Beyond the Handshake: Relationship vs. Transactional Marketing

A handshake is just the beginning. The conversation shouldn’t end once a new customer comes on board — unless you want to see that same customer sign with a competitor down the line. Learn the benefits of relationship marketing by looking beyond the transaction to focus on customer retention and satisfaction.

Marketing and sales work in tandem to pinpoint buyer personas, fill the funnel, and turn those prospects into purchasers. But once a customer signs the dotted line, marketing typically exits the picture and lets the production and support teams take over. In some cases, it can feel like all that time spent building ties to multiple individuals within a prospect organization then just goes to waste.
Relationship marketing turns the long sales cycles and large number of buyer personas to your advantage. Particularly for B2B organizations, taking a relationship-focused approach extends the conversations with your customers past the first or second impression to strengthen their relationship with your brand. At the same time, you set the stage for more repeat business, and you fend off competitors who are trying to steal your customers.

Why Relationships Matter in Marketing — Especially After the Sale

Don’t dismiss relationship marketing as simply another buzzword. Keeping customers happy and being in touch more often to add value helps with marketing positioning, brand loyalty, and increasing sales.
It is now commonly understood that the one-to-many or batch-and-blast approach doesn’t work in a consumer-driven environment where increasingly well informed consumers choose to opt-in. But what many B2B companies need to realize is the same new rules apply to customer retention, as well.
You need to tailor your outreach to existing customers the same way you would to grab prospects’ attention. Keeping clients happy will also take some of the pressure off lowering your cost per lead and cost per acquisition. After all, there are no upfront costs for maintaining contracts or up-selling existing clients. In fact, according to a Lee Resource, Inc. study, “attracting new customers will cost your company five times more than keeping an existing customer.”
You’ve done the research. You know exactly what each individual involved in the buying process wants from your product or service. Make sure that they’re getting the full value of their new purchase by sharing content you know will help them and by proactively reaching out to them to maintain the ties you have built.

Are You Ready to Create a Relationship Marketing Program?

Before launching into a relationship marketing program, ask yourself a few key questions. First, make sure that your company is truly ready for this kind of approach. Without the content that really resonates on a longer buyer journey, and without the ability to build strong relationships across each touch point a prospect would have with your entire organization, your program is set up for failure.
Everyone within your organization needs to understand that they are, in effect, a brand steward. In other words, every time your company comes in contact with a customer touch point, whether a client is visiting your office, asking a question through an email, or calling your support line, the message sent must be one that resonates what the ethos of your company is, regardless of the means or the channel.
Next, both your company and your target customers need to be ready for a longer-term commitment. If your customers live month to month and churn rate is high for every company in your vertical, then relationship marketing may not be the right fit. Before committing time and resources to creating a new program, be sure that you figure out what your customers want, what their buying cycles look like, and how you can align your content — and your entire company — around that.

Additional Resources for Getting Your Relationship Marketing Program Off the Ground

• Labcast: What Is Relationship Marketing? A Primer: Learn more about how relationship marketing could be the key to more satisfied and successful lifelong customers.
• Article: Buyer Personas: The Key to Targeting Your Content Marketing for Real Results: If you really expect your content to connect with your customers in any meaningful way you need to make sure it’s laser targeted to address their needs. And how do you do that? By developing accurate buyer personas.
• Article: 8-Step Guide to B2B Content Mapping: Are you ready to align your content to each stage of your customers’ buying cycle? Learn how content mapping brings order to the chaos and can help you deliver the right content to the right prospect at the right time.

How important has developing customer relationships been to your marketing efforts?

For more on the benefits of relationship marketing and best practices, see:

• 5 Reasons Why Relationship Marketing Is Important in Business by Kim Garst
• 12 Tenets of Relationship Marketing Effectiveness by Mari Smith
• The History of Relationship Marketing by Joseph Ruiz