. Write valuable content that gives value to your following, answer questions they may have and give them something more than everyone else.

Email

Make your email newsletter the one newsletter that your recipients actually can’t wait to open. Don’t pack it with rubbish content or sales pitches that they do not care about. Create value, answer questions that they want the answer to and link in your other methods, throw in some blogs, free EBooks, podcasts and especially video just to liven things up.

Talks

When people understand that they should not be charging to do talks as if done right they monetise themselves through providing great content, then we will have free talks for the rest of our lives. Talks are so under utilised; it is a platform to get in front of your target marketing and show that you are a specialist in your field.

Podcasts

There is an easy way to do this as not everyone has the time to sit down and watch videos or to attend your events. Before your events get out your Dictaphone and get recording that valuable content!

Relationship marketing is all about value, how much value you can give your audience. One thing we are doing at the moment is giving every business in Lincoln without a website a free website. Why? Because when those businesses grow and need someone to provide content or social media management for them, then our theory is that they will remember us and use us for our services.

Moreover, it is as simple as one word… CARE