Relationship Marketing

Relationship marketing is defined as the process of attracting, maintaining, and enhancing relationships with key people. This concept is important now and will become increasingly important as more and more people rely on the internet for information.

I am in the process of growing my web development company and I have studying as many experts I can on this subject. I started my web development company in 2005. At that time I assumed that producing quality work would be my road to riches. Well to no surprise that road has been long and bumpy. But, it has been priceless educational journey.

You need to market your business or product in order to succeed. Most people are reluctant or intimidated by the task of writing a marketing plan. But it does not have to be a complicated task. You can develop a effective marketing plan in a few easy steps.

Here is some of what I learned trough my Web development experiences and from the experts. Marketing is hard work, and even harder if you do not have a plan. Relationship marketing now days is a vital key to a successful marketing plan. The idea that you need to know your customer to increase that customer's loyalty is what the relationship piece is all about.

In your first step, research and identify who your customers are. What do they need? Once you know their needs, you can then market your service or product to them to satisfy that need. The more information you gather the easier it will be to meet their needs

Next you need to document how you are going to try and develop these relationships, Are you going to attend networking events? Are you going to start blogging about your industry? Are you going to participate in social media such as Facebook, Twitter, myspace etc.? Are you going to publish articles about your niche? These are all forms of relationship marketing.

Now that you know who your customers are and how you are going to reach them. The next question is how often are you going to reach them. Will it be daily, weekly, monthly. etc. How much of your budget is going to be allocated to marketing. Develop a schedual that you can keep up with.

For example, you may attend one networking event every month. You may publish one new article a week to be posted to your blog, newsletter and facebook page. You could join one new social group a week. You could email 2-5 new people a day about. This may seem like a lot at first, but it is really not once you repeat it a few times.

Finally, test your strategy. Re-evaluate your plan. Find the strengths and weaknesses in your plan. Then make improvements along the way.

Relationship marketing can add a great deal of new opportunity to your business because it focuses on the customers that are most likely to respond to a message.

I hope this real story has enlightened you.

Virgil Griffin, editor
All About Small Business

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