Merle

Relationship Marketing Online

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Forming good relationships is a part of life; not only
for ourselves but for our businesses. You should be
thinking of your customers
as long-term clients, not just one time sales. When
you work hard at forming good relationships with
them, you'll find they come back and buy from you again and
again.

Remember this: It's much easier to sell to an existing
client then to find a new one. It's also less expensive.
Another "perk" of making them happy is they'll refer
their friends and associates to you, which is great for
business. Referrals are like a "personal endorsement"
of your work. By the time a referral calls you, he's
already partially sold on using your products or
services. In essence the referral has given your
company the "stamp of approval."

So how do you go about forming relationships with
clients? Well, first of all you need to care about
their wants and needs -- not appear to care, but really care.
In our rush-rush hurry-up society, personalized
care is hard to find. If you care, you'll stand
out from the crowd and be remembered in your
customer's mind when he needs another service
or product like yours in the future. The point
is to establish long term bonds with
them.

There are a variety of things you can easily
incorporate into your "relationship marketing
plan" on a daily basis:

1) After finishing a job for a client, always
"hand write" a thank you card stating
how much you appreciate their business.

2) Keep your eyes open when online for anything
that may interest or affect your customer's
business. Send them a quick e-mail with the URL
or send the page itself. It only takes a minute
but really shows you care.

3) When you find a newspaper or magazine article that may interest one
of your customers, rip it out and send it
to them. Watch for business-related as well as
anything personal you know that they enjoy.

4) When adding new services or updating prices,
make sure you send your existing clients a copy.
This not only keeps them up to date on new
products or services but also serves as a reminder
to call if they need anything.

5) Make sure that anyone you have done work for
is subscribed to your ezine (you do have one, right?)
An ezine keeps you fresh in clients' minds and
helps to establish trust and credibility.

By giving customers more than they paid for,
they'll perceive you and your business as a "real
value," resulting in return visits and increased sales.

Work on building relationships with your customers
and the profit margins will take care of themselves.
After all, they can buy from anyone; make them *want*
to buy from *you*.

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