Relationship marketing is a long term marketing process to maximise the life time value of your customers. Direct response advertising and direct marketing are the methodologies that savvy marketers use to build those relationships. And the good news is it just got a whole lot easier because of the new social media opportunities provided by web 2.0 strategies.
Direct response advertising and direct marketing methodology is the dynamic duo used by successful marketers for decades to build long term customer relationships a.k.a. relationship marketing. But it's the introduction of social media like blogging and social networking sites that web 2.0 strategies provide, that has got two-way dialogue humming.
If you want to eliminate cold calling, open doors and close deals then you simply must pay attention to the new web 2.0 opportunities that are taking relationship marketing to a whole new level.
Remember, people are either looking on the internet for information or entertainment. So they are looking to connect with someone who can provide an answer to their question or solution to their problem, either business or pleasure, or both. Web 2.0 is all about conversational media and it's your job to provide both content and connection and be "seen" out and about in all the right places to hold up your end of the conversation.
Here's 3 top ways business owners and entrepreneurs can build profitable long term relationships using social media.
1. Blogging
A blog is simply an online journal published for the public to read and is similar to a website except it's updated regularly with journal entries, known as posts which are organized by date. You get to set the agenda and the topics and post as often as you like. Search engines love blogs because of the frequent fresh content which is why when your prospective client is searching on a topic using your key-words, they will likely find you.
What really sets them apart from a website is people can leave comments and that's where the 2-way dialogue kicks in. But there's more. Other people can read their messages (which you get to approve before posting) and leave one themselves. They can even forward it to friends and colleagues and sign up to receive a notice every time you post a new blog.
2. Social networking
Social networking is not new. We have been building relationships both personal and business by meeting and connecting with people socially in all sorts of places. But it's the on-line social networking that has opened up a whole new dimension. Sites like Facebook, MySpace, Linked In and Plaxo are multiplying rapidly to create choices for personal and business socializing that provide unlimited, world wide reach and the best part is it's free. And fun.
Remember, you are looking to build relationships, not catch and kill. So behave as you would when getting to know someone new and save your sales pitch for the right opportunity.
You can promote your events, products, website or other interesting offers but make sure that's balanced with genuine interest in your new friends.
3. Podcasting
Podcasts are short audio or video programs that are distributed over the internet and search engines love them so they will drive traffic to your site. And prospects can get to know your better when they can see and hear you.
There are many podcast directories that organize and display podcasts and people can search on them for topics of interest and that's how they find you. People can also subscribe and download automatically when new content is added so you reach your market rapidly.
You can even repurpose the same digital media files that you create for your website for downloading or streaming. The difference is podcast directories provide syndication so they are made available to multiple other sites, giving you far greater reach. It comes with it's own feed so you upload once and it is generated automatically across the Web.
Not only are these methods efficient but they are free and you can integrate them so you can really maximize your efforts and power up your marketing.
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