What is the relational marketing?

by Moises Hamui June 8, 2023

There are times when keeping andretaining current customers is much easier and more profitable than getting new ones.

For those companies, businesses and brands whose general objective is to focus their attention on the clients they already have and temporarily leave customer acquisition in the background, Relationship Marketing is the answer to this scenario.

If you want to know what this type of marketing is, what its benefits are, how to create a structure, among other elements, we recommend you continue reading the article we have for you.

Surely you will find important information for you to start your first Relationship Marketing strategy.

SEO and UX: an intimate relationship for success

Seduction and loyalty: What is Relationship Marketing?

An unofficial premise that could describe this kind of marketing is: “Happy customers, profitable customers” . And it is not for less, Relational Marketing (also known as Relationship Marketing) is one that is in charge of designing and implementing various strategies to create significant relationships with the clients of a business or brand.

In other words, it is responsible for ensuring customer satisfaction with the business and what it offers. Its main purposes are:

Increase brand loyalty.
Generate more retention.
Boost the value of products or services.
Provide exceptional customer service.
Increase customer satisfaction.
Maximize the value of the client portfolio .
Reduce customer turnover, which translates into loss of users.

For these and many other reasons, Relationship Marketing is essential for those companies and businesses that want to focus their attention on their current customer base. Without a doubt, this type of marketing is based on the generation of bonds of trust.

Benefits of Relationship Marketing

If you are still not convinced by the purposes of Relationship Marketing, you probably want to know its benefits and advantages to consider it as a viable option for your business:

Improve ROI. As is well known, ROI is the main sign or indicator of the success of any strategy or plan . With Relationship Marketing, the figures and statistics of the return on investment can increase without major problem, as long as the strategy is properly executed.
Improvement in sales numbers. With a well-designed and executed strategy, happy customers will come back to make more purchases or hire more services. In addition to this, the level of interaction that fosters the strengthening of a faithful client-company relationship is taken into account.
Boost over competition. Creating valuable and meaningful relationships with customers helps customers become loyal much faster. This can mean a huge advantage over the competition.
Positive economic scenarios. This point is related to ROI since, although a Relationship Marketing strategy usually represents a considerable investment, the results obtained from existing customers are usually totally profitable. This can be seen reflected on the economic statistics of the company.
Promotes customer retention. It is, perhaps, the essence of this type of marketing. What fosters Relationship Marketing is precisely that a group of existing customers benefit from continuing to interact with the business more and more.

If the benefits of Relationship Marketing seemed interesting to you, then we will tell you what structure a strategy of this kind of marketing has. Start today to design it and put it to work.

Relationship Marketing Structure: What is a strategy like?

At this point, it should be noted that there are many good ways to create a Relationship Marketing strategy. Elements of its structure can be added or subtracted according to the purposes of the business.

Likewise, the type of strategy depends on the type of public. However, the following steps or suggestions will help you successfully base your next Relationship Marketing strategy.

Emotional connections come first

In Relationship Marketing, as its name suggests, relationships and links are essential for the achievement of objectives. In this sense, you want to create emotional ties and appeal to the feelings of customers.

To achieve this and be able to generate the bases of your future strategy, you want to create instruments to know them; from surveys and questionnaires, to the promotion of interactive materials for their participation.

create goals

Whether it is creating a general objective or a series of particular ones, it is necessary to have a purpose to follow with the strategy. From what is obtained with your instruments, you can see what are the tastes, passions, needs and even concerns to start from there.

It is essential to prioritize the issues to have a closer relationship with customers. From the generation of objectives, it is time to get down to work.

Have technology on your side

When it comes to building relationships through technological means, it is always a bit difficult to create a perfect partnership. However, technology can be ideal for solving customer needs, concerns, interests and other demands.

It is necessary to connect with customers in a personalized way, and to carry out this work, it is necessary to use CRM tools to manage customer relationships.

Technological means can help us generate adequate communication that strengthens the long-term relationship.

Dissemination strategies for your business

Motivate customers to comment and express themselves

The essence of Relationship Marketing lies in making customers feel valued; from your thoughts to opinions.

It is important to take into account and validate all your comments, since within this practice you can identify the performance of the strategy and if it is really covering your needs.

The most popular methods of encouraging customers to express themselves are:

Ask customers what they want to know more about.
Listen to all your concerns.
Surveys and forms.
Comments section.
Dynamics of participation in social platforms.

Build long-term relationships

As mentioned at the beginning, Relationship Marketing focuses its efforts and investments on the current client portfolio, that is, the one that exists and is present at the moment.

The acquisition of new clients is not a central point in these strategies, so the aim is to encourage the plans to establish significant and long-term relationships with current clients.

You need to establish exceptional service with current customers. This is achieved by appealing to their needs, concerns, desires and particularities. By building long-term relationships, brand loyalty is almost automatic.

In conclusion

Relationship Marketing works by turning happy customers into profitable customers. In other words, they become people who repeat the purchase of products, services and, additionally, recommend the company or business.

Companies like Netflix or Starbucks are clear —and effective— examples of well-applied Relationship Marketing. They always operate by appealing to the needs, desires, and tastes of their customers.

This type of marketing is not exclusive to large companies or businesses. SMEs, as well as startups, can couple the nature of Relationship Marketing to create successful strategies with their current client portfolio.

Written by Moises Hamui Abadi : I am an entrepreneur, founding partner of Viceversa and SoyMacho. After being in charge of several digital businesses and advising several other businesses; I decided to form MHA Consulting, a digital marketing consultancy dedicated to growing and empowering digital businesses in more than 7 countries and generating more than 1,500 million pesos.

If you want more information on this topic or you are looking for other options to profile your ideal client, at MHA you will find the solution you need. Schedule a call.