Relationship marketing should be viewed the same as pursuing the person you want to date and create a meaningful relationship with. It takes time and nothing should be taken for granted.

Marketing Is The Bloodline of Any Business.

No matter what business you have and are operating, marketing is paramount for its success. Without marketing there is very little likelihood that any business will have a great deal of success.

Marketing includes all the activities that a business uses and deploys to get attention, make the case for the service or product being promoted and then to convince the recipient to take a desired action. Without these fundamental actions taking place on a consistent basis business likely will not be good.

The days of building a better mousetrap and having buyers and users beat a path to your doorstep and buy whatever it is you're selling are long gone. Prospective buyers and customers now demand that their desires and wants come first and they are no longer willing to take whatever is made available to them.

People now purchase, repurchase and refer business products and services that they have come to know, like and trust. This process is called relationship marketing. It does not happen overnight. Universities now teach on the subject and promote it.

Building relationships take time. And especially today with all the noise, clutter, disruption and distrust that is created in the atmosphere of social media, internet sales hype and constant blasting of news that never seems to concentrate on anything except controversy.

Now it is more difficult to entice prospects to purchase goods and services and it is time consuming and sometimes expensive to maintain a relationship that stands the test to time.

RELATIONSHIP MARKETING REQUIRES A CERTAIN BUSINESS MINDSET

The most important aspect of success in business requires a certain mindset. A focused and sustained strategy that involves massive action dedicated to providing value to a specific targeted market and creating a solid trusting feeling of dependability, quality products o and reliable service.

It is absolutely crucial that you build a relationship with your potential customers before you try and sell to them. This is the essence of relationship marketing This is something that a lot of sellers and marketers just don’t understand and ultimately it is to their detriment as they end up missing out on the opportunity to sell.

Market Like You Are Dating

The best way to explain relationship marketing is with an analogy, or two. Imagine for a moment that you see an attractive lady or man at a bar or anywhere for that matter, and you want to get to know them a little better. So, what you do, is you go up and you ask if they’re come home with for the night.

What do you think happens next? More likely than not you will get a very firm rebuke and be regarded as some sort of creep and rightfully so. A generations ago, you would have most likely have received a slap across the face if it is a male approaching a female in such a manner.

The problem with this approach is that the person doesn’t know you yet. They don’t know what you’re like and if they’re likely to have a good time with you and more importantly – they don’t know if they can trust you! You might be dangerous as far as they’re concerned!

Another scenario is someone trying to sell a watch. Imagine they come up to you in the street holding a watch and ask if you want to buy it for $2,000. What do you say? Again, you’ll probably turn and run. No one would spend that much money on something without knowing anything about it and without having any form of come back in case the deal turns sour.

Both these examples probably seem absurd to you but this is essentially what many businesses are doing all the time without thinking.

Here's How It Works

If you have a website that tries to sell a product as soon as anyone lands on it, then you’re going to drive people away before they have even had a chance to read your site content.

They may be interested in what you’re selling but if they don’t know your brand and they don’t know your product, then they won’t want to buy right away. And if all you’re interested in doing is selling to them with tons of popup ads, then you’re going to drive them off – it will look like spam!

Now consider the alternative approach: they land on your website and they find tons of great content that’s well written, free and informative. This allows the visitor to form a positive opinion of your business and hopefully to become interested in the products you’re mentioning.

Perhaps you even have a free product download of a digital product that they can use immediately to help them solve a problem or answers a question that they have. This makes it clear to the website visitor that your interest is in helping them first, a crucial first step in relationship marketing.

On your website you also offer additional free help or solutions in return for them filling out a form and providing you with a name and email. And you promise additional free information, products or services in the future.

This encourages your website visitor to provide you with his name and email.  it is automatically added to an identified list that you have created so that every time the form is filled out it captures the name and email of the website visitor. 

Because you gave something of value to the website visitor and made promises of future help without asking for a sale upfront, he fills out the form and is added to your list. 

The Fortune Is In The Followup

Once he is on your list you can begin a series of email contacts over a period of time whereby you give more tips, help and assistance that helps solve problems or resolve issues of importance. After a bit of time you also start to offer products or services you have for sale to the email subscriber. 

Because you have taken the time to create a relationship with the subscriber and he or she now knows, likes and trusts you, they are more likely than not to purchase what you are now offering. Not only do they buy once but over and over again because you now have a trusting relationship through the marketing that you've done. 

The above is a relationship marketing example that if followed can make a huge difference in building a business and generating substantial sustained profit.

Relationship marketing may take a bit more time than going for the sale immediately, but in the long run it is a much better way to build long term success and create a list of loyal, trusting, and purchasing customers.